4 ms·

Microfluidics device helps diagnose sepsis in minutes

69 points by chmaynard 7y ago

koverda 7y ago
That's huge. Sepsis kills so many people each year (something like 6m per year), and detected early it can be addressed. For US stats, it's like 200,000 people dead per year from sepsis, and $24B expenditure to treat it. Absolutely massive. https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/pages/factsheet_sepsis.aspx https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/pages/factsheet_sepsis.a...
oska 7y ago
Interesting to see (apparent) success on the type of promises that Theranos made.
davak 7y ago
IL6 is an inflammatory cytokine released due to a ton of stressors. Like fever, tachycardia, or tachypnea — this may be more a marker of sickness than sepsis. Hopefully not, but let’s see the trial first.
killjoywashere 7y ago
It should take substantially less than 25 minutes to diagnosis sepsis by SIRS criteria (1). A standard clinical lab has been able to run a CBC that fast for decades and tell you how many of which white cells are present, hemoglobin, etc. Not sure what Il-6 is getting me... (1) https://www.mdcalc.com/sirs-sepsis-septic-shock-criteria https://www.mdcalc.com/sirs-sepsis-septic-shock-criteria
- jcims 7y ago
  This looks like it would fit onto something the size of a glucose test strip and probably cost as much to manufacture. Could be useful for triage when infrastructure is compromised or unavailable.
  - killjoywashere 7y ago
    If you're diagnosing sepsis under conditions where you don't have a CBC analyzer, you're looking at something like Charity Hospital after Katrina or Fukushima after the tsunami, some remote place, or a space mission. I'm all for microfluidics, don't get me wrong. But we need a library of chips on hand to make sense of the range of things that could be happening to someone. Sepsis is ... a big deal. Physician anywhere outside a major hospital sees sepsis and their single, overriding thought is "get this person to a big hospital, ASAP"
jedberg 7y ago
Wow, could have used this last week... BTW, anyone have good papers on how long cognitive deficiencies after sepsis is supposed to last? Asking for a relative.
- mikeyouse 7y ago
  SAE is probably the best term to search for but it looks like recovery depends on the severity of the sepsis: Sepsis Associated Encephalopathy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590973/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590973/ > SAE should not be regarded as an acute reversible state and there may be long term cognitive as well as radiological deficits in survivors of SAE. The neurological outcome depends on the severity of sepsis: mild cases likely recover completely, while survivors of severe sepsis may have long term deficits. At present therapeutic choices are limited and are mainly based on symptom control.
  - jedberg 7y ago
    Thank you this was very helpful.

69 points by chmaynard 7y ago

That's huge. Sepsis kills so many people each year (something like 6m per year), and detected early it can be addressed. For US stats, it's like 200,000 people dead per year from sepsis, and $24B expenditure to treat it. Absolutely massive. https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/pages/factsheet_sepsis.aspx https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/pages/factsheet_sepsis.a...

oska 7y ago

Interesting to see (apparent) success on the type of promises that Theranos made.

davak 7y ago

IL6 is an inflammatory cytokine released due to a ton of stressors. Like fever, tachycardia, or tachypnea — this may be more a marker of sickness than sepsis. Hopefully not, but let’s see the trial first.

killjoywashere 7y ago

It should take substantially less than 25 minutes to diagnosis sepsis by SIRS criteria (1). A standard clinical lab has been able to run a CBC that fast for decades and tell you how many of which white cells are present, hemoglobin, etc. Not sure what Il-6 is getting me... (1) https://www.mdcalc.com/sirs-sepsis-septic-shock-criteria https://www.mdcalc.com/sirs-sepsis-septic-shock-criteria

jcims 7y ago
This looks like it would fit onto something the size of a glucose test strip and probably cost as much to manufacture. Could be useful for triage when infrastructure is compromised or unavailable.
- killjoywashere 7y ago
  If you're diagnosing sepsis under conditions where you don't have a CBC analyzer, you're looking at something like Charity Hospital after Katrina or Fukushima after the tsunami, some remote place, or a space mission. I'm all for microfluidics, don't get me wrong. But we need a library of chips on hand to make sense of the range of things that could be happening to someone. Sepsis is ... a big deal. Physician anywhere outside a major hospital sees sepsis and their single, overriding thought is "get this person to a big hospital, ASAP"

jedberg 7y ago

Wow, could have used this last week... BTW, anyone have good papers on how long cognitive deficiencies after sepsis is supposed to last? Asking for a relative.

mikeyouse 7y ago
SAE is probably the best term to search for but it looks like recovery depends on the severity of the sepsis: Sepsis Associated Encephalopathy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590973/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590973/ > SAE should not be regarded as an acute reversible state and there may be long term cognitive as well as radiological deficits in survivors of SAE. The neurological outcome depends on the severity of sepsis: mild cases likely recover completely, while survivors of severe sepsis may have long term deficits. At present therapeutic choices are limited and are mainly based on symptom control.
- jedberg 7y ago
  Thank you this was very helpful.