Developinng Low-cost Blood Cross-matching Device

Farhan Muhib indicated 27.06.2019

When blood is to be transferred to a patient from the donor, a series of tests are performed to avoid the immune-mediated hemolytic reaction caused by incompatible blood. If the blood types (ABO & Rh) of the donor and the recipient don’t match, the recipient’s immune system encounters antigens from donor blood antibodies may form in response to these antigens, resulting in destruction of donor’s RBC. This may result into fever, respiratory failure, hypotension, lung infection and acute renal failure of the recipient. 


But during an emergency surgery or treatment to accident patients, blood may be needed to be transferred to the recipient’s body within a short time. So, the doctor may not get enough time to perform all the tests required before blood transfusion. Though matching blood type doesn’t take much time, cross-matching of blood requires approximately 45-60 minutes. Which is a long time in the operation theater. As a result, during emergencies it is not always possible to cross-match blood before transfusion. This may cause the aforementioned harmful reactions to the patient.


To avoid this kind of situation, a portable device can be developed that can take the blood samples of the donor & the recipient and perform the cross-matching as quick as possible. As this device will be quicker than traditional procedure, doctors will be able to perform this test before blood transfusion even in an emergency case. This will reduce the probability of transfusing the incompatible blood to the patient and will help the patient to avoid unwanted fatal reactions.


Clinical need
Support to surgery
Area
General surgery
Technology
Laboratory equipment
Keywords
Immune-mediated hemolytic reaction, Emergency blood cross-matching, Portable Device