Acoustofluidic hematocrit determination

Hematocrit (HCT) measurements of blood from patients, blood donors and athletes are routinely performed on a daily basis. These measurements are often performed in centralized hospital labs by whole blood analyzers, which leads to long time-to-result. On site measurements, based on centrifugation can be done, but these assays require manual handling, are slow and can just measure HCT in contrast to the central lab whole blood analyzers. In this work, we present a microfluidic based method to measure HCT in blood samples by acoustic separation of whole blood into discrete regions of plasma and red blood cells. Comparison of the areas of the red blood cell and plasma regions gives an accurate HCT value, with a linear correlation to the centrifugation-based reference method. A readout can be performed within 2 s of acoustic actuation providing a readout accuracy of approximately 3% points (pp) HCT. Additional accuracy can be achieved by extending the acoustic actuation to 20 s, yielding an error of less than 1 pp HCT. This acoustic tool is optimal for integration into a lab-on-a-chip device with in-line measurements of different clinical parameters.