Medicinsk diagnose nærmer sig den yderste (utrolige) grænse – sammenlignes med Star Trek
JOHANNESBURG, 16 December 2011 (IRIN): In the 1960s science fiction TV series Star Trek, set in the 23rd century, a handheld medical “tricorder” scans a person’s internal body organs for any kind of infections, providing an instant diagnosis.
Fast forward to today and imagine a handheld device (apparat) powered by batteries that can take a drop of blood, urine or sputum (spyt) and tell a community health worker in a remote village whether a feverish child has malaria, dengue or a bacterial infection.
That is the kind of device, Peter Singer, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and executive officer of Canadian government-funded non-profit “Grand Challenges”, says his organization, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is aiming to help scientists develop.
The two organizations have invested around 32 million US dollar in the discovery and development of new and improved diagnostic tools to help health workers in developing countries, with the aim of speeding up treatment and saving lives.
– Diagnosis is the neglected cousin of prevention and treatment, said Singer, explaining his interest in diagnostic tools.
– More rapid diagnosis of malaria alone could prevent 100.000 deaths a year. We believe this and other life-saving opportunities are within our reach. We think we can have a device like the medical `tricorder’ in 6-7 years.
On the lookout
“Grand Challenges” is currently on the lookout for innovative diagnostic tools and processes covering the collection and preparation for analysis of biological samples, disease identification, technology to obtain and transmit data and receive results, and robust devices which work in the field where there is often no electricity or refrigeration.
Funding has been provided for the development of a handheld analyser which can detect not only whether a person has malaria but also the kind of parasite involved, and the proportion of red blood cells infected (indicating the severity of the infection).
Called a mini-PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), the device identifies malaria from its DNA fingerprint.
The World Health Organization says this technique is more accurate than microscopy in detecting malaria, and Chandrasekhar Nair, director of Bigtec Labs in India which developed the mini-PCR analyser, said it does all the processing that a specialized laboratory would do at a fraction of the cost.
The machine can be operated by a community health worker, he said.
A sample of blood is placed in a port on a microchip, which is inserted into the device. The microchip has a memory of the DNA of all the possible malaria pathogens (sygdomsfremkaldere). It compares the DNA fingerprint of the sample with those in its memory and displays the result on the screen.
If the diagnosis is “malaria”, the device indicates this on the screen along with a numerical ranking of its severity. Results can also be transmitted via a mobile phone attached to the device.
The entire process takes little more than an hour, said Nair, adding that tests showed the machine was as accurate as a commercial bench-top PCR system used in laboratories.
RDT
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Se også om fremtidens hiv-diagnostisering på
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=92886
