PDMS: pH Detecting Microfluidic Sensor

Blood pH is an indicator of one’s systemic health and deviation from acceptable values (pH 7.35) allude to metabolic or respiratory disorders. Current measurement methodologies are invasive and require a large sample volume of blood to be taken from one of the patient’s main arteries. This limits the acceptability of using blood pH as a diagnostic tool as there are health risks associated with the actual drawing of the arterial blood. Another drawback is that current devices require a significant monetary investment and peripherals to facilitate the measurement. The pH Diagnosing Microfluidic Sensor is a microfluidic point of care (POC) device that utilizes basic microfluidic principles to evaluate blood pH. The device is built using soft lithography where the channels are patterned into a cured polymer and bonded to a glass slide. Our POC blood pH sensor will operate with no power source or moving parts and will be able to deliver a readout of the blood pH from a drop of blood from a finger prick. This response will be generated by separating and controllably altering aliquots of the incoming fluid such that specified wells elicit a predetermined response indicative of the patient’s pH. Although our device will only process a single sample of blood before it must be disposed, the low cost of production, ease of use, and rapidness of response make it a valuable alternative to current technique