Optical fiber sensors for monitoring in critical care.

Monitoring of key physiological and pharmacological parameters is an important part of a closed loop control system in critical care. Optical fiber sensors provide a versatile platform technology that can be easily incorporated into existing in-dwelling catheters or face masks. With appropriate functional coatings they can be used to monitor a range of relevant parameters and two different examples are presented: (i) respiration monitoring; (ii) drug level monitoring. Respiration monitoring involves monitoring of temperature and humidity in inhaled and exhaled breath. The optical fiber sensor consists of a fiber Bragg grating to measure temperature and a tip coating whose refractive index changes with humidity. The sensor is demonstrated to be able to track breath to breath changes when incorporated into a mask. Drug level monitoring is demonstrated in vitro using a long period grating coated with molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles that are sensitive to fentanyl. The sensor has a limit of detection of 50ng/ml.