Efficacy and Safety of Orally and Intravenously Administration of Tranexamic Acid in Patients with Elderly Femoral Neck Fracture.

OBJECTIVE: For elderly femoral neck fracture patients, anemia is one of the most common complications, increasing the risk of postoperative adverse events. Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been widely applied to the perioperative blood management. However, the optimal route of TXA administration in elderly femoral neck fracture remains unclear. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of oral and intravenous (IV) application of TXA in elderly patients with femoral neck fracture undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA) and hemiarthroplasty (HA). METHODS: All elderly patients aged over 65 years old diagnosed with femoral neck fracture admitted to the trauma orthopedics from August 1, 2020 to February 28, 2022 were enrolled in this prospective cohort study. Participants were divided into three groups: oral group: TXA 2g orally 2 h before incision; IV group: intravenous infusion of TXA 1g 15 min before incision; and control group: usual hemostatic method. The primary outcomes were total blood loss, allogeneic transfusion rate, and postoperative thromboembolic events. SPSS 23.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA) was used for statistical analysis, and p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 100 patients were enrolled, including 32 cases in the oral group, 34 cases in the IV group and 34 cases in the control group. Compared with the control group, the total perioperative blood loss in the oral and IV groups was significantly decreased (763.92 ± 358.64 mL vs 744.62 ± 306.88 mL vs 1250.60 ± 563.37 mL, p = 0.048). No significant difference was identified between the oral and IV groups (p = 0.970). The rate of allogeneic transfusion was lower in the oral and IV groups than in the control group, but the difference had no statistical significant (6 vs 5 vs 12, p = 0.108), However, subgroup analysis showed that the IV and oral groups in patients who underwent THA have significant lower transfusion rate compared with the control group (1 vs 3 vs 7, p = 0.02). During 6 months follow-up, no thromboembolic events were identified. Two patients (one from the oral group and one from the control group) died of respiratory failure. The cost of blood management from the oral group was significantly lower than IV (p < 0.001) and control groups (p = 0.009). CONCLUSION: Elderly patients with femoral neck fracture undergoing THA can benefit from both IV and oral administration of tranexamic acid. The results of these two administration routes are similar in safety and effectiveness. A similar tendency was observed in patients undergoing HA. Oral TXA is more cost-benefit compared with intravenous applications.

Dynamic Peripheral Hemoperfusion Distribution Monitoring Based on Janus Flexible Sensor System.

OBJECTIVE: Peripheral vascular disease is a worldwide leading health concern. Real-time peripheral hemoperfusion monitoring during treatment is essential to plan treatment strategies to improve circulatory enhancement effects. METHODS: The present work establishes a Janus flexible perfusion (JFP) sensor system for dynamic peripheral hemoperfusion monitoring. We develop a Janus structure design with different Young's modulus to improve the mechanical properties for motion artifacts suppression. Besides, we propose a peripheral perfusion index (PPI) to assess the peripheral hemoperfusion based on an optical perfusion model that is experimentally verified using an in-vitro model. The effectiveness of the system is assessed in three experimental scenarios, including motion artifact-robust test, induced vascular occlusion in upper limb, and peripheral hemoperfusion monitoring with the treatment of intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC), with comparison with Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF). RESULTS: The noise level of the traditional rigid sensor is five times that of the JFP sensor within the effective signal frequency domain when there is movement. The PPI can effectively discriminate between different peripheral hemoperfusion states and has a correlation coefficient of 0.92 with the LDF mean values. The kappa statistic between the JFP sensor and LDF is 0.78, indicating substantial agreement between them to estimate the peripheral hemoperfusion improvements during IPC treatment. CONCLUSION: The sensor system we proposed can monitor peripheral hemoperfusion variation in real-time and is insensitive to motion artifacts. SIGNIFICANCE: The proposed sensing system provides a functional module for real-time estimation of peripheral hemoperfusion during clinical interventions.

