Issue 8, 2017

The effect of common anticoagulants in detection and quantification of malaria parasitemia in human red blood cells by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy

Abstract

Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) has the potential to become a new diagnostic tool for malaria and other diseases. For point-of-care testing, the use of ATR-FTIR in malaria diagnosis enables the analysis of blood in the aqueous state, which represents an enormous advantage by minimising the sample preparation by removing the need for cell fixation. Here we report the quantification of malaria parasitemia in human RBCs in their normal physiological aqueous state. A potential confounding variable for spectroscopic measurements performed on blood are the various anticoagulants that are required to prevent clotting. Accordingly, we tested the effects of 3 common anticoagulants; Sodium Citrate (SC), Potassium Ethylenediaminetetraacetic Acid (EDTA) and lithium heparin on plasma and whole blood in the aqueous and dry phase. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) revealed the model was heavily influenced by the anticoagulants in the case of dry samples, however, in aqueous whole blood samples, the effect was less pronounced as the water in the sample presumably diluted the amount of anticoagulant in contact with the ATR crystal. The possible influence of the anticoagulant effect on the ability to quantify parasitemia levels was tested using Partial Least Squares Regression Analysis (PLS-R). There was no influence of anticoagulants on quantification in the 0–1% range, however attempts to quantify at lower levels (0–0.1%) was best achieved with heparin compared to the other two anticoagulants. The results demonstrate ability to diagnose malaria using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy using wet RBC samples as well as underscoring the desirability to perform wet measurements as these minimise the possible confounding influence of anticoagulants used in blood collection.

Graphical abstract: The effect of common anticoagulants in detection and quantification of malaria parasitemia in human red blood cells by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 sen 2016
Accepted
28 noy 2016
First published
28 noy 2016

Analyst, 2017,142, 1192-1199

The effect of common anticoagulants in detection and quantification of malaria parasitemia in human red blood cells by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy

M. Martin, D. Perez-Guaita, D. W. Andrew, J. S. Richards, B. R. Wood and P. Heraud, Analyst, 2017, 142, 1192 DOI: 10.1039/C6AN02075E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements