Sensing Technologies for Extravasation Detection: A Review.

Peripheral intravenous catheters are administered for various purposes, such as blood sampling or the infusion of contrast agents and drugs. Extravasation happens when the catheter is unintentionally directed outside of the vein due to movement of the intravascular catheter, enhanced vascular permeability, or occlusion of the upstream vein. In this article, extravasation and its mechanism are discussed. Subsequently, the sensorized devices (e.g., single sensor and multimodal detection) to identify the extravasation phenomena are highlighted. In this review article, we have shed light on both physiological and engineering points of view of extravasation and its detection approaches. This review provides an overview on the most recent and relevant technologies that can help in the early detection of extravasation.

Invisible Thermoplasmonic Indium Tin Oxide Nanoparticle Ink for Anti-counterfeiting Applications.

In this study, we present a thermoplasmonic transparent ink based on a colloidal dispersion of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles, which can offer several advantages as anti-counterfeiting technology. The custom ink could be directly printed on several substrates, and it is transparent under visible light but is able to generate heat by absorption of NIR radiation. Dynamic temperature mapping of the printed motifs was performed by using a thermal camera while irradiating the samples with an IR lamp. The printed samples presented fine features (in the order of 75 µm) and high thermal resolution (of about 250 µm). The findings are supported by thermal finite-element simulations, which also allow us to explore the effect of different substrate characteristics on the thermal readout. Finally, we built a demonstrator comprising a QR Code invisible to the naked eye, which became visible in thermal images under NIR radiation. The high transparency of the printed ink and the high speed of the thermal reading (figures appear/disappear in less than 1 s) offer an extremely promising strategy toward low-cost, scalable production of photothermally active invisible labels.