Efficacy and safety of tranexamic acid in elderly patients with femoral neck fracture treated with hip arthroplasty: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Elderly patients with femoral neck fracture have high perioperative blood loss according to the trauma and hip arthroplasty surgery. Tranexamic acid is a fibrinolytic inhibitor and has been widely used in hip fracture patients to against perioperative anemia. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Tranexamic acid (TXA) in elderly patients with femoral neck fracture undergoing hip arthroplasty. METHODS: We performed search using Pubmed, EMBASE, Cochrane Reviews, and Web of Science databases to identify all relevant research studies published from inception to June 2022. Randomized controlled studies and high-quality cohort studies that reported the perioperative use of TXA in patients with femoral neck fractures treated with arthroplasty, and made a comparison with the control group were included. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3 to assess the efficacy and safety of TXA. Subgroup analysis was conducted to further investigate the impact caused by surgery types and administration routes on the efficacy and safety outcomes. RESULTS: Five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and eight cohort studies published from January 2015 to June 2022 were included in this meta-analysis. The results showed significant reductions in the rate of allogeneic blood transfusion, total blood loss (TBL) and postoperative hemoglobin (Hb) drop in the TXA group compared with the control group, while no significant difference was found in the intraoperative blood loss, postoperative drainage, hospital length of stay (LOS), re-admission rate, and wound complications between the two groups. The incidence of thromboembolic events and mortality showed no significant difference. Subgroup analysis indicated that surgery types and administration routes did not change the overall tendency. CONCLUSION: The current evidence shows that both intravascular administration (IV) and topical administration of TXA can significantly decrease the perioperative transfusion rate and TBL without increasing the risk of thromboembolic complications in elderly patients with femoral neck fracture.

Network pharmacology analysis of the pharmacological mechanism of Artemisia lavandulaefolia DC. in rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: The traditional She medicine is a notable type of traditional Chinese medicine, which has been applied for a long history despite the lack of sufficient mechanistic understanding. Our study revealed the possible molecular mechanism of sesquiterpene 5α-Hydroxycostic acid, active ingredient of traditional She medicine Artemisia lavandulaefolia DC., in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: RA-fibroblast like synoviocytes (RA-FLSs) were treated with 5α-Hydroxycostic acid, Anthemidin, and methotrexate (MTX). CCK-8 and ELISA were used to measure the resultant viability of RA-FLSs and to quantify pro-inflammatory cytokines. Target genes of 5α-Hydroxycostic acid and Anthemidin, RA-related differentially expressed genes, and RA-related genes were retrieved by bioinformatics analyses, results of which were further intersected to identify candidate genes. The protein-protein interaction network was constructed to develop the pharmacophore model. The molecular docking was simulated to determine the core target androgen receptor (AR) for subsequent molecular mechanism investigation in vitro. RESULTS: The 5ɑ-Hydroxycostic acid, Anthemidin, or MTX of different concentrations inhibited the viability of RA-FLSs, and downregulated the levels of proinflammatory cytokines. The pharmacophore model and molecular docking of 10 candidate targets with 5α-Hydroxycostic acid were successfully established. In vitro experiments provided evidence confirming that 5α-Hydroxycostic acid elevated AR expression to inhibit inflammatory responses of RA-FLSs and degradation of extracellular matrix. CONCLUSION: Therefore, this study reveals the active ingredient sesquiterpene 5α-Hydroxycostic acid of traditional She medicine Artemisia lavandulaefolia DC., and illustrates potential molecular mechanism in RA treatment by upregulating AR expression. This study is the first to report the effect of the active ingredient sesquiterpenes in traditional She medicine A.lavandulaefolia DC on RA and elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism associated with up-regulated AR expression. This study provides new insights into the mechanistic understanding of traditional She medicine in the treatment of RA.

Dehydrovomifoliol Alleviates Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease via the E2F1/AKT/mTOR Axis: Pharmacophore Modeling and Molecular Docking Study.

