What is it about?
This paper presents the first ever quantitative analysis of composition by Ion Beam Analysis of blood sampled in very small volumes (microliters - a thousands smaller volume than the 7 milliliters used in conventional blood diagnostics). The results presented show that a new method of blood sample preparation, HemaDrop™, can congeal blood droplets of 4-8 microliters in uniform, thin solid films, that can be analyzed in vacuum, unlike liquid blood. Ion Beam Analysis, including Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) and Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE), is a powerful, accurate method to measure accurately electrolytes and other elements in blood.
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Why is it important?
Blood diagnostics is one of the most important tools in modern medicine. But the relatively large amount of blood needed for conventional analysis, 7 milliliters, makes it difficult to use on small size patients, like infants and premature babies, and on chronically ill patients. These fragile patients end up from suffering form anemia when frequent testing is required. In addition, blood analysis still takes days. A recent failure by Theranos to conduct blood analysis on small volumes of blood has motivated this study to create and develop an intermediate approach, a new technology called HemaDrop™, which uses microliters rather than the nanoliters Theranos claimed to collect. Microliters are a thousand times smaller than milliliters, and the use of such small droplets dramatically reduces the blood volume needed for blood diagnostics, from 7 milliliters vials to small droplets of a few microliters. More importantly, the new technology proposed to prepare small volume of blood for analysis, HemaDrop™, is rigorously studied via the scientific method, using Ion Beam Analysis, and is described in peer-reviewed publications and carefully patented, unlike the technologies that came under question at Theranos. Theranos never published nor patented any of its technologies, calling into question whether these were ever valid.
Perspectives
Blood diagnostics is one of the cornerstones of modern medicine. I have personally suffered hundreds, if not thousands of blood draws, damaging permanently the veins in my arms, hardening their walls, which eventually resulted in incredible pain and suffering, when undergoing blood draws, with ruptured veins, and excruciating difficulty in drawing a blood sample. Bringing to medical diagnostics a simpler, less intrusive and less painful method of sampling blood, which can actually be analyzed in less than 30 minutes, can revolutionize the treatment of acute infections and chronic illnesses. Being able to draw easily just a few droplets of blood from a severely ill patient at bedside instead of the ordeal of large blood draws is a very singificant step in patient's comfort and efficacy of medical treatment. In addition, being able to analyze the blood composition bed-side or within 30 minutes of drawing, whether at the doctor's office, hospital, in mass casualties, refugee camps, epidemic outbreak or war conditions, can increase the efficacy and speed of diagnostics and treatment dramatically . Testing hourly blood rapidly via a few drops can decrease the length of treatment, the dose of antimicrobials used, and the side-effects from exposure to last-resort drugs and antibiotics. It can help adjust the dose use precisely to each patient's metabolism and his/her unique drug response by checking directly the blood concentrations of microbes and antimicrobials. Even better, it can help reduce the overuse of massive dose of antimicrobials, and improve correct use, reducing thereby the rising crisis of increasingly drug-resistant pathogens.
Prof. Nicole Herbots
Arizona State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Electrolyte Detection by Ion Beam Analysis, in Continuous Glucose Sensors and in Microliters of Blood using a Homogeneous Thin Solid Film of Blood, HemaDrop™, MRS Advances, January 2016, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1557/adv.2016.469.
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