A Miniaturized Microfluidic Dielectric Sensor for Point-of-Care Assessment of Blood Coagulation

• Published in: Blood 2016-12, Vol.128 (22), p.3754-3754
• Main Authors: Stavrou, Evi X., Suster, Michael A., Maji, Debnath, Kucukal, Erdem, Singh Sekhon, Ujjal Didar, Schmaier, Alvin H., Sen Gupta, Anirban, Gurkan, Umut A., Mohseni, Pedram
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
• DOI: 10.1182/blood.V128.22.3754.3754

Introduction: Early identification of coagulopathy has crucial clinical implications for the management of patients who are critically ill, severely injured or who are on anticoagulation therapy. Conventional laboratory-based coagulation tests are time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly. Currently available point-of-care (POC) devices are intended for use in specific patient populations (warfarin) or measurements are insensitive due to interference from the device surface. There is a growing need for a low-cost, easy-to-use, portable platform for POC assessment of the complete hemostatic process outside of the laboratory setting. Methods & Results: We have developed a novel dielectric microsensor, termed ClotChip, that is based on the fully electrical technique of dielectric spectroscopy (DS) and is sensitive to multiple coagulation factors and platelet activity, thereby allowing comprehensive blood coagulation assessment in a miniaturized, portable measurement platform (Fig 1A). ClotChip features a three-dimensional, parallel-plate, capacitive sensing structure integrated into a low-cost (material cost