Developing a Means to Test Blood Sodium at Home
In early 2020, the Raymond A. Wood Foundation embarked on an effort to determine the feasibility of development of a home use blood sodium meter to help with management of arginine vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D) formerly referred to as diabetes insipidus, a complex medical condition that occurs when the body cannot regulate fluid balance.
In early 2020, the Raymond A. Wood Foundation embarked on an effort to determine the feasibility of development of a home use blood sodium meter to help with management of AVP-D, a complex medical condition that occurs when the body cannot regulate fluid balance.
Currently, there is no way to measure blood sodium outside of a lab setting. Patients may have to endure multiple lab visits in a week and getting results from those lab draws can take hours which is not ideal for proactive management. For pediatric patients, venous blood draws can be particularly traumatizing and veins get worn out or become difficult to find, causing the patients to be stuck several times in a sitting.
In 2016, Shawn and Amy Wood, parents of Alex, who was then recovering from a craniopharyngioma brain tumor resection and was struggling with AVP-D was airlifted multiple times for sodium-related seizures. The Woods sought out a way to test blood sodium at home and discovered a handheld blood analyzer used in hospitals and urgent care clinics, and set out to purchase one. With the help of their community and Alex’s pediatrician, they were able to get one and put it to use. The device could measure sodium among other assays with a blood volume of 20 drops, drawn from a finger stick and could produce an accurate result within minutes. The family, with the guidance of Alex’s endocrinologist, could make fluid and medication adjustments to keep him in a normal sodium range.
The Raymond A. Wood Foundation was founded by the Woods in 2017 to seek to provide these devices to other families and make the clinician community aware that this is a viable way to manage this condition. But the issue is that these devices are not intended for this use and come at a high price tag. The question arose – could a device be developed akin to a glucometer that a diabetic uses to measure blood sugar that could measure sodium? RAWF’s executive director, Amy Wood and Shana McCormack, MD, MTR, neuroendocrine scientific director of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who routinely treats patients with sodium regulation challenges from DI, set out to answer that question.
According to Dr. McCormack, “For a long time, we have recognized the need to give patients and families better tools manage their AVP-D. We envision that this new device, once in use, will help us partner with affected individuals to identify and address small problems early, before they turn into bigger problems that lead to emergency room visits and hospitalizations.”
The project team includes Dr. Shana McCormack, Amy Wood, Dr. Khushbu Patel, the Director of CHOP’s Clinical Chemistry Laboratory and the research and development firm, Giner, Inc. with regulatory guidance from Pro Pharma Group. Currently, phase one development of a has concluded with financial support from NIH in the form of small business innovation research (SBIR) grant and the Raymond A. Wood Foundation.
Project Updates/News
Support this Work
With your help, we can accelerate the research and development process, bringing hope to those battling this condition and those requiring blood sodium monitoring, potentially transforming lives for the better.
