Lactate detection using a microwave cavity sensor for biomedical applications

Researchers at LJMU are investigating the use of a low power microwave sensor for detecting lactate in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which holds key indicators relating to a patient's future health. A multipurpose sensor platform is current being developed with the capability to detect the concentration of materials in volumes ≤ 1ml. This paper presents results from a microwave cavity resonator designed and created for this purpose, using varying concentrations of lactate in water. In addition, further work considers lactate in a “synthetic” CSF media to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method. Finally, the paper considers the future work required in order to bring the microwave sensor to the prototype state.