In today’s era of progressing medical science,
specialized computerized smart systems have been developed which can administer
drugs intravenously, in exact volumes, to hospital patients. But, these systems
can still not recognize which medications are in the tubing nor can they
determine the concentration of the drug in the tubing. The lack of this precise
information can lead to medication errors which may cause serious consequences.
Recently, a team of Electrical and Computer engineering students at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has developed a new optical device
that can identify the contents of the fluid in an intravenous (IV) line in
real-time, offering a promising way to improve the safety of IV drug delivery.
The team, led by Prof. Brian T. Cunningham, interim director of the Micro and
Nanotechnology Laboratory at UIUC, will present its work at The Optical
Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2013, being held Oct.
6-10 in Orlando, Fla.
The
vulnerability of IV drug-delivery systems due to human error is a chief concern
in hospital safety. Errors can include incorrect dosage, unintentional
substitution of one drug for another, and co-delivery of incompatible drugs.
To approach this problem,
Cunningham and colleagues turned to the very small -- to structures and
processes at the nanoscale (one-billionth of a meter), where novel physical and
chemical properties arise. The researchers use a technology called
Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), a powerful analytical tool prized for
its extreme sensitivity in obtaining molecular signals that can be used to
identify chemicals. To determine the identity of a particular IV medication,
researchers shine laser light onto a nanostructured gold surface that contains
millions of tiny "nano-domes" that are separated from each other by
as little as 10 nanometers. The nano-domes are incorporated into the inner
surface of IV tubing, where they are exposed to drugs that are dispersed in
liquid. They capture the light scattered from drug molecules that are in
contact with the nano-domes and use SERS to determine the drug's molecular
signature. Finally, they match the signature to known signatures for the drug
in order to confirm the presence of a specific medication in the IV line.
While other groups have
demonstrated excellent nanostructured surfaces for SERS, those developed by the
Cunningham group are unique because they are inexpensively produced on flexible
plastic surfaces by a replica molding process with nanometer scale accuracy.
Early data show that the
Cunningham group's system can identify medications including morphine,
methadone, phenobarbital, the sedative promethazine, and mitoxantrone, which is
used to treat multiple sclerosis. The system is extremely sensitive: it can
detect drugs in amounts 100 times lower than the clinically delivered drug
concentrations commonly used. So far, the researchers have also shown their
system can sense a two-drug combination, which has its own unique signature.
The next step is further
evaluation for combinations of up to ten drugs being delivered at the same
time. Computer algorithms are also being developed to automatically interpret
the SERS spectra, and Cunningham's team reports that the system is now being
evaluated for possible commercialization.
If this system really works out well for
majority of the drugs that are delivered intravenously then it will surely help
in saving innumerable lives.
