A patch that can measure cortisol in sweat helps detect disease

Researchers have developed a prototype patch for measuring levels, a stress hormone, in sweat that helps detect many diseases.

This patch can be stretched, placed directly on the skin, detects sweat and assesses how much cortisol a person produces. Stanford University scientists led by Alberto Salleo published this study in Science Advances.

Currently, patients need to spend several days waiting for results from the laboratory to determine if their adrenal or pituitary glands are functioning properly.

This patch can be stretched, placed directly on the skin.

Dr. Onur Parlak, a postdoctoral researcher at the Salleo laboratory, said: 'We are particularly interested in sweat, because it provides non-invasive and continuous monitoring of biomarkers. Different for a variety of physiological states. The results of this study provide a new method for early detection of various diseases and evaluation of sports performance ".

Researchers note that people with an imbalance can monitor their status.

They said: "Biosensors can be worn to replace the hospital-focused health care system with diagnostics that can be done at home to reduce health care costs and diagnosis time. Guess by providing real-time, non-invasive analysis.

One challenge in developing a sensor for sweat is that cortisol does not have a positive or negative charge.

Scientists have built a rectangular sensor around a membrane that only binds to cortisol and absorbs sweat through holes at the bottom of the patch. Sweat is concentrated in a reservoir and it is covered with a sensitive membrane with cortisol. A waterproof layer protects the patch from contamination .

Parlak checked the device on two volunteers who ran for 20 minutes with patches on their arms. In laboratory and real-world tests the results are similar. The sticker is connected to the device for analysis. Researchers want to develop the patch into a fully integrated and reusable system.