Design of a Microfluidic Chip to Investigate the Potential Use of Antigen-Driven Voltage Potential Differentials Detected by Silicon Nanowires Capped With Gold Nanoparticles Further Coated With Antibody-Functionalized Dendrimers for Post-Diagnosis of Viral and Bacterial Symptomatic Epilepsy

Abstract

It is no surprise that the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is pushing waves across the medical field, amongst others. With the ability to process data in a more robust and efficient manner, mistakes, usually due to human error that are known to cripple the medical diagnostic industry can be somewhat alleviated. However, the cost of AI implementation will not mitigate that which is currently accrued by physicians, due to their expertise. As such, it is not unforeseeable that what is posited as the new age of technological advancement i.e. AI, for the betterment of patient care is nothing more than an addition to patient care cost alongside any potential benefits, to which plenty of patients are already overwhelmed by the status quo (as it pertains to cost). Mind you, this is taking into account only diagnostic modalities and not treatment options, which makes said cost to skyrocket evermore. In epilepsy diagnoses, the implementation of AI can be generally beneficial in processing EEG readings and images generated from fMRI, CT and PET Scans just to name a few (serving as a surface-level diagnostic mechanism); as well as accessing patient records and disease databases. Nevertheless, implementation of advanced imaging techniques can only be so useful, since they do not tell us the underlying cause of epilepsy should it be of pathogenic origin, as has been stipulated in multiple studies as potential causes of epileptic seizures. Therefore, designing an ultra sensitive microfluidic diagnostic chip, with the specific aim to address the question of whether a patient’s seizures are of pathogenic origin seems a better way to effectively confirm symptomatic epilepsy as well as paving the path for well-suited therapy aimed specifically at the identified entity that causes the onset of seizures which could eventually become recurrent. Since epilepsy is due to synchronous rapid firing (electrical conductance) via neurons, we effectively perform our diagnoses by capitalizing on the conductive properties of dendrimers, gold and silicon nanoparticles as our modus operandi.