Researchers design new microfluidic device to help detect thrombus

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.June 3, 2020

Researchers at the College of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A & M University are working on a whole new way to detect blood clots, especially in pediatric patients.

Unlike what biology textbooks suggest, blood vessels are not straight cylinders. They are winding. That is, it has complex curves, spirals, and bends. When blood reaches these curves, the interaction between hydrodynamics and the vessel wall changes. In healthy people, these changes are in harmony with the tortuous microenvironment, but when sick, these environments lead to very complex fluid states, activating proteins and cells, and ultimately thrombosis. Can cause.

Associate Professor Abhishek Jain said a major challenge in medicine is that the medical devices used to detect thrombi and assess the effects of anticoagulants are entirely chemistry-based.

They do not incorporate the flow through naturally tortuous blood vessels, a physical regulator of blood coagulation. Therefore, reads from these current static systems are not highly predictive and often result in false positives or false negatives. “

Dr. Abhishek Jain, Associate Professor at Texas A & M University

To tackle the problem from a new angle, researchers at Jain’s lab in Texas A & M designed a microdevice that mimics a tortuous blood vessel, creating a disease microenvironment where blood rapidly coagulates under flow. It was. They showed that this biomimetic blood coagulation device could be used to design and monitor drugs administered to patients suffering from coagulation disorders.

Jain said he could see several applications for the device, including a critical care unit and a military trauma unit.

“It can be used to detect coagulopathy and can be used in precision medicine to monitor prothrombotic or antithrombotic therapies and optimize therapeutic approaches,” Jain said.

After developing the device, the team brought it onsite for pilot research. The team, in collaboration with Texas Children’s Hospital and Dr. Teruya Jun, head of transfusion medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, is conducting a clinical trial to test the device in pediatric emergency care patients whose heart and lungs are not functioning properly. Cooperated with the doctor.

These patients needed an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) device that provided heart and respiratory support by exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.

A common complication of ECMO is blood coagulation. Therefore, patients are given anticoagulants to prevent clotting. However, ECMO machines are also known to “eat” coagulation proteins and platelets, which puts anticoagulated patients at additional risk of bleeding. Pediatric patients who have received ECMO anticoagulant therapy are especially prone to bleeding.

Current chemistry-based blood coagulation tests are expensive, time consuming, unreliable and may require skilled technicians. Jain’s team’s serpentine-based microfluidic system does not require expensive chemicals, is quick, results within 10-15 minutes, uses small blood samples, and is easy to operate.

“The margin of error for these patients is essentially zero,” Jain said. “So it’s imperative that not only coagulation tests work, but all tests work to provide clinicians with fast, reliable information about their patients so they can provide the best possible care.”

Having the opportunity to test the system in real patients, Jain can demonstrate that he can detect bleeding in anticoagulated patients with low platelet counts, allowing physicians to make better clinical decisions based on patient evidence. He said he could help him to do it. ..

This study was recently published in Nature’s Science report journal.

The next step for Jain and his team is ongoing clinical trials to compare approaches with standard methods and hopefully demonstrate key performance benefits.