Heart failure is a leading cause of death worldwide and is especially fatal for people who don't have access to medical facilities. So, a team of researchers aims to bring heart failure screening from the lab to the home. Their point-of-care electrochemical biosensor prototype, which resembles a see-through lateral flow test for COVID-19, can measure levels of two biomarkers for heart failure in as little as 15 minutes from just a drop of saliva.
Trey Pittman, a graduate student at Colorado State University, will present his team's research at the . "Our device would be ideal for people who are at high risk for but have limited access to a hospital or a centralized lab," says Pittman. "Working on this project to address health disparities in rural and low-resource areas really hits home for me because I'm from Mississippi, which has one of the highest mortality rates from heart failure in the United States," he shares.
Heart failure refers to weakened that cannot pump enough oxygenated blood through the body. The current gold standard for heart failure screening is a administered twice per year by a health care professional that measures levels of B-type (BNP), a protein that indicates the heart is working too hard. However, in point-of-care devices may level the proverbial health care playing field with simple, at-home tests.
Such a test for heart failure screening could be administered by an individual to check on the health condition every few weeks instead of every six mo.