A spectrophotometry based blood typing device

Blood typing is a crucial step before any blood transfusion. However, sometimes in emergency situations there is no time to determine the blood of the patient beforehand. In this cases, O negative blood type is administered, which has a lesser incompatibility risk to the patient. Nowadays, the “gold standard” blood typing devices cannot be used in emergency situations due to their high response time (about 30 minutes). This paper reports a blood typing device that determines the ABO and Rh human phenotypes. This device is fast (response time – 5 min), low-cost, and portable. Characteristics that make it suitable to be used in emergency situations, contributing to a higher efficiency and quality in healthcare.

This work is funded by FEDER funds through the "Eixo I do Programa Operacional Fatores de Competitividade (POFC) QREN, project reference COMPETE: FCOMP-01- 0124-FEDER-020241, and by FCT- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, project reference PTDC/EBBEBI/120334/2010.