Objective: Herbal medicine discovery is a complex and time-consuming process, while pharmacophore modeling and molecular docking methods enable simple and economic studies. The pharmacophore model provides an abstract description of essential intermolecular interactions between chemical structures, and the molecular docking technology can identify novel compounds of therapeutic interests and predict the ligand-target interaction at the molecular level. This study was based on the two methods to elucidate the mechanism of dehydrovomifoliol, an active ingredient extracted from Artemisia frigida willd, in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods: Bioinformatics analysis was performed to screen target genes of dehydrovomifoliol in NAFLD treatment, which were thus intersected with NAFLD-related differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and NAFLD-related genes. Venn diagram was used to identify candidate DEGs. A pharmacophore model was then generated, and molecular docking was performed. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to identify core genes, which were evaluated using GO and the KEGG enrichment analyses. Results: Seven target genes of dehydrovomifoliol in NAFLD treatment were screened out, namely E2F1, MERTK, SOX17, MMP9, SULT2A1, VEGFA, and BLVRA. The pharmacophore model and molecular docking of candidate DEGs and dehydrovomifoliol were successfully constructed. E2F1 was identified as a core gene of dehydrovomifoliol in NAFLD treatment. Further enrichment analysis indicated the regulatory role of E2F1 in fat metabolism was associated with the regulation of the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Conclusion: Overall, this study illustrates the anti-NAFLD mechanism of dehydrovomifoliol, which could be a useful compound for developing novel drugs in the treatment of NAFLD.

Biomimetic strategies and technologies for artificial tactile sensory systems.

The sense of touch events, achieved by artificial tactile sensory systems (ATSSs), is a milestone in the progress of human-machine interactions. However, it has been a challenge for ATSSs to serve functions comparable with the human tactile perception system (HTPS). The biomimetic strategies and technologies inspired by HTPS are considered an optimal solution to this challenge. Recent studies have reported bioinspired strategies for improving specific aspects of ATSS performance, such as feature collection, signal conversion, and information computation. Here, we present a systematic interpretation of biomechanisms for HTPSs, and correspondingly, address biomimetic strategies and technologies contributing to ATSSs as an integral system. This review will benefit the development and application of ATSSs in the future.

Acupuncture Enhances Signals at Sensitized Acupoints to Elevate Pressure Pain Threshold in Knee Osteoarthritis Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To observe the pressure pain threshold (PPT), skin conductance (SC) and blood perfusion (BP) of the sensitized acupoints in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), and explore the mechanism of acupuncture at the sensitized acupoints for treating diseases. METHODS: Eleven healthy subjects and 11 unilateral KOA patients were recruited from July 2020 to March 2021 in this study. The PPT, SC and BP of control acupoints in healthy controls, and non-sensitized and sensitized acupoints in KOA patients were measured and compared between baseline and after manual acupuncture (MA) treatment. RESULTS: Before MA treatment, lower PPT was observed at the sensitized acupoints compared with non-sensitized and control acupoints (P<0.05). After MA treatment, PPT at the sensitized acupoints increased significantly in KOA patients (P<0.05). Before MA treatment, there was no statistical difference in SC and BP among control, non-sensitized and sensitized acupoints (P>0.05). Compared with the control and non-sensitized acupoints, there were significant increases of SC and BP in sensitized acupoints of KOA patients after MA treatment (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION: MA at sensitized acupoints could elevate PPT of KOA patients, which may be associated with the increment of SC and BP.

Paper-Based Humidity Sensor for Respiratory Monitoring.

Flexible respiratory monitoring devices have become available for outside-hospital application scenarios attributable to their improved system wearability. However, the complex fabrication process of such flexible devices results in high prices, limiting their applications in real-life scenarios. This study proposes a flexible, low-cost, and easy-processing paper-based humidity sensor for sleep respiratory monitoring. A paper humidity sensing model was established and sensors under different design parameters were processed and tested, achieving high sensitivity of 5.45 kΩ/%RH and good repeatability with a matching rate of over 85.7%. Furthermore, the sensor patch with a dual-channel 3D structure was designed to distinguish between oral and nasal breathing from origin signals proved in the simulated breathing signal monitoring test. The sensor patch was applied in the sleep respiratory monitoring of a healthy volunteer and an obstruct sleep apnea patient, demonstrating its ability to distinguish between different respiratory patterns as well as various breathing modes.

