American scientists have created a unique sensor to monitor the level of glucose and sodium in the body

A small device that monitors your body’s health through sweat has been developed by researchers from the state of Pennsylvania and Xiangtan University.

The sensor is attached to the skin in areas where the sweat glands are located, said Larry Cheng, assistant professor of technical sciences and mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania.

“We want to be able to analyze sweating from daily exercise or from solar heat, as we have a lot of biomarkers in sweat, such as pH and glucose, which will be a really good indicator for studying disease progression or diagnosis”, – Cheng said.

The device is located on a patch applied to the skin of sweat glands. The gadget consists of a small bottle with several cameras, which has a hydrophobic water-repellent valve next to the silicone rubber hole. The channel has a hydrophilic coating for easy sweat collection. Unlike other devices requiring two holes, one hole reduces the amount of evaporation, which leads to an increase in the storage time of the analyzes.

A device can, for example, get one color-coded camera for pH, a second for glucose and a third for sodium: all three indicators are disease markers.

On-site analysis can be performed using a colorimetric approach in which a color-coded chemical is preliminarily placed in different chambers. This sensitive chemical reacts to pH or glucose levels and can be read with the naked eye or with a photo on a smartphone. In addition, researchers can analyze sweating at different points in time using various cameras – the so-called chronological samples.

“A device with two valves is more complex and requires the use of a cleanroom method, that is, photolithography. Our simpler, single-valve device can be made without expensive equipment”, – Cheng said.

The sensor should be of interest to the healthcare industry, as well as to athletics, where it can be used to control overheating or to regulate levels of physical activity for optimal results.