Multimodal Portable Donor Organ Assessment Device

The objective of this study is to develop a portable, handheld multimodal sensing device for rapid, localized, and quantitative assessment of donor organ tissue. A human-sized swine lung was used as a representative model system to evaluate device feasibility and performance.

The device integrated ultrasound imaging, indentation-based stiffness measurement, bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy, and visible near-infrared optical sensing within a single system. Device validation was conducted using engineered tissue phantoms, rat lungs, and ex vivo swine lungs.

The sensing modalities effectively differentiated variations among tissue phantoms. In rat lungs, the optical sensor detected temporal changes in reflected light following euthanasia (It = 0 = 1.00 ± 0.02; It = 90min = 0.41 ± 0.01). In swine lungs, the device distinguished healthy and injured tissue. Specifically, injured lung tissue exhibited increased mechanical stiffness (healthy: 0.35 ± 0.08 kPa vs. injured: 9.77 ± 1.21 kPa) and reduced bioimpedance (proximal lung: 671.3 ± 161.6 vs. 596.3 ± 121.9 Ω; distal lung: 696.3 ± 43.7 vs. 237.4 ± 58.1 Ω) with healthy tissue. Spatial mapping of bioimpedance further revealed regional heterogeneity associated with tissue injury.

These findings demonstrate the feasibility of integrating multiple sensing modalities into a single portable platform for localized and quantitative tissue assessment.

This study establishes proof of concept for portable multimodal tissue assessment and provides a foundation for future evaluation in clinically relevant transplantation workflows, including ex vivo lung perfusion systems and donor organ assessment applications.