Hand-held plasma isolation device for point-of-care testing

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Clinical Diagnostics
• Point-of-Care Testing

Background:

• Whole blood analysis is crucial for disease diagnosis and treatment.
• Real-time blood analyzers are established for point-of-care (POC) applications.
• Plasma analysis offers distinct diagnostic advantages but lacks POC integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a portable device for point-of-care plasma isolation from whole blood.
• To enable rapid plasma sample preparation at the patient's bedside.
• To enhance the capabilities of existing POC diagnostic platforms.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a hand-held plasma isolation device (HHPID) with a unique parallel fiberglass filter array.
• Processed small quantities of whole blood without requiring external power or laboratory centrifugation.
• Compared the quality and composition of HHPID-derived plasma with traditionally centrifuged plasma.

Main Results:

• The HHPID successfully produced plasma samples from whole blood at the point-of-care.
• Plasma quality and composition were found to be comparable to samples obtained via centrifugation.
• The device operates without a power supply, suitable for bedside use.

Conclusions:

• The HHPID facilitates rapid, bedside plasma separation, potentially reducing diagnostic turnaround times.
• This technology can expand the scope of POC testing by enabling plasma analysis.
• The HHPID can complement existing real-time analyzers, offering flexibility in sample input (whole blood or plasma).