Chemical-Sensing Catheters for Long-Term and Personalized Therapeutic Management

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Device Technology
• Translational Medicine

Background:

• Long-term intravenous catheters are crucial for chemotherapy and parenteral nutrition but cause complications like metabolic disorders, infections, liver, and kidney injury.
• Current clinical monitoring methods have delays, and existing real-time devices lack long-term in vivo stability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel chemical-sensing catheter for in situ, real-time monitoring of key analytes.
• To enable early detection and prediction of complications associated with long-term catheterization in patients.

Main Methods:

• Integration of multiple analyte sensors (creatinine, taurocholic acid, bilirubin, taurine) into a catheter design.
• Utilization of a metal-gel for signal integrity and a dual-network molecularly imprinted polymer for stability.
• Demonstration of stable operation over a 3-month implantation period in vivo.
• Application of machine learning for multimodal sensor data analysis.

Main Results:

• The chemical-sensing catheter demonstrated stable long-term operation for 3 months, preserving signal integrity through extensive bending.
• Early detection of liver and kidney injury markers was achieved, facilitating prognostic intervention.
• The system successfully mitigated risks such as bile stasis, hepatitis, and hepatic steatosis.

Conclusions:

• The developed chemical-sensing catheter offers a stable, long-term solution for real-time complication monitoring in patients receiving chemotherapy or parenteral nutrition.
• Integration with machine learning provides early complication prediction, paving the way for personalized therapeutic management and improved patient outcomes.