Integrated Testing for Blood Disorders

Effective management of blood disorders – such as anemia and sickle cell disease (SCD) – depend on accurate and rapid diagnosis, but lack of affordable, accessible testing makes this difficult in developing countries. Existing diagnostic technology platforms can already detect SCD, but there’s always room for improvement.

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University recognized this opportunity and integrated an anemia test into the Gazelle platform. They then tested samples from 46 patients studied for anemia and SCD (1). The test yielded 100 percent sensitivity and over 92.3 percent specificity for anemia, and 100 percent accuracy for hemoglobin variants.

“The study from Case Western Reserve demonstrates that a software enhancement […] holds the potential to allow our current sickle cell disease test to also check for anemia, which could help clinicians and patients to optimize disease management through a single, low-cost test,” said Patti White (1), co-founder and CEO of Hemex Health.

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References

1. Hemex Health (2020). Available at: https://bit.ly/3mj6yrG.

About the Author(s)

Liv Gaskill

During my undergraduate degree in psychology and Master’s in neuroimaging for clinical and cognitive neuroscience, I realized the tasks my classmates found tedious – writing essays, editing, proofreading – were the ones that gave me the greatest satisfaction. I quickly gathered that rambling on about science in the bar wasn’t exactly riveting for my non-scientist friends, so my thoughts turned to a career in science writing. At Texere, I get to craft science into stories, interact with international experts, and engage with readers who love science just as much as I do.

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