10-07-2016, 11:50 AM
A few things...
There are examples of small blood volumes being used accurately for quantitative results. Think about portable glucometers that measure blood glucose levels for diabetics and operate on a single drop of blood.
Secondly, there are plenty of tests in medicine that do not depend on accurate quantitative results. For example, while a laboratory pregnancy test measures HCG, the exact level of HCG doesn't matter in most cases since the level in pregnant women (10 or so days after ovulation) HCG levels are dramatically higher than non-pregnant women. That's why home pregnancy tests based on urine work; it doesn't even measure HCG quantitatively. In fact, lots of disease tests are handled that way.
There are definitely some things that you cannot or would not want to base on capillary blood drop. But you could run a fairly successful diagnostics company using capillary blood drops for a ton of laboratory tests.
BCÂ
There are examples of small blood volumes being used accurately for quantitative results. Think about portable glucometers that measure blood glucose levels for diabetics and operate on a single drop of blood.
Secondly, there are plenty of tests in medicine that do not depend on accurate quantitative results. For example, while a laboratory pregnancy test measures HCG, the exact level of HCG doesn't matter in most cases since the level in pregnant women (10 or so days after ovulation) HCG levels are dramatically higher than non-pregnant women. That's why home pregnancy tests based on urine work; it doesn't even measure HCG quantitatively. In fact, lots of disease tests are handled that way.
There are definitely some things that you cannot or would not want to base on capillary blood drop. But you could run a fairly successful diagnostics company using capillary blood drops for a ton of laboratory tests.
BCÂ