Multiple blood flow surges during intermittent pneumatic compression: The origins and their implications.

Intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) therapy has been used to enhance peripheral blood flow for prevention and rehabilitation of ischemic-related vascular diseases. A novel phenomenon has been reported that multiple blood flow surges appeared in the skin blood flow signal during each compression, but its mechanism has not been fully revealed. This study aimed to gain insights into the origins of these blood flow surges through experiment and biomechanical modeling methods. Foot skin blood flow (SBF) signals of 13 healthy adults (23.8 ± 0.5 yr old, 7 males) and air cuff pressure signals were recorded during IPC. Lumped parameter modeling and wavelet analysis were adopted to investigate the multiple blood flow surges (named as Peak1, Peak2 and Peak3). The results of the simulated Peak1 and Peak2 were in good agreements with the experiment results, suggesting that IPC could enhance foot SBF not only by deflation, but also by inflation. Statistical analysis demonstrated that high frequency compression with more frequent occurrence of Peak1 and Peak2 lead to significantly higher (Friedman test, p < 0.001) time-averaged SBF enhancement than the traditional mode. In addition, wavelet analysis showed that the major frequency component of the Peak3 (0.059 Hz) was within the range of the vascular myogenic activity, suggesting a vascular regulation process triggered by intravascular pressure changes. Our study provide new insights into the mechanism of how IPC enhance foot SBF.

Oral versus intravenous tranexamic acid in elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture undergoing proximal femur intramedullary nailing: A prospective cohort study.

Objective: To investigate and compare the efficacy and safety of intravenous and oral application of tranexamic acid (TXA) in geriatric patients undergoing intertrochanteric fracture surgeries. Methods: All patients with intertrochanteric fracture admitted to the trauma center of the Zhongda hospital were selected after January 1st, 2020. The final patients were divided into three groups. Oral group: 2 â€‹g oral TXA 2 â€‹h preoperatively; intravenous group: 15 â€‹mg/kg intravenous TXA before incision; control group: no intervention. The main outcome measures were blood transfusion rate and total blood loss. Secondary outcomes include intraoperative blood loss, postoperative blood loss, perioperative blood transfusion volumes, length of hospital stay, thromboembolism events and other adverse events. Results: From January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020, 124 patients with intertrochanteric fracture were enrolled. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 105 patients were included, including 32 patients in the oral group, 36 patients in the intravenous group and 37 patients in the control group. The demographic characteristics of each group were similar. The blood transfusion rate in the control group was significantly more than that in the experimental group (64.9% vs 40.6% vs 36.1%, P â€‹= â€‹0.041). There was no significant difference between the oral group and the intravenous group (P â€‹= â€‹0.704). The total blood loss of the oral group and the intravenous group were less than the control group (990.29 â€‹± â€‹250.19 â€‹ml vs 997.47 â€‹± â€‹452.34 â€‹ml vs 1408.54 â€‹± â€‹461.74 â€‹ml), the difference was statistically significant (P â€‹= â€‹0.001), and there was no significant difference between the intravenous group and the oral group (P â€‹= â€‹0.459). The perioperative blood transfusion volumes of the oral group and the intravenous group were less than the control group (250.00 â€‹± â€‹198.62 â€‹ml vs 227.78 â€‹± â€‹179.27 â€‹ml vs 367.57 â€‹± â€‹323.90 â€‹ml), the difference was statistically significant (P â€‹= â€‹0.001), and there was no significant difference between the intravenous group and the oral group (P â€‹= â€‹0.832). During hospitalization and follow-up, there were no thromboembolism events such as deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Conclusion: It is safe and effective to use TXA intravenously and orally in elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture. The results of the two methods are similar in safety and effectiveness. Oral TXA is recommended because of its cost-benefit superiority and its ease of administration. The translational potential of this article: The result of this prospective cohort study shows that the utilization of oral TXA in elderly patients with intertrochanteric fracture undergoing proximal femur intramedullary nailing possesses great potential in reducing blood loss and cost-benefit superiority.

