Smart Oxygen Cuvette for Optical Monitoring of Dissolved Oxygen in Biological Blood Samples

A “smart” oxygen cuvette has been developed by coating the inner surface of a plastic (PMMA) cuvette with sol-gel based oxygen-sensitive indicator material. This new oxygen sensing system monitors the dissolved oxygen in samples for biological and medical applications. Smart oxygen cuvettes provide resolution of 4 ppb units, accuracy of less than 5% of the reading and 90% response in less than 10 seconds.

Background

Different methods have been used to detect the presence of microorganisms in blood cultures. Early detection of such organisms is of primary importance to the selection of appropriate therapies and doses to be adopted for patients. The information collected using such methods helps in the selection of system parameters optimum for detection of the different microorganisms. Some of the changes such as conversion of oxyhemoglobin to deoxyhemoglobin within the red blood cells have been detected using spectroscopy methods, which provide data on growth behavior of organisms. In this Application Note, we explain how a cuvette coated with an oxygen-sensitive indicator acts as a detection system to measure the dissolved partial pressure of oxygen in blood culture systems. We also show the trend in oxygen consumption in response to the increasing density of yeast microorganisms in the blood samples.