NIR-based sensing system for non-Invasive detection of Hemoglobin for point-of-care applications
Background: Hemoglobin is essential biomolecule for the transportation of oxygen therefore; its assessment is also obligatory very frequently in innumerable clinical practices. Traditional invasive techniques have concomitant shortcomings e.g. time delay, onset of infections and discomfort, which necessitates a non-invasive hemoglobin estimating solution to get rid of these constraints in health informatics. Currently various techniques are underway in allied domain and scanty products are also feasible in the market but due to low satisfaction rate, invasive solutions are still assumed as gold standard. Recently introduced technologies are effectively evolved as optical spectroscopy and digital photographic concepts on different sensing spots e.g. fingertip, palpebral conjunctiva, bulbar conjunctiva and fingernail. Productive sensors utilize more than eight wavelengths to compute hemoglobin concentration and four wavelengths to display only Hb-index (trending of hemoglobin) either in disposable adhesive or reusable clip type sensor’s configuration. Objective: This study aims an optimistic optical spectroscopic technique to measure hemoglobin concentration and conditional usability of non-invasive blood parameters’ diagnostics at point-of-care. Methods: Two distinguishable light emitting sources (810nm & 1300nm) are utilized at isosbestic points with single photodetector (800-1700nm). With this purpose, reusable finger probe assembly is facilitated in transmittance mode based on newly offered sliding mechanism to block ambient light. Results: Investigation with proposed design presents correlation coefficients between reference hemoglobin and every individual feature, multivariate linear regression model for highly correlated independent features. Moreover, principal component analytical model with multivariate linear regression offers mean bias of 0.036 & -0.316 g/dL, precision of 0.878 & 0.838 and limits of agreement from -1.685 to 1.758 g/dL & -1.790 to 1.474 g/dL for 18 & 21 principle components respectively. Conclusion: The encouraging readouts emphasize favorable precision therefore proposed sensing system is amenable to assess hemoglobin in settings with limited resources and strengthening future routes for point of care applications.