Urinary catheter infections are a notorious bane for clinicians taking care of patients with indwelling catheters. Those on long term management are forced to take antibiotics to prevent infections, while infections still occur, blocking the catheter’s lumen and causing a variety of side effects. Being able to detect that a catheter is infected can help prevent antibiotic resistance, lessen the burden on clinicians, reduce costs, and certainly lead to better clinical outcomes for patients.
At the University of Bath in England, researchers have created a novel coating that can be applied to catheter tips that changes the color of urine flowing into collection bags. Strangely, the color that ended up being used is bright yellow, hopefully bright and yellow enough to differentiate itself from urine.
But the interesting thing is that the coating has two layers. One reacts to pH levels above 8, which happens to urine in the presence of a bacterial infection, breaking down and revealing the layer below that contains a gel infused with a non-toxic dye. The gel is released and the dye can be noticed inside the collection bag.
In a laboratory study, the researchers showed that their system can detect bacterial infections within catheters at least twelve hours prior to a blockage. Of course clinical studies would need to be conducted to confirm the technology, but considering the extent of the problem we may soon see its application at your local hospital.
Study in Biosensors and Bioelectronics: An in-situ infection detection sensor coating for urinary catheters…
Via: University of Bath…
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