Wearable Sensors Show Promise for Noninvasive Monitoring of IBD Inflammatory Markers

A recent study published in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases supports the use of wearable sensor technology to measure inflammatory biomarkers in perspiration as a noninvasive method for tracking disease activity in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The findings suggest strong correlation between sweat-based readings and conventional serum and stool biomarkers, indicating potential for real-time disease monitoring.

The study enrolled 33 participants with IBD and used a proprietary wearable device to collect data over a 40- to 130-minute period. The sensor measured calprotectin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Biomarker levels were also collected in serum on the same day, and fecal calprotectin was analyzed for a subset of participants.

Calprotectin levels in perspiration were significantly higher in patients with active disease compared to those in remission (P < .05), with a median value of 906.69 ng/mL in the active group. Elevated calprotectin was similarly observed in serum (median = 1860.82 ng/mL) and stool (median = 126.74 µg/g), confirming its utility as a cross-medium marker of disease activity.

“Expression of calprotectin was significantly elevated in the active cohort compared with the remission cohort in perspiration, serum, and stool,” the authors noted, emphasizing consistency across testing methods.

CRP levels showed no significant difference between active and remission states in either perspiration or serum, while IL-6 was significantly elevated in serum but not in perspiration.

Importantly, the correlation between perspiration and serum levels of biomarkers was strong. The relationship between sweat and serum calprotectin levels demonstrated an R² of 0.72, while CRP and IL-6 correlations showed R² values of 0.615 and 0.5411, respectively.

“We demonstrate the clinical utility of perspiration as a noninvasive medium for continuous measurement of inflammatory markers in IBD,” the study concluded. “Measures correlate with serum and stool markers across a range of disease activity.”

These findings suggest wearable sweat-based sensors may become a viable option for longitudinal monitoring of patients with IBD, potentially reducing reliance on more invasive testing methods.

Reference
Shahub S, Kumar RM, Lin KC, et al. Continuous monitoring of crp, il-6, and calprotectin in inflammatory bowel disease using a perspiration-based wearable device. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2025;31(3):647-654. doi:10.1093/ibd/izae054