Sensor collecting sweat for health analysis could be next wearable tech

Apr 24, 2017 06:00 am

A next step in wearable health sensors may be a device that causes a patch of skin to sweat to monitor or even diagnose disease through analysis of the perspiration.

Researchers used a prototype to extract sweat from volunteers with the lung disease cystic fibrosis, measure specific compounds that are signatures of the disease then transmit the data wirelessly for further analysis.

"With the technology that we have made use of, we could really move faster into personalised care by using devices that can allow for real-time monitoring," study co-author Carlos Milla of Stanford University in California said.

"There is a large number of things you can measure in sweat that can be valuable."

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences noted that the difficulty of collecting adequate amounts of sweat in sedentary individuals limited its usefulness in cystic fibrosis diagnosis.

- REUTERS