Novel Device Provides Rapid, Low-Cost Blood Clot Testing

According to recent research presented at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition, a newly developed handheld device can offer rapid and comprehensive assessment of blood clotting using less than a drop of blood.

The device, known as ClotChip, provides a point-of-care assessment of clotting factors and platelet activity with a miniscule blood sample volume in under 15 minutes. According to the presentation, the device needs less than 10µL of blood for an accurate reading. The device developed by researchers at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, uses a disposable microfluidic biochip with a material cost of less than $1 per test. 

“Our device gives you different information—and more information—than other devices out there,” Evi X Stavrou, MD, lead study author and the Oscar D Ratnoff professor in medicine and hematology of the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, said in a press release. “The sensitivity and discriminatory ability of the device, when compared to standard coagulation tests, is what excites me very much.”

Dr Stavrou and colleagues used blood samples from 11 healthy patients and 12 patients with blood clotting disorders in order to compare their device to conventional testing machines. They noted that conventional machines are “time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly,” and “are intended for use in specific patient populations (warfarin) or measurements are insensitive due to interference from the device surface.” 

Study results showed that ClotChip had a higher degree of sensitivity and a lower rate of false negative results, when compared to convention testing methods. The researchers stated that their device “is sensitive to multiple coagulation factors,” making it superior to conventional testing methods.

“The ClotChip will bring blood coagulation testing closer to the patient for time-sensitive applications such as diagnosis of the bleeding patient and in trauma-induced coagulopathy,” Dr Stavrou said during the presentation. 

According to the press release, the ClotChip could be a game-changing lifesaver in acute emergencies when physicians require information regarding a patient’s use of anticoagulant or antiplatelet medications. —David Costill