New Device Could Predict Blood Cell Behavior

For those with sickle cell disease, help may be on the way.  Painful attacks in patients with sickle cell are called vaso-occulsive crises where the blood cells get stuck and deprive the body of much needed oxygen.

“You don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen or how to reliably predict it is coming,” says Ming Dao, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, in an article obtained from Controlled Environments.

Dao and  his colleagues developed a tiny microfluidic device that can analyze the behavior of blood from sickle cell disease patients. This device can measure how long it takes blood cells to become dangerously stiff, making them more likely to get trapped in blood vessels. Future versions of this device could be used to predict and prevent vaso-occlusive crises and could help researchers test the efficacy of new drugs for sickle cell disease, which occurs in about 300,000 newborns per year, more than 75 percent of them in Africa. 

WeBleed will publish updates as more information becomes available.

Photo Credit – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

webleed.org – your source for bleeding news!