Emergency room doctors often have only a few minutes to determine which patients are in need of a blood transfusion.
But currently doctors have no direct method to assess the health of one of the most critical component of the blood: platelets. These tiny blood cells play a huge role in helping blood clot after an injury.
Now researchers at the University of Washington have created a novel system that can measure platelet function within two minutes and can help doctors determine which trauma patients might need a blood transfusion upon being admitted to a hospital. The team published its results March 13 in Nature Communications.
“Our system requires a tiny amount of blood to look at how healthy platelets are in real time,” said co-corresponding author Nathan Sniadecki, an associate professor in the UW Department of Mechanical Engineering. “We found that platelet function is a far better measure of platelet health and whether a trauma patient will need a blood transfusion than current methods.”
