Integrated Point-of-Care Device for Anemia Detection and Hemoglobin Variant Identification

Abstract

Anemia affects more than 2 billion people worldwide, which is about 25% of the world’s population. Anemia has numerous causes ranging from nutritional deficiencies, drugs, chronic conditions that indirectly cause anemia as well as primary hematologic diseases. Among the various causes of anemia world-wide, hemoglobinopathies, including Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and Thalassemia, are the 3rd most prevalent after iron-deficiency anemia and hookworm disease. Anemia and SCD diagnosis/monitoring are challenging in low and middle income countries due to lack of laboratory infrastructure and skilled personnel as well as insufficient financial resources. We extended our previously established HemeChip system to add total hemoglobin quantification and anemia testing capability. HemeChip+ is mass-producible at low cost and offers the first and only single test point-of-care (POC) platform for portable, affordable, and accurate, hemoglobin quantification, anemia detection, and hemoglobin variant identification.