Optical fibre instrumentation for point of care diagnostics

加强在护理点的实时预测和诊断被认为是应对国家和全球卫生挑战的一种手段，开发用于检测和测量生物医学标记物的传感器是一项战略重点。从人体排出的化合物被认为反映了某些代谢状况以及血气含量。呼吸、血液、尿液、汗液和唾液等人体样本中被称为生物标志物的某些化合物和化学成分的浓度变化可能与特定疾病有关，并已广泛用于医学的早期和微创诊断。有相当大的兴趣在传感器设备的发展，以识别化合物体内和体外，可以促进非侵入性诊断。基于使用光纤设备来探测纳米材料的光学特性的传感技术在暴露于目标化学物质时表现出其光学特性的变化，鉴于其潜在的高灵敏度、选择性、多路传感器阵列的准备能力以及遥感的前景，这些技术特别具有吸引力。基于光纤芯折射率周期性扰动的光纤光栅器件将被用作传感平台。光纤光栅有助于在特定谐振波长的光纤结构模式之间进行可控的光耦合，波长对光纤的扰动表现出敏感性。这种装置作为传感器已经得到了广泛的应用。将在这里开发的技术将进一步发展克兰菲尔德大学首创的方法，该方法获得了2004年国家测量奖前沿科学技术类别一等奖，并在克兰菲尔德大学和北九州大学之间的合作中进一步发展，涉及在光纤器件表面沉积纳米级功能涂层。该项目汇集了一个多学科团队，在光子学、化学、分析科学和医疗保健服务方面具有专业知识。这将利用尖端的传感技术和材料来促进传感器的设计、制造和表征，目的是开发一种供非专业人员在临床环境中使用的诊断仪器。通过在临床环境中对仪器进行功能测试，研究的产出和影响将得到最大化。因此，本提案将开发一种即时护理（POC）设备，该设备将在临床环境中评估其准确性、灵敏度、可重复性、可靠性和易用性。这将通过(i)采用之前由克兰菲尔德和北九州团队演示的光纤氨传感器，优化其灵敏度并提高其对温度和湿度特定应用干扰的免疫力，（ii）将其性能与现有技术进行基准测试，（iii）将其开发为非专业临床人员使用的原型护理设备。（iv）通过使用传感器平台和仪器监测其他生物标志物（例如丙酮）来证明传感器平台和仪器的通用性质；(v)演示能够同时监测多个分析物的多路复用传感器，在本例中是（iv）中确定的那些。

Enhanced prediction and diagnosis in real time and at the point of care is recognised as a means of addressing national and global health challenges, with the development of sensors to detect and measure biomedical markers being a strategic priority. Chemical compounds excreted from the human body are believed to reflect certain metabolic conditions as well as the blood gas content. The changes in concentration of some compounds, referred to as biomarkers, and chemical composition in human samples such as breath, blood, urine, sweat and saliva can be linked to particular diseases and have been intensively used in medicine for early and minimally invasive diagnosis. There is considerable interest in the development of sensor devices to identify compounds both in vivo and ex vivo that can facilitate non-invasive diagnosis. Sensing techniques based upon the use of optical fibre devices to probe the optical characteristics of nanomaterials that exhibit changes in their optical properties upon exposure to targeted chemical species are particularly attractive, in light of their potential high sensitivity, selectivity, the ready ability to multiplex arrays of sensors, and the prospect for remote sensing. Optical fibre grating devices, which are based upon a periodic perturbation of the refractive index of the core of the optical fibre, will be exploited as the sensing platform. Fibre gratings facilitate the controlled coupling of light between modes of the optical fibre structure at specific resonant wavelengths, with the wavelength showing sensitivity to perturbation of the fibre. Such devices have been applied extensively as sensors.The techniques that will be exploited here further develop the methods pioneered at Cranfield that was awarded First Prize in the Frontier Science and Technology category of the 2004 National Measurement Awards, and further developed in a collaboration between Cranfield and Kitakyushu Universities, involving the deposition of nanoscale, functional coatings onto the surface of optical fibre devices. The project brings together a multidisciplinary team with expertise in photonics, chemistry, analytical science and health care delivery. This will exploit cutting edge sensing techniques and materials to facilitate the design, fabrication and characterisation of the sensors, with the aim of developing a diagnostic instrument for use by a non-specialist in a clinical setting. The output and impact of the research will be maximised through functional testing of the instrumentation in a clinical environment.Thus this proposal will develop a point-of-care (POC) device that will be assessed for accuracy, sensitivity, reproducibility, reliability and ease of use in a clinical setting. This will be achieved by (i) taking a fibre optic ammonia sensor previously demonstrated by the Cranfield and Kitakyushu teams, optimising its sensitivity and improving its immunity to application- specific interference from temperature and humidity, (ii) benchmarking its performance against established technologies, (iii) developing it into a prototype point-of-care device for use by non-specialist clinical staff, (iv) demonstrating the generic nature of the sensor platform and instrument by using it to monitor other biomarkers (e.g. acetone) and (v) demonstrate a multiplexed sensor capable of monitoring simultaneously a number of analytes, in this case those identified in (iv).