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An accurate and inexpensive color-based assay for detecting severe anemia in a limited-resource setting.

ABSTRACT: Severe anemia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among children in resource-poor settings, but laboratory diagnostics are often limited in these locations. To address this need, we developed a simple, inexpensive, and color-based point-of-care (POC) assay to detect severe anemia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of this novel POC assay to detect moderate and severe anemia in a limited-resource setting. The study was a cross-sectional study conducted on children with sickle cell anemia in Luanda, Angola. The hemoglobin concentrations obtained by the POC assay were compared to reference values measured by a calibrated automated hematology analyzer. A total of 86 samples were analyzed (mean hemoglobin concentration 6.6 g/dL). There was a strong correlation between the hemoglobin concentrations obtained by the POC assay and reference values obtained from an automated hematology analyzer (r=0.88, P<0.0001). The POC assay demonstrated excellent reproducibility (r=0.93, P<0.0001) and the reagents appeared to be durable in a tropical setting (r=0.93, P<0.0001). For the detection of severe anemia that may require blood transfusion (hemoglobin <5 g/dL), the POC assay had sensitivity of 88.9% and specificity of 98.7%. These data demonstrate that an inexpensive (<$0.25 USD) POC assay accurately estimates low hemoglobin concentrations and has the potential to become a transformational diagnostic tool for severe anemia in limited-resource settings.

SUBMITTER: McGann PT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5144537 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An accurate and inexpensive color-based assay for detecting severe anemia in a limited-resource setting.

McGann Patrick T PT Tyburski Erika A EA de Oliveira Vysolela V Santos Brigida B Ware Russell E RE Lam Wilbur A WA

American journal of hematology 20151012 12

Severe anemia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among children in resource-poor settings, but laboratory diagnostics are often limited in these locations. To address this need, we developed a simple, inexpensive, and color-based point-of-care (POC) assay to detect severe anemia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of this novel POC assay to detect moderate and severe anemia in a limited-resource setting. The study was a cross-sectional study conducted on childre ...[more]

PMID: 26317494

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Dataset Information

An accurate and inexpensive color-based assay for detecting severe anemia in a limited-resource setting.

Publications

An accurate and inexpensive color-based assay for detecting severe anemia in a limited-resource setting.

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