Biosensors & Bioelectronics

Feasibility of self-monitoring of blood bilirubin levels by dual wavelength approach

Abstract

Jean Pierre Ndabakuranye

Bilirubin is clinically confirmed as a biomarker for liver health and has been utilized for assessing the prognosis of cirrhosis. Optical and chemical methods have been utilized to determine bilirubin levels in the blood. Whilst optical methods offer real-time monitoring, are handy and immune to infection among other substantial benefits, measurements may not be practical in some instances owing to the instrument complexity and space requirements. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using the dual wavelength technique with the aim of miniaturizing the setup. Our experiments were performed using blood phantoms within the pathological range projected from a healthy person to a cirrhotic patient (0.15 - 30 mg/dL). Results show a high sensitivity of bilirubin in blood phantoms with a larger predictive accuracy at higher bilirubin concentrations. This may provide an alternative means of determining blood bilirubin levels mostly for cirrhotic patients.