Polymer waveguide sensor for early diagnostic and wellness monitoring

This paper unveils a platform to develop a compact, simple, reusable and disposable, and cost effective hand-held urinalysis device for home-health-care and doctor's office uses. A polymeric optical waveguide and colorimetric absorption were used as an optical sensor and sensing mode, respectively. The results of the tests show that the device was able to deliver quantitative results with the detection limits better than 0.1g/L, 0.2g/L, 0.025 g/L, and 0.1g/L for glucose, creatinine, albumin and total protein, respectively. There are some superiorities of this device as compared to the dip-stick counterpart, that are, better sensitivity, ability to deliver quantitative results and reusability. The device is being further miniaturized to use a LED and photodiode as a light source and detector, respectively. It is believed the device has potential for early diagnostic and wellness monitoring tool.