Wearable Iontronic FMG for Classification of Muscular Locomotion.

Human motion recognition with high accuracy and fast response speed has long been considered an essential component in human-machine interactive activities such as assistive robotics, medical prosthesis, and wearable electronics. The force myography (FMG) signal has been the focus of much investigation in the search for a reliable and efficient muscular locomotion recognition system. However, the effect of the sensing system on FMG-based locomotion classification accuracy has yet to be understood. This study proposed a novel FMG sensing strategy for human lower limb locomotion classification based on flexible supercapacitive iontronic sensors. Benefiting from the ultrahigh sensitivity (up to 1 nF/mmHg) and low activation pressure (less than 5 mmHg) of the supercapacitive iontronic pressure sensor, FMG signal can be acquired accurately from 5 iontronic sensors strapped to the thigh. In the experiment with 12 subjects, the real-time classification strategy based on sliding window and SVM model gave an average locomotion classification accuracy of 99% for seven categories, including sitting, standing, walking on level ground, ramp ascent, ramp descent, stair ascent, stair descent. Compared with traditional FSR sensors, the result showed that iontronic sensors improved the classification accuracy by up to 10 percentage points in the case of short time window. The implementation of the high sensitivity flexible iontronic sensors in the wearable system brings a valuable tool for detecting small human body pressure signals and has great potential to improve the performance of the human-machine interface in rehabilitation and medical applications.

Clinical efficacy and safety of maintenance therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a retrospective real-world study.

BACKGROUND: The clinical efficacy and safety of maintenance therapy (MT) for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have not been determined in the real word. This retrospective study of real-world data analyzed these issues in patients with advanced NSCLC and stable or responsive tumors after 4-6 cycles of first-line chemotherapy. METHODS: We classified 158 patients into MT (34 IIIB and 37 IV stage) and non-MT (47 IIIB and 40 IV stage) groups and then compared the clinical outcomes of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The influences of maintaining chemotherapy or targeted drugs, regimens, and duration on PFS were also investigated. Prognostic factors for OS were identified by univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Among the patients, 71 received MT and 87 did not. The median PFS and OS were significantly prolonged in the MT group than non-MT group (5.6 and 14.2 vs. 2.8 and 9.8 months, respectively; both p < 0.0001). The PFS was extended when patients were maintained with targeted drugs compared with chemotherapy, > 4 cycles of chemotherapy, and targeted drugs for > 3 months (all P < 0.0001). Patients with adenocarcinoma and without distant metastasis derived a better OS benefit from MT (P = 0.041 and P = 0.037, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that female sex and MT were independent prognostic factors for extended OS (P = 0.039 and P < 0.0001, respectively). The major adverse events of MT comprised tolerable hematological toxicity and gastrointestinal reactions. CONCLUSIONS: MT was advantageous and tolerable for patients with advanced NSCLC, especially those with adenocarcinomas without distant metastasis who were treated with targeted drugs, which was an independent prognostic factor for OS.

First Decade of Interfacial Iontronic Sensing: From Droplet Sensors to Artificial Skins.

