New Test Promises Quick Anaemia Detection in the Field.

New Test Promises Quick Anaemia Detection in the Field. A new way to detect anaemia by measuring haemoglobin levels using small amounts of whole blood is believed to be a vast improvement over existing tests, which rely on haemolysis (rupturing) of blood samples in lab facilities. "The most exciting aspect to this analyser is that it uses whole blood (blood components intact) and doesn't require additional steps and reagents to prepare a sample," says Nathan Sniadecki, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle, and an author of the report on the novel approach published this month (October) in AIP Advances. Anaemia, a condition caused by low concentration of haemoglobin in red blood cells, results primarily from a lack of iron in the diet but can co-occur with other conditions, such as malaria or genetic disorders. The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers it as a global health problem affecting over a quarter of the global population, a vast number of which are women and children in resource-poor countries.