Multimodal Portable Donor Organ Assessment Device.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to develop a portable, handheld multimodal sensing device for rapid, localized, and quantitative assessment of donor organ tissue. A human-sized swine lung was used as a representative model system to evaluate device feasibility and performance. METHODS: The device integrated ultrasound imaging, indentation-based stiffness measurement, bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy, and visible near-infrared optical sensing within a single system. Device validation was conducted using engineered tissue phantoms, rat lungs, and ex vivo swine lungs. RESULTS: The sensing modalities effectively differentiated variations among tissue phantoms. In rat lungs, the optical sensor detected temporal changes in reflected light following euthanasia (It = 0 = 1.00 ± 0.02; It = 90min = 0.41 ± 0.01). In swine lungs, the device distinguished healthy and injured tissue. Specifically, injured lung tissue exhibited increased mechanical stiffness (healthy: 0.35 ± 0.08 kPa vs. injured: 9.77 ± 1.21 kPa) and reduced bioimpedance (proximal lung: 671.3 ± 161.6 vs. 596.3 ± 121.9 Ω; distal lung: 696.3 ± 43.7 vs. 237.4 ± 58.1 Ω) with healthy tissue. Spatial mapping of bioimpedance further revealed regional heterogeneity associated with tissue injury. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate the feasibility of integrating multiple sensing modalities into a single portable platform for localized and quantitative tissue assessment. SIGNIFICANCE: This study establishes proof of concept for portable multimodal tissue assessment and provides a foundation for future evaluation in clinically relevant transplantation workflows, including ex vivo lung perfusion systems and donor organ assessment applications.