Novel Electrochemical Sensor to Detect Heat and Sweat Condition Inside the Sockets of Prosthetics

Novel electrochemical sensor to detect heat and sweat condition inside the sockets of prosthetics.

The most current estimate states there are approximately 1 in 190 persons living in the United States with major limb-loss while the rate of amputations completed increases each year. This necessitates an importance for understanding both quality of life rated (QOLR) issues and options to remediate prevalent problems. There are a number of important issues affecting people living with the loss of a limb and the number one issue is ambulation or replacing the functionality of the lost limb. Throughout time we have developed many different styles of prosthetics to fill this deficiency, while the socket style prosthetic has evolved to be one of the most common solutions. These socket style prosthetics facilitate a need to replace a missing limb, but with this comes problems associated with the use of the device. Proper fitting is important, along with proper care of the device and residual limb. These are issues that can be controlled by the amputee. One major issue that is uncontrollable for amputees is the combination of heat and sweat in the socket. This is troublesome for a residual limb, because the socket can become hot and humid during even just regular use and can cause a variety of dermatological conditions if proper care is not taken. The major contributors to heat and sweat inside the socket are personal activity, and socket and liner materials of construction. Socket and liner materials of construction negatively affects the socket environment by inhibiting heat transfer away from the residual limb and just ten minutes of walking can increase the average residual limb temperature by 1.7¼C. A reduction in heat transfer causes sweat inside the socket, which can create a moist, abrasive environment between the skin, sock or liners, and the prosthetic. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the feasibility of monitoring heat and sweat by repurposing a well-known colorimetric chemistry for electrochemical detection. The sensing unit incorporates the reaction between silver chromate and chloride ions in sweat. This reaction changes color from brown to white and this can be detected as a voltage change at an electrode surface. This presentation describes the design and fabrication methods of a novel electrochemical sensor, the surrounding concepts for characterizing the electrical properties of electrospun polymer thin films and their surface and fiber structures, and surface and encapsulated reaction kinetics.