Over the past decade, a brand-new pressure- and tactile-sensing modality, known as iontronic sensing has emerged, utilizing the supercapacitive nature of the electrical double layer (EDL) that occurs at the electrolytic-electronic interface, leading to ultrahigh device sensitivity, high noise immunity, high resolution, high spatial definition, optical transparency, and responses to both static and dynamic stimuli, in addition to thin and flexible device architectures. Together, it offers unique combination of enabling features to tackle the grand challenges in pressure- and tactile-sensing applications, in particular, with recent interest and rapid progress in the development of robotic intelligence, electronic skin, wearable health as well as the internet-of-things, from both academic and industrial communities. A historical perspective of the iontronic sensing discovery, an overview of the fundamental working mechanism along with its device architectures, a survey of the unique material aspects and structural designs dedicated, and finally, a discussion of the newly enabled applications, technical challenges, and future outlooks are provided for this promising sensing modality with implementations. The state-of-the-art developments of the iontronic sensing technology in its first decade are summarized, potentially providing a technical roadmap for the next wave of innovations and breakthroughs in this field.

Comparison of piezoresistive sensor to PicoPress® in in-vitro interface pressure measurement.

Objective Interface pressure, the sine qua non for compression therapy, is rarely measured in clinical practice and scientific research. The goal of this study aimed to compare and examine the accuracy between a commercially available piezoresistive sensor and PicoPress® (Microlab, Padua, Italy) using the cylinder cuff model to measure in-vitro interface pressure. Method Ten piezoresistive sensors were calibrated using the National Institute of Standard and Technology certified manometer, and compared to PicoPress® using cylinder cuff model from 20 to 120 mmHg. Two statistical analyses were performed: (a) two-sample t-test to compare the front to back surface of the piezoresistive sensors using mean pressure value and (b) one-sample paired t-test to compare the front and back surface of the piezoresistive sensors to PicoPress® and true pressure using mean pressure value. Result There was no difference in interface pressure measurement between the front and back surface of the piezoresistive sensors (P > 0.05). Using mean pressure value, there was no significant difference between the front surface, back surface of the piezoresistive sensors, and PicoPress® (P > 0.05). Standard deviation was larger for the piezoresistive sensors than PicoPress® at any given pressure and this difference was more pronounced in the higher pressure range. Conclusion Piezoresistive sensor may represent a viable alternative to PicoPress® in interface pressure measurement.

Imperceptible Epidermal-Iontronic Interface for Wearable Sensing.

Recent development of epidermal electronics provides an enabling means to continuous monitoring of physiological signals and close tracking of physical activities without affecting quality of life. Such devices require high sensitivity for low-magnitude signal detection, noise reduction for motion artifacts, imperceptible wearability with long-term comfortableness, and low-cost production for scalable manufacturing. However, the existing epidermal pressure sensing devices, usually involving complex multilayer structures, have not fully addressed the aforementioned challenges. Here, the first epidermal-iontronic interface (EII) is successfully introduced incorporating both single-sided iontronic devices and the skin itself as the pressure sensing architectures, allowing an ultrathin, flexible, and imperceptible packaging with conformal epidermal contact. Notably, utilizing skin as part of the EII sensor, high pressure sensitivity and high signal-to-noise ratios are achieved, along with ultralow motion artifacts for both internal (body) and external (environmental) mechanical stimuli. Monitoring of various vital signals, such as blood pressure waveforms, respiration waveforms, muscle activities and artificial tactile sensation, is successfully demonstrated, implicating a broad applicability of the EII devices for emerging wearable applications.

Supercapacitive Iontronic Nanofabric Sensing.

The study of wearable devices has become a popular research topic recently, where high-sensitivity, noise proof sensing mechanisms with long-term wearability play critical roles in a real-world implementation, while the existing mechanical sensing technologies (i.e., resistive, capacitive, or piezoelectric) have yet offered a satisfactory solution to address them all. Here, we successfully introduced a flexible supercapacitive sensing modality to all-fabric materials for wearable pressure and force sensing using an elastic ionic-electronic interface. Notably, an electrospun ionic fabric utilizing nanofibrous structures offers an extraordinarily high pressure-to-capacitance sensitivity (114 nF kPa-1 ), which is at least 1000 times higher than any existing capacitive sensors and one order of magnitude higher than the previously reported ionic devices, with a pressure resolution of 2.4 Pa, achieving high levels of noise immunity and signal stability for wearable applications. In addition, its fabrication process is fully compatible with existing industrial manufacturing and can lead to cost-effective production for its utility in emerging wearable uses in a foreseeable future.

