According to a report by the American Heart Association, there are approximately 3-4 million Americans that may experience silent Myocardial Ischemia (MI). Silent MI is a serious heart condition that can progress to a severe heart attack without any warning and the consequences of such an event can turn fatal quickly. Therefore, there is a strong need for a sensor that can continuously monitor the onset of the condition to prevent high risk individuals from deadly heart attacks. An increase in extracellular potassium levels is the first sign of MI and timely sensing with an implantable potassium sensing biosensor could play a critical role in detecting and expediting care. There are challenges in the development of an implantable potassium sensing electrode one of which includes signal drift. The incorporation of novel nanostructures and smarter materials hold the potential to combat these problems. This paper presents a unique design for an all-solid-state potassium sensing device which offers miniaturization along with enhanced signal transduction. These characteristics are important when it comes to implantable devices and signal drift. Sensor design details along with fabrication processes and sensing results are discussed.

Date Published: 31 March 2009
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 7291, Nanosensors, Biosensors, and Info-Tech Sensors and Systems 2009, 729109 (31 March 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.821551

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7291:
Nanosensors, Biosensors, and Info-Tech Sensors and Systems 2009
Vijay K. Varadan, Editor(s)