Microfluidic Platform for Point-of-Care Blood Typing
Abstract:
Blood typing plays an essential role in performing blood transfusions. In order to prevent severe side effects such as hemolytic transfusion reactions, it is necessary to type blood of the donor and the recipient prior to a transfusion. Recent blood typing methods are based on the optical detection of specific antigen-antibody reactions. However, the utilized manual and automatic blood typing systems do not satisfy high requirements in terms of flexibility, handling and costs. We have developed a microfluidic platform for mass sensitive analysis of whole blood that allows fast and reliable Point-of-Care blood typing of the AB0 system requiring small sample volumes. Potential application areas of the microfluidic platform include emergency medical aid, clinics and doctor's surgeries.
The following components are integrated in the platform: an insertable microfluidic chip of polydimethylsiloxane, a peristaltic micropump with piezoelectric actuators, a microfluidic mixer for whole blood and buffer solution based on centrifugal effects, and a biologically functionalised quartz crystal microbalance. The integration and handling of the quartz resonator was optimised so that it can be taken out, regenerated and reused. In future a portable device for whole blood analysis with disposable microfluidic chips is feasible.
Blood typing plays an essential role in performing blood transfusions. In order to prevent severe side effects such as hemolytic transfusion reactions, it is necessary to type blood of the donor and the recipient prior to a transfusion. Recent blood typing methods are based on the optical detection of specific antigen-antibody reactions. However, the utilized manual and automatic blood typing systems do not satisfy high requirements in terms of flexibility, handling and costs. We have developed a microfluidic platform for mass sensitive analysis of whole blood that allows fast and reliable Point-of-Care blood typing of the AB0 system requiring small sample volumes. Potential application areas of the microfluidic platform include emergency medical aid, clinics and doctor's surgeries.
The following components are integrated in the platform: an insertable microfluidic chip of polydimethylsiloxane, a peristaltic micropump with piezoelectric actuators, a microfluidic mixer for whole blood and buffer solution based on centrifugal effects, and a biologically functionalised quartz crystal microbalance. The integration and handling of the quartz resonator was optimised so that it can be taken out, regenerated and reused. In future a portable device for whole blood analysis with disposable microfluidic chips is feasible.
