Hand-held plasma isolation device for point-of-care testing.

The ability to analyze a whole blood sample retrieved from a patient is a critical tool used for diagnosing many diseases and conditions. Real-time blood analyzers are already widely used in point-of-care diagnoses and treatment. Being able to analyze plasma that has been isolated from its whole blood source is another important diagnostic tool that has not yet been applied to point-of-care applications. Advancing plasma separation techniques to the extent that they can be integrated into a point-of-care device could expedite certain diagnostic decisions and treatments, increase the number and quality of diagnostic tests that can be administered point-of-care, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. The hand-held plasma isolation device (HHPID) utilizes a unique array of parallel fiber glass filters within a specialized housing to produce a plasma sample from a small quantity of whole blood. This can be done at a patient's bedside without a power supply. This would negate the need to send blood samples away to a laboratory to be centrifuged; a change that could save precious hours or minutes in critical care situations. Initial testing has suggested that the quality and composition of outputted plasma from the HHPID are comparable to plasma retrieved by centrifuging. The HHPID could serve as a companion device for current real-time blood analyzers, which can be enhanced to accept either a whole blood or a plasma sample depending on the blood parameter of interest.