Fully-automatic blood-typing chip exploiting bubbles for quick dilution and detection

Abstract

A compact, fully-automatic blood-typing test device is developed. The device conducts sequential processes of whole-blood dilution, homogenization, and reaction with reagents. The lab-on-a-chip device can detect the weakest reaction between red blood cells (RBCs) and reagents even without using optics such as a camera and detector. This high sensitivity is achieved by implementing 50- μ m-thick reaction chambers in which a clear contrast between the RBC agglutinations and non-reacted RBCs can be obtained. The dilution and the homogenization are enhanced by injecting bubbles into the microchannel so that the test result can be obtained 5 min after the test start. With an assumption that the device will be used by medical staffs, the device is designed to require minimum operation for the users, namely, loading whole blood, starting pumps, and looking inside the reaction chambers by their eyes to observe the test result. As the device is applicable to the cross-matching test by mixing RBCs with serum instead of the reagents, it is expected that the device provides not only the quick blood-typing but also a safer and quicker blood transfusion in emergency rooms.

Flipped Quick-Response Code Enables Reliable Blood Grouping

“…Accurate identification of weak agglutination represents one of the hardest missions in blood phenotyping, as it is terribly difficult to differentiate weak agglutination samples from normal samples with low HCT values under various diseases or medication conditions . Compared with several previously reported weak agglutination detection technologies, ,, the proposed FLIPPED assay shows obvious advantages in feasibility and portability.…”

“…Rapid and reliable blood grouping plays an essential role in various biomedical and forensic scenarios. − Although numerous approaches have been proposed to improve the analytical accuracy over the last century, the tube or gel card method still dominates blood grouping approaches in core laboratories, , mainly because of its well-recognized reliability and accuracy. Unfortunately, these classical blood grouping techniques have failed to meet the requirements of rapid, easy-to-use blood grouping in a field-deployable manner for outdoor screening and emergency rescue, which is largely due to the limitation of their intrinsic readout mechanisms, considered as being cumbersome and time-consuming and requiring complicated apparatus. , Alternatively, a slide assay was taken for granted as the only candidate for rapid testing in resource-scarce scenarios, posing a major risk in misclassification of the blood types owing to its inefficiency in recognizing weak agglutination. , …”

“…6,7 Alternatively, a slide assay was taken for granted as the only candidate for rapid testing in resource-scarce scenarios, posing a major risk in misclassification of the blood types owing to its inefficiency in recognizing weak agglutination. 8,9 Paper-based colorimetric assays, featuring rapidity and convenience, hold great promise for point-of-care (POC) blood typing with naked-eye readouts. 10−12 However, these approaches frequently encounter inevitable environmental interference and low precision during the process of readout.…”

Hemagglutination Detection with Paper–Plastic Hybrid Passive Microfluidic Chip

“…Not only the image observation as a quantitative result but also the naked-eye qualitative criteria requiring no prior experience could identify the blood agglutination on the chip. According to some studies, observing blood agglutination on a chip requires only quantitative results from skilled operators [23][24][25]. The naked-eye observation is an important interpretation because it is the first step to screening blood typing results.…”

Novel blood typing method by discrimination of hemagglutination and rouleaux using an erythrocyte aggregometer

“…Automated technologies such as microcolumn gel [5] and microplate [6] methods are becoming more prevalent in laboratories. In addition, many new measurement methods have been reported, including a waveguide-mode sensor [7], microfluidics [8,9], and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) [10]. However, many of the above methods use assays that detect agglutination, making it necessary to avoid incorrect detection of rouleaux (RBC aggregation) [11] caused by the interaction of RBCs with plasma proteins such as fibrinogen and immunoglobulins [12].…”