Wearable Sensors for the Detection of Biomarkers for Wound Infection

• Published in: Biosensors (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 1; p. 1
• Main Authors: Pusta, Alexandra, Tertiș, Mihaela, Cristea, Cecilia, Mirel, Simona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21.12.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Bacteria; Bacterial infections; Biofilms; biomarker; Biomarkers; Biosensing Techniques; Chemical sensors; colorimetric; Colorimetry; Cytokines; Diagnosis; electrochemical; Electrochemistry; Energy resources; Enzymes; Foot diseases; Humans; Hypoxia; Infections; Inflammation; Lactic acid; Leg ulcers; Medical dressings; Metabolites; Oxygenation; Radio frequency identification; Review; Sensors; Tumor necrosis factor-TNF; Uric acid; Voltammetry; wearable biosensors; Wearable computers; Wearable Electronic Devices; wearable sensors; Wearable technology; Wound Healing; Wound Infection; colorimetric; electrochemical; wearable sensors; wound infection; wearable biosensors; biomarker
• ISSN: 2079-6374; 2079-6374
• DOI: 10.3390/bios12010001

Infection represents a major complication that can affect wound healing in any type of wound, especially in chronic ones. There are currently certain limitations to the methods that are used for establishing a clinical diagnosis of wound infection. Thus, new, rapid and easy-to-use strategies for wound infection diagnosis need to be developed. To this aim, wearable sensors for infection diagnosis have been recently developed. These sensors are incorporated into the wound dressings that are used to treat and protect the wound, and are able to detect certain biomarkers that can be correlated with the presence of wound infection. Among these biomarkers, the most commonly used ones are pH and uric acid, but a plethora of others (lactic acid, oxygenation, inflammatory mediators, bacteria metabolites or bacteria) have also been detected using wearable sensors. In this work, an overview of the main types of wearable sensors for wound infection detection will be provided. These sensors will be divided into electrochemical, colorimetric and fluorimetric sensors and the examples will be presented and discussed comparatively.