Clinicians may soon be able to use the sweat from a fingerprint to determine whether a tuberculosis patient has taken the proper antibiotics. This new method aims to improve the treatment of tuberculosis (TB), but could also be adapted for other applications. The technique is almost as accurate as a blood test. It has been reported in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents.
“Up until now, blood tests have been the gold standard for detecting drugs in somebody’s system," said corresponding study author Professor Melanie Bailey, an analytical chemist at the University of Surrey. “Now we can get results that are almost as accurate through the sweat in somebody’s fingerprint. That means we can monitor treatment for diseases like tuberculosis in a much less invasive way.”
In this work, the researchers tested the approach on a small group of ten patients who were being treated at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) for tuberculosis. After collection, the finger sweat samples were analyzed with mass spectrometry.
The investigators simply asked the study volunteers to wash their hands, and then put on nitrile gloves so their hands would sweat. Then the researchers pressed the patients' fingertips onto paper, explained study co-author and UMCG pulmonary physician Dr. Onno Akkerman.
This showed that antibiotics in finger sweat could be detected with 96 percent accuracy, and the metabolites generated by the breakdown of an antibiotic could be identified with 77 percent accuracy. The test worked within a few hours of antibiotic ingestion.
“We’re looking forward to working with Surrey to detect other TB drugs using this promising technique.”
It's also very easy to collect finger sweat, which does not require specialist training or certification to obtain or transport.
"Doctors need to check whether tuberculosis patients are taking their antibiotics. It's much quicker and more convenient to do that using fingerprints rather than taking blood," added first study author Dr. Katie Longman of the University of Surrey.
"This could ease the time pressure on a busy health service and offer patients a more comfortable solution. For some patients, like babies, blood tests are not feasible or desirable, so techniques like this one could be really useful.”
Sources: University of Surrey, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents
