Blood draws for laboratory investigations are essential for patient management in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). When blood samples clot before analysis, they are rejected, which delays treatment decisions and necessitates repeated sampling.
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To accelerate differentiation between Staphylococcus aureus and Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CNS), this study aimed to compare six different DNA extraction methods from 2 commonly used blood culture materials, i.e. BACTEC and Bact/ALERT. Furthermore, we analyzed the effect of reduced blood culture times for detection of Staphylococci directly from blood culture material. A real-time PCR duplex assay was used to compare 6 different DNA isolation protocols on two different blood culture systems. Negative blood culture material was spiked with MRSA. Bacterial DNA was isolated with: automated extractor EasyMAG (3 protocols), automated extractor MagNA Pure LC (LC Microbiology Kit MGrade), a manual kit MolYsis Plus, and a combination between MolYsis Plus and the EasyMAG. The most optimal isolation method was used to evaluate reduced bacterial culture times. Bacterial DNA isolation with the MolYsis Plus kit in combination with the specific B protocol on the EasyMAG resulted in the most sensitive detection of S.aureus, with a detection limit of 10 CFU/ml, in Bact/ALERT material, whereas using BACTEC resulted in a detection limit of 100 CFU/ml. An initial S.aureus load of 1 CFU/ml blood can be detected after 5 hours of culture in Bact/ALERT3D by combining the sensitive isolation method and the tuf LightCycler assay.
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Young pediatric patients who undergo venipuncture or capillary blood sampling often experience high levels of pain and anxiety. This often results in distressed young patients and their parents, increased treatment times, and a higher workload for healthcare professionals. Social robots are a new and promising tool to mitigate children’s pain and anxiety. This study aims to purposefully design and test a social robot for mitigating stress and anxiety during blood draw of children. We first programmed a social robot based on the requirements expressed by experienced healthcare professionals during focus group sessions. Next, we designed a randomized controlled experiment in which the social robot was applied as a distraction method to measure its capacity to mitigate pain and anxiety in children during blood draw in a children’s hospital setting. Children who interacted with the robot showed significantly lower levels of anxiety before actual blood collection, compared to children who received regular medical treatment. Children in the middle classes of primary school (aged 6–9) seemed especially sensitive to the robot’s ability to mitigate pain and anxiety before blood draw. Children’s parents overall expressed strong positive attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of the social robot for mitigating pain and anxiety. The results of this study demonstrate that social robots can be considered a new and effective tool for lowering children’s anxiety prior to the distressing medical procedure of blood collection.
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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a severe inflammatory condition of the central nervous system (CNS) affecting about 2.5 million people globally. It is more common in females, usually diagnosed in their 30s and 40s, and can shorten life expectancy by 5 to 10 years. While MS is rarely fatal; its effects on a person's life can be profound, which signifies comprehensive management and support. Most studies regarding MS focus on how lymphocytes and other immune cells are involved in the disease. However, little attention has been given to red blood cells (erythrocytes), which might also be important in developing MS. Artificial intelligence (AI) has shown significant potential in medical imaging for analyzing blood cells, enabling accurate and efficient diagnosis of various conditions through automated image analysis. The project aims to implement an AI pipeline based on Deep Learning (DL) algorithms (e.g., Transfer Learning approach) to classify MS and Healthy Blood cells.
Over a million people in the Netherlands have type 2 diabetes (T2D), which is strongly related to overweight, and many more people are at-risk. A carbohydrate-rich diet and insufficient physical activity play a crucial role in these developments. It is essential to prevent T2D, because this condition is associated with a reduced quality of life, high healthcare costs and premature death due to cardiovascular diseases. The hormone insulin plays a major role in this. This hormone lowers the blood glucose concentration through uptake in body cells. If an excess of glucose is constantly offered, initially the body maintains blood glucose concentration within normal range by releasing higher concentrations of insulin into the blood, a condition that is described as “prediabetes”. In a process of several years, this compensating mechanism will eventually fail: the blood glucose concentration increases resulting in T2D. In the current healthcare practice, T2D is actually diagnosed by recognizing only elevated blood glucose concentrations, being insufficient for identification of people who have prediabetes and are at-risk to develop T2D. Although the increased insulin concentrations at normal glucose concentrations offer an opportunity for early identification/screening of people with prediabetes, there is a lack of effective and reliable methods/devices to adequately measure insulin concentrations. An integrated approach has been chosen for identification of people at-risk by using a prediabetes screening method based on insulin detection. Users and other stakeholders will be involved in the development and implementation process from the start of the project. A portable and easy-to-use demonstrator will be realised, based on rapid lateral flow tests (LFTs), which is able to measure insulin in clinically relevant samples (serum/blood) quickly and reliably. Furthermore, in collaboration with healthcare professionals, we will investigate how this screening method can be implemented in practice to contribute to a healthier lifestyle and prevent T2D.
Wetenschappelijk gezondheidsonderzoek is tot op heden met name uitgevoerd met mannen. Daarmee is de kennis rondom vrouwengezondheid achtergebleven. Er ligt een grote opgave om deze kennis te vergroten. Een van de uitdagingen is het versnellen van diagnose voor vrouwspecifieke aandoeningen. Een aandoening die aandacht vraagt voor versnelde diagnose is endometriose. Op dit moment wordt de diagnose endometriose gemiddeld pas na 8 jaar gesteld. Endometriose kan voor ondragelijke pijnklachten en onvruchtbaarheid zorgen wat grote impact heeft op het dagelijks functioneren en mentaal welzijn van vrouwen. Dit leidt ook tot verzuim. Het ontwikkelen van nieuwe diagnostische methodieken voor vrouwspecifieke aandoeningen is dus noodzakelijk om kwaliteit van leven en deelname aan de maatschappij te verbeteren. Er zijn aanwijzingen in de literatuur dat menstruatiebloed een bron van informatie kan zijn om de gezondheid van vrouwen te bepalen. Menstruatiebloed wordt momenteel vooral gezien als een afvalproduct. Hoewel dit mogelijk informatie bevat over de gezondheid van de baarmoeder, menstruatiegezondheid, hormonale gezondheid, of algehele gezondheid van vrouwen. Het is echter nog onvoldoende bekend wat de samenstelling van menstrueel bloed is. Dit onderzoek focust daarom op het onderzoeken van de samenstelling van menstruatiebloed. Deze kennis dient als verkenning voor vervolgonderzoek naar de mogelijkheid voor diagnose van gynaecologische aandoeningen via menstruatiebloed. Hiervoor is het eerst van belang om te achterhalen of er stabiele markers in menstruatiebloed aanwezig zijn die kunnen dienen als referentie voor diagnose. Daarom is de onderzoeksvraag van dit onderzoek: Welke stabiele factoren kunnen geïdentificeerd worden in menstruatiebloed, die als referentiemarker kunnen dienen voor diagnose? In dit onderzoek wordt hiervoor (1) een protocol ontwikkelt voor hygiënisch transport van menstruatiebloed van vrouw naar laboratorium én (2) geanalyseerd of er stabiele markers aanwezig zijn in menstruatiebloed. Beiden kunnen in vervolgonderzoek worden ingezet ter referentie aan aandoening-specifieke biomarkers.
