A University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign engineer and an ophthalmologist have developed a portable sensor that quickly and inexpensively determines whether an eye injury is mild or severe. The device, called OcuCheck, could speed efforts to determine the extent of eye injuries at accident sites, in rural areas lacking ophthalmology specialists, or on the battlefield, the researchers said.

The eye's ocular tear film – the viscous fluid that coats the eyeball – contains low levels of ascorbic acid, or Vitamin C; the interior of the eye contains higher levels. If there is severe damage to the eye that penetrates deeply, the ascorbic acid will leak out in high concentration. OcuCheck works by measuring the levels of vitamin C in the fluids that coat or leak from the eye.

The new sensor uses graphene platelets that are layered 1 nanometer thick on filter paper. Upper layers include a unique polymer that interacts with the graphene, gold electrodes, and ascorbate oxidase, which is an enzyme that binds to ascorbic acid.

The engineering team is working with an industrial design professor at Illinois to build a housing for the sensor that will be portable and easy to use.

Source 

Topics:
Diagnostics Medical Patient Monitoring

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