Clinical salt and water monitoring with dielectric spectroscopy

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Experimental and clinical evaluation of bioelectric spectroscopy to monitor and assess skin salt and water content as a reliable surrogate of whole body salt and water balance

• IRAS ID

  158434

• Contact name

  Stephen B Walsh

• Sponsor organisation

  The R&D Office, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

• Research summary

  Imbalances of salt and water are a very important part of common and serious diseases like heart failure and hypertension. However, there are no reliable methods to tell whether there is too much or too little salt or water in the body. This information would enable doctors to treat these diseases much more effectively.
  We plan a study to see if a new method (called 'bioelctric spectroscopy') will be able to do this.

  Currently, methods for estimating the salt and water status of a patient involve physical examination or a special blood test. These are both unreliable.

  We have access to a new portable sensor that can measure the salt and water in the skin in addition to other vital signs. The information is made in real time and can be read remotely, or be fed back to a smartphone. This sensor has been successfully tested for measuring vital signs and blood sugar, but has yet to be tested for salt and water measurements. We plan to test it to do this in haemodialysis patients (who are salt and water overloaded before dialysis and normal after dialysis ).

  Experimental plan
  10 haemodialysis patients will have the sensor fitted before a dialysis session and have a clinical evaluation, bioimpedance and blood test measurements. The sensor will remain on during the dialysis session and there will be a further clinical evaluation, bioimpedance and blood tests post dialysis. The VSM sensor readout will be compared to these other methods of fluid status evaluation.

• REC name

  West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/WM/1094

• Date of REC Opinion

  14 Aug 2014

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion