Point-of-Care 3-D Printed Spectrophotometer for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Tuberculosis Patients

Tuberculosis (TB) is a highly infectious disease and remains as one the leading causes of mortality around the globe. Many drugs, such as rifampin, isoniazid, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide, are routinely prescribed for its treatment. The dosage requirements for treatment depend on a patients age, gender, and preexisting conditions, if any. Using therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), clinicians can observe drug absorbance in a patient and adjust the drug dosage accordingly. Here, we have developed a 3-D printed hand-held portable spectrophotometer, which can be used for quantifying antibiotics in biological samples (e.g., urine) for TDM. Using the portable spectrophotometer, we quantified different amounts of rifampin in phosphate buffer saline and synthetic urine and found R
²
values of 0.92 and 0.94, respectively, compared to the standard clinical instrument. The presented system can potentially aide clinicians in making more informed decisions and serves as a first step toward the development of a fully automated point-of-care (POC) system for TDM in TB patients undergoing therapy.