Future Work

Further Validation Studies and Next Steps

With the deuterated solvent, the detection specificity can be improved and optimized in the creation of standard curves of lactate and the election of a particular wavelength which would optimize our signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). With phantoms, prior to IRB-approved testing, blood analogs can characterize the detection with the flow and particulates of the system. Using the deuterated solvent and blood analogs of increasing complexity, we will be able to calibrate our device with the modified Beer-Lambert’s Law.

Next, digital signal processing will be necessary to integrate our output signal and compare the signal at varying amplitudes. This signal will need to be output to a microcontroller, and via bluetooth, communicate with the user interface which will need to be constructed. Lastly, digital components would need to be introduced on top of the transducer to more clearly distinguish and alert the user of various changes in the lactate concentration.

Alternative solutions: In addition, we propose several methodologies to measure the dynamic change of lactate rather than using NIRS:

• Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH): LDH is an endogenous enzyme that interconverts between lactate and pyruvate. It has various forms that correspond to particular ailments that can more accurately diagnose and predict localities of organ failure and sepsis.
• Microfluidic Design: This would allow us to keep the same novel circuit that we have designed and optimized. It would be moved to an external cartridge that connects to the Y joint of an IV tube. It would sort the larger components back into the blood and allow for a small draw of blood (a few microliters) to mix with a luminescent reagent that binds with lactate (see Fig. 1). This would allow us to reprogram our existing transducer to detect a more easily distinguishable signal and significantly improve SNR at the cost of the non-invasive nature of NICOLAS.