Human Hydration Status Monitor

To address the Army’s need for a non-invasive, rapid, field-deployable and inexpensive hydration status monitoring technology, in Phase I, ChromoLogic LLC (CL) developed and demonstrated a new Ocular Hydration Monitor (OCHYMO) system. OCHYMO is based on measuring the plasma omolality by non-invasively measuring the osmolality of the aqueous humor. The hand-held, battery operated Phase I prototype with custom analysis software was capable of determining hydration levels within 3% of TBW using artificially prepared aqueous humor. The robust measurement modality of OCHYMO has resulted in accuracies consistent with the gold standard in measuring hydration status, namely, invasive plasma osmolality measurements. Furthermore, OCHYMO measurements are independent of physical posture, skin temperature/moisture. Following the successful demonstration of feasibility of the OCHYMO technology, in Phase II, CL plans to develop a more robust prototype that will enable rapid instrument positioning and data acquisition. Also in Phase II, CL will perform detailed human clinical studies through a subcontract with Syracuse University.