Smart Surgical Catheter for C‐Reactive Protein Sensing Based on an Imperceptible Organic Transistor

• Published in: Advanced science 2018-06, Vol.5 (6), p.1701053-n/a
• Main Authors: Ji, Xudong, Zhou, Pengcheng, Zhong, Ling, Xu, Aimin, Tsang, Anderson C. O., Chan, Paddy K. L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acids; bending stability; Biomarkers; biomedical applications; Catheters; Communication; Communications; Contact angle; C‐reactive protein (CRP) sensors; Electrodes; Flexibility; Gold; Inflammation; organic transistors; Polymers; Polymethyl methacrylate; Polyvinyl alcohol; Semiconductors; Sensors; Surgery; Surgical apparatus & instruments; Transistors; ultraflexibility
• ISSN: 2198-3844; 2198-3844
• DOI: 10.1002/advs.201701053

Organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs)‐based sensors have a great potential to be integrated with the next generation smart surgical tools for monitoring different real‐time signals during surgery. However, allowing ultraflexible OFETs to have compatibility with standard medical sterilization procedures remains challenging. A novel capsule‐like OFET structure is demonstrated by utilizing the fluoropolymer CYTOP to serve both encapsulation and peeling‐off enhancement purposes. By adapting a thermally stable organic semiconductor, 2,10‐diphenylbis[1]benzothieno[2,3‐d;2′,3′‐d′]naphtho[2,3‐b;6,7‐b′]dithiophene (DPh‐BBTNDT), these devices show excellent stability in their electrical performance after sterilizing under boiling water and 100 °C‐saturated steam for 30 min. The ultrathin thickness (630 nm) enables the device to have superb mechanical flexibility with smallest bending radius down to 1.5 µm, which is essential for application on the highly tortuous medical catheter inside the human body. By immobilizing anti‐human C‐reactive protein (CRP) (an inflammation biomarker) monoclonal antibody on an extended gate of the OFET, a sensitivity for detecting CRP antigen down to 1 µg mL−1 can be achieved. An ecofriendly water floatation method realized by employing the wettability difference between CYTOP and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) can be used to transfer the device on a ventricular catheter, which successfully distinguishes an inflammatory patient from a healthy one. An organic field‐effect transistor (OFET)‐based C‐reactive protein (CRP) sensor is successfully fabricated and integrated with a ventricular catheter. By embedding the transistor in a capsule‐like fluoropolymer CYTOP structure, it can have both sterilization compatibility and ultrahigh flexibility. The smart surgical catheter with an OFET‐based CRP sensor can be used to distinguish human serum with different inflammation states, which has great potential in real‐time CRP sensing during surgery.