NOW GPS THEMSELVES... 
...CAN DO BLOOD ANALYSES

WORLD NEWS: A Danish invention is the core of a blood analyser which gives doctors instant test results to determine whether or not a patient needs antibiotics. It’s faster, easier and a lot cheaper.

In a matter of minutes, a small plastic cassette with one drop of blood can show a general practitioner if a patient is sick, and also whether it is a viral or bacterial infection. The doctor can then decide on the spot whether to start antibiotic treatment or take other measures.

The disposable cassette has been developed by the Danish innovation company Chempaq. The cassette is the active component of a compact blood analyser, which gives five sets of results in just three minutes: total number of leucocytes, number of lymphocytes, monocytes and granulocytes, as well as quantifying haemoglobin. The numbers enable the general practitioner to make an instant diagnosis, which in the vast majority of cases saves both the doctor and patient a slow and expensive detour via the laboratory.

Groundbreaking
“The device breaks new ground, although it builds on established measurement principles of breaking down the cell walls of erythrocytes and then counting leucocytes and quantifying haemoglobin,” says Jakob Møller Jensen, sales director of Chempaq. “The same thing is done in central laboratories, but using equipment which can cost up to 2 million kroner.”

Aperture
In reality it is a very small aperture – just a tiny hole – which is the core in the Danish invention. While the inventor, Ulrik Darling Larsen, was writing his doctoral thesis on the handling of micro liquids, he developed the technology of the small cassette where a blood sample passes through it. The principle is based on measuring changes in the tiny electrical impulses that blood cells emit. As the blood cells are sucked through a very small aperture in an electrically insulated membrane, the impulses are measured, which provide the cell differentiation that underlies the blood analysis. The aperture where the leucocytes are counted, has so far been made of costly sapphire. The handling of the analyses is also complicated. Ulrik Darling Larsen’s disposable cassette integrates all the previous procedures.

“There are 12 patents on the cassette and measuring device, which costs a fraction of what the equipment in central laboratories costs,” says Jakob Møller Jensen. “Because although the aperture is naturally important, it is the concept as such which is groundbreaking – the fact that you get the test results in a rapid and simple way that enable instant treatment decisions to be made.”

 http://www.chempaq.dk