MIT develops new sensor that could help diagnose sepsis in minutes – TechCrunch

MIT researchers have developed a new type of sensor that could make the diagnosis of sepsis much faster, simpler and more affordable than ever before. This could have a huge potential impact, as sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals and is responsible for nearly 250,000 patient deaths per year in the United States alone.

The method developed by MIT uses microfluidics to detect the presence of key proteins in the blood that act as precursors to the onset of sepsis. One, in particular, called "interleukin-6" or IL-6, appears hours before any other symptoms appear in a patient. Ordinary blood test or blood test devices are not able to detect it as quickly, however, because despite the fact that it can reach a peak very early, these tips do not actually represent very high levels by compared to what these traditional methods allow. to pick up.

The MIT system can automatically detect these high concentrations very early, using less blood than you would have, even with a simple finger prick. The results are available in just 25 minutes, which contrasts with the hours for traditional methods, or half an hour for the more modern 'point of service' systems recently introduced, which can still use larger quantities of blood and are much more expensive in the whole.

MIT has managed to circumvent these limitations by using a test method identical to that used in the laboratory for the detection of IL-6, which uses tiny magnetic beads to show the presence of the protein, while reducing its size, so that's deployable on the ground. Existing field methods use high quality, expensive optics that do not allow for much cost-saving innovation, keeping the cost of these tests and the hardware needed to run them on a large scale.

The researchers plan to continue their work by developing a complete panel of proteins that will serve as early markers for the detection of sepsis to enhance the accuracy of their diagnosis. However, the system could be configured to detect a range of different biomarkers, so that its potential applications could also be extended to other diagnostics.