VJ liberals only!!!!

[Peikko 1,575]

Salad Spinner Centrifuge: A Cheap, Ingenious Health Care Tool

We already know that we need to eat plenty of leafy greens to stay healthy, but who knew that a salad spinner itself could help save lives? As we learn from EurekAlert, Rice University undergraduates Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis were presented with an assignment in their Introduction to Bioengineering and World Health class. As Theis explains:

"We were essentially told we need to find a way to diagnose anemia without power, without it being very costly and with a portable device."

In a solution short on cost but long on ingenuity, the duo modified a basic, everyday salad spinner into an easy to use and transport centrifuge that successfully separates blood to allow diagnosis of anemia with no electricity. The device costs about $30, can process 30 individual 15 microliter blood samples at a time, and can separate blood into its component red cells and plasma in about 20 minutes.

"Sally Centrifuge," as the innovation has been dubbed by its creators, is undergoing a series of field tests this summer in places that will benefit from the availability of effective but low-tech solutions and adaptations. As part of Rice University's Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB), a global health initiative focused primarily on developing countries, Kerr and Theis are traveling along with their device to Ecuador, Swaziland and Malawi, where rural clinics will provide real-world testing of the surprising diagnostic tool.

In rural, under-served and impoverished parts of the world, a positive diagnosis for anemia is a critically important clue when looking for other health problems such as malnutrition, or serious chronic infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. Until now, blood samples taken in the field would have to be sent to a distant location complete with expensive laboratory centrifuges and electricity, while patients would be left waiting for the results — a lapse in time that can be deadly. Being able to diagnose the condition in real time with "Sally Centrifuge" would allow appropriate treatment to begin before before an illness progresses and a patient's condition deteriorates too drastically.

Maria Oden, engineering professor and co-adviser to the team, reflects on how successfully the two young women approached the assignment by providing something that may literally save lives as it is brought to bear on pressing health challenges in rural and economically under-developed regions of the world:

"The students really did an amazing job of taking very simple, low-cost materials and creating a device their research shows correlates nicely with hematocrit levels in the blood. Many of the patients seen in developing world clinics are anemic, and it's a severe health problem. Being able to diagnose it with no power, with a device that's extremely lightweight, is very valuable."

My link

I don't normally read yahoo news, but that caught my eye and I think it's brilliant.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Very cool.

[SMR 368]

Salad Spinner Centrifuge: A Cheap, Ingenious Health Care Tool

We already know that we need to eat plenty of leafy greens to stay healthy, but who knew that a salad spinner itself could help save lives? As we learn from EurekAlert, Rice University undergraduates Lila Kerr and Lauren Theis were presented with an assignment in their Introduction to Bioengineering and World Health class. As Theis explains:

"We were essentially told we need to find a way to diagnose anemia without power, without it being very costly and with a portable device."

In a solution short on cost but long on ingenuity, the duo modified a basic, everyday salad spinner into an easy to use and transport centrifuge that successfully separates blood to allow diagnosis of anemia with no electricity. The device costs about $30, can process 30 individual 15 microliter blood samples at a time, and can separate blood into its component red cells and plasma in about 20 minutes.

"Sally Centrifuge," as the innovation has been dubbed by its creators, is undergoing a series of field tests this summer in places that will benefit from the availability of effective but low-tech solutions and adaptations. As part of Rice University's Beyond Traditional Borders (BTB), a global health initiative focused primarily on developing countries, Kerr and Theis are traveling along with their device to Ecuador, Swaziland and Malawi, where rural clinics will provide real-world testing of the surprising diagnostic tool.

In rural, under-served and impoverished parts of the world, a positive diagnosis for anemia is a critically important clue when looking for other health problems such as malnutrition, or serious chronic infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. Until now, blood samples taken in the field would have to be sent to a distant location complete with expensive laboratory centrifuges and electricity, while patients would be left waiting for the results — a lapse in time that can be deadly. Being able to diagnose the condition in real time with "Sally Centrifuge" would allow appropriate treatment to begin before before an illness progresses and a patient's condition deteriorates too drastically.

Maria Oden, engineering professor and co-adviser to the team, reflects on how successfully the two young women approached the assignment by providing something that may literally save lives as it is brought to bear on pressing health challenges in rural and economically under-developed regions of the world:

"The students really did an amazing job of taking very simple, low-cost materials and creating a device their research shows correlates nicely with hematocrit levels in the blood. Many of the patients seen in developing world clinics are anemic, and it's a severe health problem. Being able to diagnose it with no power, with a device that's extremely lightweight, is very valuable."

My link

I don't normally read yahoo news, but that caught my eye and I think it's brilliant.

Every time I donate blood the nurse pricks my finger and puts a couple drops of my blood in a container full of some sort of gel/liquid. The nurse tells me that if your blood sinks you are fine and if it floats you are anemic. Is this not an official enough diagnosis or is that gel ridiculously expensive?

[Peikko 1,575]

Every time I donate blood the nurse pricks my finger and puts a couple drops of my blood in a container full of some sort of gel/liquid. The nurse tells me that if your blood sinks you are fine and if it floats you are anemic. Is this not an official enough diagnosis or is that gel ridiculously expensive?

Not knowing everything about everything it's hard to say, but if the 'liquid' requires refrigeration, that rules it out.

[Sgt. McGee 27]

Not knowing everything about everything it's hard to say, but if the 'liquid' requires refrigeration, that rules it out.

Pretty sure it's copper sulfate (it's a light blue-ish color, right?). It's basically a density test (to determine how much hemoglobin is present), but I'm not sure what would make that unsuitable for use in the circumstances outlined in the OP.

[Peikko 1,575]

I can imagine of no circumstance where field tests would be attempted if there was already a cheap/effective alternative available. Whatever the difference is between diagnostic testing of anemia via centrifuge as apposed to the a drop in solution test the two can not be interchangeable so the new solution remains both cool and potentially life saving and useful, or so it seems to me.

[SpiritAlight 1]

What a simple and awesome idea.

I used to work as a lab technician...and so shtuff like this still grabs my attention.

[Captain Oates 911]

I am going to stop doing blood tests.

I went for a cholesterol check last week and she said "Just a little #######"

I said " I have never been so insulated in all my life - forget it ! "