Recently, ETH Zurich published a research paper titled "A Wearable In-Pad Diagnostic for the Detection of Disease Biomarkers in Menstruation Blood," which describes the development of a fully integrated, wearable microfluidic monitoring platform (MenstruAI) embedded in a sanitary pad. This platform allows for the detection of disease biomarkers in menstrual blood without the need for electronic devices. Two key innovations include: first, the direct detection of undiluted menstrual blood; and second, a unique fluid control mechanism that ensures precise blood volume for testing and prevents overflow, guaranteeing the validity of the results.
MenstruAI can perform semi-quantitative detection of gynecological tumor markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and cancer antigen 125 (CA-125), as well as the endometriosis marker CA-125. The biomarker-induced color changes can be interpreted visually or semi-quantitatively analyzed using a smartphone application equipped with machine learning algorithms.
The MenstruAI platform also boasts significant cost advantages: a single 6mm LFA test strip costs less than $0.40, the soft silicone packaging costs approximately $0.50, and the entire platform costs about $1 per use, demonstrating significant potential for large-scale production. However, realizing its true public health value requires large-scale population studies to address challenges such as the high variability of menstrual blood flow and uncertain sampling conditions.
It is important to emphasize that the MenstruAI platform does not currently replace clinical diagnosis, but rather serves as a convenient early warning and high-frequency monitoring tool, allowing users to promptly identify potential health risks. In the future, the biomarker detection panel can be expanded based on user needs and disease prevalence trends, potentially including more health indicators such as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). This multi-detection platform based on menstrual blood has the potential to promote widespread self-health management for women globally, particularly in developing countries, through non-invasive, low-cost, and accessible health monitoring.