The goal of the proposed research is to develop instruments for the rapid detection and quantitation of bilirubin, a metabolite which is an indicator for a variety of metabolic disorders, including hyperbilirubinemia in infants. The instrument will also detect and quantify levels of acetaminophen and salicylic acid, common sources of childhood poisonings. These goals will be accomplished by the use of specialized coatings sensitive to these compounds in conjunction with surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. The technology differs from that commonly employed because the selective interactions between the coatings and the target analytes should make the need for sample pre- processing or separation unnecessary. The high information content in Raman spectroscopy will mean that the likelihood of sample misidentification is much smaller than for methods which utilize less content rich forms of spectroscopy. A laboratory grade instrument should be capable of reading tens of samples per minute. A second instrument will be sufficiently small and portable that it will be appropriate in bed-to- bed measurements of these compounds in maternity wards and emergency rooms.
The portable instfl1ments developed from this work will find wide applicability in emergency rooms and maternity wards due to their accuracy, rapidity and ease of use. The laboratory grade instrument will be useful in hospitals in which large numbers of samples must be processed
