Does your competent? doctor have enough brains to start using this to monitor your gut micobiota? And does s/he have protocols to fix that microbiome?
- gut microbiota
(48 posts to June 2016)
- gut microbiome
(65 posts to March 2016)
‘Smart Underwear’ Measures Gut Gas for Microbiome Science
A “smart underwear” device, created by scientists at University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park, Maryland, monitors frequency of flatulence and hydrogen concentration in hopes of more accurately setting a baseline for what’s typical.
The device is about the size of three stacked nickels that can be snapped onto the exterior of any underwear near the perineal region. It uses electrochemical sensors and researchers receive the readings through an app around the clock.
It’s the “first wearable for monitoring gut microbiome activity via flatus hydrogen,” according to the researchers, led by first author Santiago Botasini, PhD, a UMD assistant research scientist with the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. The team introduced the device in a study published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X.
Previous Tracking Methods Limited
Few flatulence studies have been conducted and much of the research had been done using rectal tubes, Brantley Hall, PhD, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, UMD, told Medscape Medical News, “but rectal tubes aren’t a very comfortable, scalable approach. We think there’s an opportunity to build on that so we can understand flatulence patterns. You can ask people how much they fart, but it’s not very accurate. People’s perception is really off. Clinicians need better evidence.”
Asking people about frequency also misses accounting for the time a person is asleep, something the underwear device can automatically capture, he noted.
In a weeklong User Experience Study, participants who were asked to wear the device for at least 3 days reported high comfort and compliance. In a second study, the device accurately detected increased hydrogen production after inulin ingestion with 94.7% sensitivity in 38 healthy participants, demonstrating its ability to track changes in microbial metabolism with diet changes.
Individual Variation Extreme
The research also found that healthy adults expel gas about 32 times a day, about twice as often as the current literature states. Individual variation was extreme, researchers found.
Recently, one person’s device logged expulsions “more than 300 times a day,” Hall said. “We’ve shipped out about 100 devices so far and we’re starting to get some interesting results.” And though 300 was the highest number so far, some devices are showing 200-plus readings, he said.
“If clinicians learned in their medical textbook that 14 +/- 6 flatus a day is normal and someone says, ‘I’m farting 200 times a day’, that can cause anxiety for patients,” Hall said. “Flatus is the most noticeable thing your microbiome does,” he said. “And it’s insane to me that we’re not measuring it. For us to identify what’s abnormal, we first have to find out what’s normal.”Toward that end, Hall’s Lab launched the Human Flatus Atlas. The project will use smart underwear to track flatulence patterns and correlate those patterns with diet and microbiome composition for a diverse population. Devices are shipped to participants in the US.
Not a Medical Device
The tracker is not a medical device, Hall emphasized, “but I think it could help clinicians inform the directions of their treatment.”
“We hope to capture a baseline that is a trustworthy, scientifically validated number of flatus,” he said. “It will give a pretty unprecedented view of something that’s been invisible until now.”
He said he thought originally it might be hard to recruit people to sign up to use the device, but that wasn’t the case. “We’re completely overwhelmed with the demand” and currently offering only a waitlist. “We’ve made 850 devices and we’ve had more than 5000 people sign up to be part of the research,” Hall said.
Supriya Rao, MD, managing partner of Integrated Gastroenterology Consultants in Boston, said this work fills a gap.
“Until now we have relied on breath tests, invasive rectal tube studies, and symptom reporting which are really, limited snapshots,” she told Medscape Medical News. “This device can capture real time data over days and shows that people pass gas more frequently than we previously thought. It challenges some of our baseline assumptions about that normal physiology.”
Timing and Pattern Important
She said timing and pattern matter just as much as magnitude in medicine. “We care about whether fermentation occurs and when it begins, how frequent it is, and how it evolves throughout the day. Do we see hydrogen production increase after a meal, or is there a delay? Timing can tell us a lot,” she explained.
Gastroenterologists often see a disconnect between a patient’s perception of bloating and the actual volume of gas present. “This could help me figure out whether a patient’s symptoms are coming from excess gas production or from heightened sensitivity in the gut. This would allow us to tailor treatments more effectively,” she said.
She noted that the studies were small and done in healthy volunteers and characterized the device as “promising.”
“I would like to see a study done with those with gastrointestinal disorders. Hydrogen is only one part of the metabolic puzzle in our guts. Some microbes consume hydrogen and not all fermentation pathways produce it,” she noted.
Botasini reported having a relationship with Ventoscity LLC that included equity or stocks. Hall reported having a relationship with Ventoscity LLC that included board membership and equity or stocks. Botasini and Hall reported having a patent pending on Smart Underwear to Measure Volatile Metabolites Produced by the Human Gut Microbiota to Licensee from the UMD by Ventoscity LLC. Botasini and Hall reported having a patent on Method for Assessing the Likelihood of Malabsorption or SIBO via Measurements of Gut Microbial Gas Production Excreted in Flatus pending to Licensee from the UMD by Ventoscity LLC. Hall and Botasini reported having submitted two patent applications about the uses for the Smart Underwear device and cofounded a startup, Ventoscity LLC, to commercialize the technology and Ventoscity LLC has licensed the patents from the UMD. The other authors had no other conflicts to declare.
This work was supported by UMD Startup funds to Hall, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation through the Maryland Innovation Initiative, and the UM Ventures Medical Device Development Fund.
Rao reported having no relevant financial relationships.
No comments:
Post a Comment