Portable Fetal PH Analyzer

Project Description:
Labor is a dangerous time for the fetus. Currently technology to monitor fetal condition is inadequate. Fetal heart rate tracing (FHR) is imprecise with poor positive predictive value, leading to frequent misdiagnosis of fetal distress. As a result, unnecessary interventions such as Cesarean Section (CS) are common. Reliance on FHR can also lead to delayed diagnosis of fetal distress. Fetal pH serves as the gold standard for diagnosis of fetal distress.

The aim of this project is to develop a hand-held instrument that can give an immediate bedside reading of the fetal blood pH, pCO2, and/or lactate. The device should provide a rapid and accurate bedside diagnosis of fetal distress during labor, be nurse operable (physician not needed), be quick and painless to the mother, accurate results in less than 5 minutes, safe and low cost.

Project Mentor:
Engineering Mentor: Christine E. King, PhD, Department of Biomedical Engineering, kingce@uci.edu
Physician Mentor: Dinh Vu, MD, MBA, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Saddleback Medical Center, dvu2222@gmail.com

Other Resources:
Note: students will need to sign an IP agreement to work on this project.

Team Members: 

Ryan Malone Cohen, Juhi Gopal, Syed Muhammad Hassan, Tina Karimi, Sydney Lynn Tea