Diagnostics, medical sensor applications

Applications of infrared sensors have been reported in the fields of biology/biochemistry, medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and process control. IR sensors can measure analytes in solid, liquid or gaseous form using one of several different transducer layouts. 

A major disadvantage is that the direct sensor detection cannot distinguish between the sensor response to the specific analyte binding from the response to a possible nonspecific adsorption of other compounds. The nonspecific fouling from blood or blood serum seems to be one of the main barriers for practical application of immunosensors in medical diagnostics. 

The development of efficient and broad range sensoring methods has important applications in areas such as environmental control, quality checking or in the chemical characterization of an organism, for instance for medical diagnostics. 

Some researchers see a bright future for dendrimers in many different industrial, medical, research, and consumer applications. One company that produces dendrimers lists applications in drug delivery systems, gene transfection, biotechnology, sensors for diagnostics and detection systems, carbon fiber coatings, microcontact printing, adhesion, molecular batteries, catalysis, separation systems, lasers, composites, and ultrathin films used in optics. 

Fig. 6.20 (a) Piezoceramic parts for a range of applications including accelerometers, underwater acoustics, pressure and liquid level sensors, medical diagnostics and therapeutics and NDT the ultrasound focusing bowls are for medical imaging and for producing high-intensity focused ultrasound. 

The MIPs are particularly versatile materials, especially as the number and types of templates that have been successfully imprinted increase. For example, imprinted polymers have been prepared using metal ions as templates. ° Potential applications for these polymeric ionophores include the remediation of toxic metals from the environment, recognition elements for ion sensors for medical diagnostics, catalysis, and... 

The potential applications of calixarmes range from molecular hosts for sensor techniques and medical diagnostics, use in decontamination of wastewater, construction of artificial enzymes, new materials for nonlinear optics to sieve membranes with molecular pores. 

The current research focus within the sensor development field seems to be concentrated on miniaturization while incorporating multiple quantitative analytical capabilities. Other high-demand characteristics are shorter response time, minimal hardware requirements, multiple analyte and media capabilities, and improved sensitivity, selectivity, and specificity (Zemel 1990). Advancements and improvements for both biological and chemical threat agent sensors will have numerous other benefits to diverse applications, such as quality and process control, biomedical analysis, medical diagnostics, fragrance analysis, environmental pollution monitoring, and control forensics. 

As pointed out earlier, microfluidic systems have a wide range of applications, e.g. heat exchange systems for electronic devices [28-31], medical diagnostic and analytical chemical applications [69, 70], and precision dilution systems with minimal dead volume for gas chromatography [71]. More may be anticipated as the technology matures. Current research at many laboratories has shown the need to provide flow control at extremely low levels for sensor-controlled implanted drug delivery systems [72] and portable diagnostic cards for polymerase chain reaction analysis [73]. 

The basic characteristics of chemical sensors and biosensors—including high specificity and sensitivity, portability, real time output, cost effectiveness, and user friendliness—make them applicable to virtually every major product market. The immediate market targets for these sensors are in medical diagnostics, detection and alarm systems, environmental monitoring, and food processing. Future markets include application of chemical sensors and... 

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