ULTRAFILTRATE SAMPLING DEVICE FOR CONTINUOUS MONITORING

A light, portable sampling device for ?he continuous collection and st orage of subcutaneous fluid is described. It consists of a hollow-fibr e probe for ultrafiltration, a long tube for sample storage and a vacu um tube as driving force. introduction of a restriction in the flow pa th allows a constant pulse-free flow as low as 100 nl min(-1). The con tents of the storage tube reflect the metabolic events that have happe ned during the 24 h collection period, The ultrafiltrate fluid collect ed from the subcutaneous tissue is free from large molecules and can b e continuously analysed. An application in combination with a bionsens or fbr the analysis of glucose is described, but the device also allow s monitoring of other subcutaneous constituents such as ions, metaboli tes, drugs and their metabolites.