This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to develop a non-invasive pH sensor to determine the pH of exhaled breath vapor to help diagnose and treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
The commercial application of this project will be on the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases. Acid reflux has been associated with asthma and other inflammatory airway diseases. Current detection methods, such as catheters, are invasive and require hospital visits. A simple non-invasive detector would allow for broader screening and could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment modalities.