Toward Point-of-Care Blood Testing of Biomarkers to Identify Individual Susceptibility for Pressure Injury Development
Abstract
Ultimate applicability of the proposed research: Pressure injuries (PrIs) remain one of the most significant and frequent secondary complications for too many active duty military and Veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI). PrI development has a devastating impact on quality of life (QoL). The proposed research will develop a novel, low-cost, easy to use, point of care (POC) biosensor, the PIPChip, to evaluate recurrent PrI propensity in near real-time, i.e., the risk for that individual to develop recurrent PrI. The PIPChip will be used by the clinician or at home by the patient, similar to a diabetes test kit. The PIPChip will ultimately be used for personalized health management, enhancing QoL, reducing hospitalizations, and lowering healthcare costs. Persons with SCI and/or their caregivers will it help, and how will it help them: This Expansion Award project will help all individuals who experience an SCI, especially active duty military and Veterans. POC testing to evaluate an individual’s propensity for recurrent PrI has multiple benefits. As our Consumer Advocate team member states: This technology development study will have the potential to provide a better quality of life by providing a home blood test that can be administered by the patient or even a home nurse, because there would be no travel to, or stays in, hospitals while achieving the same result. The PIPChip will make routine home monitoring of PrI risk became as straightforward as blood sugar monitoring for diabetics is currently. The PIPChip has the potential to empower Veterans living with SCI to self-direct maintenance of tissue health. This will impact patient evaluation and care so that individuals can optimize personalized pressure relief or contact their care provider when risk increases. Testing personal risk status at home will reduce the travel burden for the many Veterans who need to travel long distances to get their specialized care at a VA Medical Center. The PIPChip will directly impact quality of life for Veterans and their caregivers. In the longer term the PIPChip may become available for all individuals living with SCI and empower them to have greater control over their own lives. Potential clinical applications, benefits, and risks of this research: This Expansion Award project has great potential to change the standard of care for PrI prevention for persons with SCI. As our Consumer Advocate team member states, “the potential benefits for this are almost too many to count”. The major benefit of the PIPChip for individuals living with SCI patient in knowing their own personal PrI risk is empowerment to be proactive and make choices that positively impact their overall health. The benefit for clinicians is that the PIPChip will enable them to identify individuals with SCI with increased propensity for recurrent PrI. The PIPChip will thus benefit clinical decision-making to provide effective personalized tissue health management for the most susceptible individuals in their care within the high-risk population of persons with SCI. Based on our prior experience, we do not expect significant challenges in design and testing of the PIPChip. We may find that the RT-LAMP analysis of the initial biomarkers selected (FABP4 andFABP3) isn’t sensitive enough to predict PrI recurrence. If this happens, we will expand our study to include RT-LAMP analysis of additional circulatory biomarkers that we have previously identified. We have extensive experience in microfluidic design and don’t expect significant challenges in PIPChip fabrication. One potential challenge is that color changes in the small amount of blood being tested may not be adequate to be detected with a low-cost camera. If that happens, we will need to use a more sensitive and complex fluorescent readout. This is more expensive but will make ensure changes are detectable. Projected time to achieve a patient-related outcome: The multidisciplinary study team have a sub
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 10, 2021
- Source ID
- W81XWH2010318
Entities
People
- Katherine Bogie
Organizations
- Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center
- United States Army