Wearable microfluidics: fabric-based digital droplet flowmetry for perspiration analysis.

The latest development in wearable technologies has attracted much attention. In particular, collection and analysis of body fluids has been a focus. In this paper, we have reported a wearable microfluidic platform made using conventional fabric materials and laser micromachining to measure the flow rate on a patterned fabric surface, referred to as digital droplet flowmetry (DDF). The proposed wearable DDF is capable of collecting and measuring continuous perspiration with high precision (96% on average) in a real-time fashion over a defined area of skin. We have introduced a theoretical model for the proposed wearable interfacial microfluidic platform, under which various design parameters have been investigated and optimized for various conditions. The novel digitalized measurement principle of DDF provides fast responses, digital readouts, system flexibility, and continuous performance of the flow measurement. Moreover, the proposed DDF platform can be conveniently implemented on regular apparel or a wearable device, and has potential to be applied to dynamic removal, collection and monitoring of biofluids for various physiological and clinical processes.

Photopatternable PEDOT:PSS/PEG hybrid thin film with moisture stability and sensitivity.

Degradation and delamination resulting from environmental humidity have been technically challenging for poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) thin-film processing. To overcome this problem, we introduced a one-step photolithographic method to both pattern and link a PEDOT:PSS film onto a poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) layer as a hybrid thin film structure on a flexible substrate. This film exhibited excellent long-term moisture stability (more than 10 days) and lithographic resolution (as low as 2 µm). Mechanical characterizations were performed, including both stretching and bending tests, which illustrated the strong adhesion present between the PEDOT:PSS and PEG layers as well as between the hybrid thin film and substrate. Moreover, the hybrid moisture-absorbable film showed a quick response of its permittivity to environmental humidity variations, in which the patterned PEDOT:PSS layer served as an electrode and the PEG layer as a moisture-sensing element. Perspiration tracking over various parts of the body surface as well as breath rate measurement under the nose were successfully carried out as demonstrations, which illustrated the potential utility of this stable hybrid thin film for emerging flexible and wearable electronic applications.

Telemedical Wearable Sensing Platform for Management of Chronic Venous Disorder.

Enabled by emerging wearable sensors, telemedicine can potentially offer personalized medical services to long-term home care or remote clinics in the future, which can be particularly helpful in the management of chronic diseases. The wireless wearable pressure sensing system reported in this article provides an excellent example of such an innovation, whereby periodic or continuous monitoring of interface pressure can be obtained to guide routine compression therapy, the cornerstone of chronic venous disorder management. By applying a novel capacitive, iontronic sensing technology, a flexible, ultrathin, and highly sensitive pressure sensing array is seamlessly incorporated into compression garments for the monitoring of interface pressure. The linear pressure sensing array assesses pressure distribution along the limb in a real-time manner (up to a scanning rate of 5 kHz), and the measurement data can be processed and displayed on a mobile device locally, as well as transmitted through a Bluetooth communication module to a remote clinical service. The proposed interface pressure measuring system provides real-time interface pressure distribution data and can be utilized for both clinical and self-management of compression therapy, where both treatment efficacy and quality assurance can be ascertained.

Flexible transparent iontronic film for interfacial capacitive pressure sensing.

A flexible, transparent iontronic film is introduced as a thin-film capacitive sensing material for emerging wearable and health-monitoring applications. Utilizing the capacitive interface at the ionic-electronic contact, the iontronic film sensor offers a large unit-area capacitance (of 5.4 µF cm(-2) ) and an ultrahigh sensitivity (of 3.1 nF kPa(-1) ), which is a thousand times greater than that of traditional solid-state counterparts.