“The easy .. monitoring of the electrolyte balance can essentially improve the health, quality of living and performance of up to a billion people arround the world.”
“Compared to current practices the test offers immediate results, is affordable and easy to operate.”
Medical Background: Parameters measured
Key functions in the body:
fluid distribution in the body, blood volume and pressure
Indications/Patient group:
hypertension, cystic fibrosis, chronic
diarrhea, colectomy and gastrointestinal
stoma, cancer, endurance athletes
Key functions in the body:
regulates cardiac and renal activity
Indications/Patient group:
chronic kidney disease, chronic diarrhoea due to bowel diseases,
during medication with diuretics, penicillin etc., cancer, eating disorders
Key functions in the body:
neuromuscular and cardiac activity
Indications/Patient group:
hypertension, cardiac insufficiency, eclampsia, cancer, migraine
Key functions in the body:
increases bone density
Indications/Patient group:
osteoporosis, post-menopausal and pregnancy period, diabetes mellitus, renal insufficiency, Vitamin D deficiency due to malassimilation, cancer, elderly people
Reason - Why electrolytes are important:
Electrolytes such as sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), Chloride (Cl) etc. are essential for human health. Each electrolyte serves specific and important roles, and their balance is critically important for numerous physiological functions like hydration, cellular metabolism and neuromuscular transmission. Disorders of electrolyte balance are significant health issues, which – if not treated in time – may cause serious life-threatening problems such as renal, respiratory or circulatory failure, and even death.
Currently, electrolyte status is assessed mainly by measurements in blood and in certain instances also in urine, in each case requiring medical and/or laboratory personal. Thus, the whole process is logistically cumbersome, costly and time-to-result is long, and it is not suitable for self-testing or for monitoring (e.g. need for venepuncture for blood test, 24-hour urine test, etc.). Billions of people worldwide are chronically affected by electrolyte disorders and they would benefit greatly if the monitoring of electrolyte status could be made accessible to them by an easy to use hand-held tool like Ionsent’s revolutionary PoCT devices.
Possible areas of application…
Disorders of fluid and electrolyte balance
Hpyertension
Critically ill patients
Intra- and post-operatively
Diarrhea or vomiting
Intake of diuretics
Deviations of other serum electrolytes from the reference range
Poly uric polydipsic syndrome and disorders of the thirst sensation
Disturbances of acid-base balance
Kidney disease, hypertension, edema
Certain endocrine diseases (e.g., hypothyroidism, hyper mineralocorticoid syndromes, mineralocorticoid deficiency syndromes)
High salt intake
age-related dehydration and thirst-perception disorder, particularly in the context of dementia
…for sodium determination:
Hypertension
Cardiac arrhythmias
Chronic ingestion of potassium depleting medications (diuretics, laxatives)
Long-term therapy with corticosteroids
Acute and chronic renal insufficiency
Diarrhea or vomiting
Conn‘s syndrome
Disorders of fluid and electrolyte balance
Disorders of acid-base balance
Monitoring of intensive care patients
Hypomagnesemia
Suspicion of renal tubular acidosis
Decrease in renal function
age-related dehydration and thirst-perception disorder, particularly in the context of dementia
…for potassium determination: