Rapid and easily identifiable blood typing on microfluidic cotton thread-based analytical devices

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Hematology

Background:

• Traditional blood typing methods can be time-consuming and require specialized equipment.
• Accurate and rapid blood group determination is crucial for transfusions and medical diagnostics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel, rapid, cost-effective, and easily identifiable blood typing assay.
• To create a portable blood typing device suitable for resource-limited environments.

Main Methods:

• A swing-elution technique using microfluidic cotton thread-based analytical devices (μCTADs) was developed.
• Devices were swung in PBS solution to elute free red blood cells (RBCs), leaving agglutinated RBCs for analysis.
• A blood typing chip utilizing a PBS liquid bridge was designed for enhanced portability.

Main Results:

• The swing-elution method successfully classified ABO and RhD blood types in 56 samples.
• The method demonstrated enhanced identifiability of elution results compared to traditional wicking-elution methods.
• Elution time was optimized to be >50 seconds for easily identifiable results.

Conclusions:

• The novel swing-elution method provides a rapid, cost-effective, and user-friendly approach to blood typing.
• The developed μCTADs and blood typing chip offer improved convenience and portability.
• This technique holds significant potential for widespread application in resource-limited and developing regions.