PMID- 35105914 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20220302 LR - 20230711 IS - 2045-2322 (Electronic) IS - 2045-2322 (Linking) VI - 12 IP - 1 DP - 2022 Feb 1 TI - Potential of cell tracking velocimetry as an economical and portable hematology analyzer. PG - 1692 LID - 10.1038/s41598-022-05654-5 [doi] LID - 1692 AB - Anemia and iron deficiency continue to be the most prevalent nutritional disorders in the world, affecting billions of people in both developed and developing countries. The initial diagnosis of anemia is typically based on several markers, including red blood cell (RBC) count, hematocrit and total hemoglobin. Using modern hematology analyzers, erythrocyte parameters such as mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), etc. are also being used. However, most of these commercially available analyzers pose several disadvantages: they are expensive instruments that require significant bench space and are heavy enough to limit their use to a specific lab and lead to a delay in results, making them less practical as a point-of-care instrument that can be used for swift clinical evaluation. Thus, there is a need for a portable and economical hematology analyzer that can be used at the point of need. In this work, we evaluated the performance of a system referred to as the cell tracking velocimetry (CTV) to measure several hematological parameters from fresh human blood obtained from healthy donors and from sickle cell disease subjects. Our system, based on the paramagnetic behavior that deoxyhemoglobin or methemoglobin containing RBCs experience when suspended in water after applying a magnetic field, uses a combination of magnets and microfluidics and has the ability to track the movement of thousands of red cells in a short period of time. This allows us to measure not only traditional RBC indices but also novel parameters that are only available for analyzers that assess erythrocytes on a cell by cell basis. As such, we report, for the first time, the use of our CTV as a hematology analyzer that is able to measure MCV, MCH, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), red cell distribution width (RDW), the percentage of hypochromic cells (which is an indicator of insufficient marrow iron supply that reflects recent iron reduction), and the correlation coefficients between these metrics. Our initial results indicate that most of the parameters measured with CTV are within the normal range for healthy adults. Only the parameters related to the red cell volume (primarily MCV and RDW) were outside the normal range. We observed significant discrepancies between the MCV measured by our technology (and also by an automated cell counter) and the manual method that calculates MCV through the hematocrit obtained by packed cell volume, which are attributed to the artifacts of plasma trapping and cell shrinkage. While there may be limitations for measuring MCV, this device offers a novel point of care instrument to provide rapid RBC parameters such as iron stores that are otherwise not rapidly available to the clinician. Thus, our CTV is a promising technology with the potential to be employed as an accurate, economical, portable and fast hematology analyzer after applying instrument-specific reference ranges or correction factors. CI - (c) 2022. The Author(s). FAU - Gomez-Pastora, Jenifer AU - Gomez-Pastora J AD - William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. jennifer.gomez611@gmail.com. FAU - Weigand, Mitchell AU - Weigand M AD - William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. FAU - Kim, James AU - Kim J AD - William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. FAU - Palmer, Andre F AU - Palmer AF AD - William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. FAU - Yazer, Mark AU - Yazer M AD - Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, 3636 Blvd of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA. FAU - Desai, Payal C AU - Desai PC AD - Division of Hematology, Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University, Lincoln Tower - 1100-D, 1800 Cannon Drive, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. FAU - Zborowski, Maciej AU - Zborowski M AD - Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44195, USA. FAU - Chalmers, Jeffrey J AU - Chalmers JJ AD - William G. Lowrie Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, 151 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. LA - eng GR - R01 HL131720/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States GR - R21 CA250118/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States GR - 1R01HL131720-01A1/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States PT - Evaluation Study PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural PT - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. DEP - 20220201 PL - England TA - Sci Rep JT - Scientific reports JID - 101563288 RN - 0 (Hemoglobins) SB - IM MH - Adult MH - Anemia, Sickle Cell/*blood MH - Case-Control Studies MH - Cell Tracking/*instrumentation MH - Data Accuracy MH - Erythrocyte Count MH - *Erythrocyte Indices MH - Erythrocytes MH - Female MH - Flow Cytometry/*instrumentation MH - Hematocrit MH - Hemoglobins/analysis MH - Humans MH - Magnetic Fields MH - Male MH - Microfluidics/*instrumentation MH - Middle Aged MH - Reference Values MH - Young Adult PMC - PMC8807587 COIS- The authors declare no competing interests. EDAT- 2022/02/03 06:00 MHDA- 2022/03/03 06:00 PMCR- 2022/02/01 CRDT- 2022/02/02 05:33 PHST- 2021/05/14 00:00 [received] PHST- 2022/01/12 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2022/02/02 05:33 [entrez] PHST- 2022/02/03 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2022/03/03 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2022/02/01 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - 10.1038/s41598-022-05654-5 [pii] AID - 5654 [pii] AID - 10.1038/s41598-022-05654-5 [doi] PST - epublish SO - Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 1;12(1):1692. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-05654-5.