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Salt sensor for self-monitor sodium intake

Reporter: Danut Dragoi, PhD

Introduction

On Wednesday, February 17, 2016, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), in partnership with Health 2.0 and Blueprint Health, announced the winners of the latest round of pilot funding from Digital Health Marketplace (formerly Pilot Health Tech NYC), a groundbreaking competition to support healthcare technology entrepreneurship in NYC by matching start-up companies who have an innovative technology with an institutional host who will help support it, see link in here

This year, one of the winning teams on the pilot funding from Digital Health Marketplace (formerly Pilot Health Tech NYC), a groundbreaking competition to support healthcare technology entrepreneurship in NYC, is Weill Cornell graduate student Fon Powell and the Weill Cornell Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC). As the innovator, Ms. Powell and her company Sodium Analyte Level Test LLC (S.A.L.T.) have developed a portable, smart phone-based home urinary analysis test that will allow users to conveniently self-monitor sodium intake, while providing physicians and researchers a mechanism to gather data on salt levels. As her host, the CTSC will support Ms. Powell in gathering pilot and proof-of-concept data in human participants that will help her expand the business and meet regulatory requirements, see link in here.

Figure below shows the analytical instrument that can connect to an iPhone and display the results of salt measurements.

Image SOURCE: http://www.saltcounts.com/

How is it working?

As we know Na+ in our body can be eliminated through urine, in which Sodium is in ionic state. Urine basically is about 95% water and urea, CH4N2O, and other constituents. A complete composition of urine can be found here, which is an aqueous solution of greater than 95% water, with the remaining constituents, in order of decreasing concentration urea 9.3 g/L, chloride 1.87 g/L, sodium 1.17 g/L, potassium 0.750 g/L, creatinine 0.670 g/L and other dissolved ions, inorganic and organic compounds (proteins, hormones, metabolites). If we assume 1 L volume of our body fluids is 1 kg of our body weight, than 1.17g/L x 80L gives 93.6 g Salt. Now using data from the Figure above we get the reading of 1500 mg  salt/day which is less 62.4 times. I mention this calculation in order to have an idea how salt is metabolized in our body with no simple formula. In fact the algorithm of the calculations is a protected IP and reflects the complexity of the problem.

According with the information here, the device is working as follows: 2 disposable urine strips measure 2 urine analytes, one from dietary salt and one, a metabolic constant. After a picture is taken of each test strip, vision processing software decodes the strip. The patented SALT algorithm, developed by researchers at Cornell, gives salt levels.

Spare parts, test strips, and manufacturing

The device utilizes two basic strips see link in here and other materials shown below.

• Creatinine test paper by Teco Diagnostics
• Creatinine strips by PortaScience
• Chloride strips by Hach Inc.

PortaScience, see link in here , will package strips together as a kit, with proper bottle and labeling. Total cost of manufacturing is $24.97/bottle, with a proVit of $15.02/bottle.

Source

http://www.saltcounts.com/

https://www.google.com/#q=chemical+formula+urea

https://www.google.com/search?q=patent+SALT+algorithm,+developed+by+researchers+at+Cornell&biw=1366&bih=623&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjT29nIvZ3LAhUNwGMKHVTYAWAQ_AUIBigA&dpr=1#q=chemical+composition+of+urine

http://elabnyc.com/wp-content/uploads/SALT_Executive_Summary.pdf

http://www.portascience.com/