Artificial nose helps to find blood infection bacteria

A group of American scientists announced that they have successfully created an "artificial nose" that can "smell" the odor of bacteria that cause blood infections.

This new invention is widely used to help save many lives and to significantly reduce medical costs.

Published at a conference of the American Chemical Society in the city of Indianapolis (USA), on September 8, "artificial nose" is made up of a palm-sized plastic tube inside which contains micro stimulation solution. bacteria develop. Outside the tube is attached to a range of chemical spots that change color when reacting with the smell emitted by bacteria.

James Carey, an expert at Kaohsiung National University of Taiwan (China), said the device is capable of identifying eight common pathogenic bacteria.

Photo: planet-science.com

According to the team, the characteristic of the "nose" is the ability to detect viruses that cause blood infections within 24 hours, up to two days faster than conventional testing methods.

Current testing technology requires blood sampling in containers within 24-48 hours to determine whether or not the existence of bacteria causing infection in the blood. It takes at least another 24 hours to determine the type of bacteria and the appropriate treatment.

With prolonged testing time, patients are at high risk of serious injury or even death from poisoning.

The new device was built on a prototype developed several years ago at the University of Illinois, but the first version was rated as less sensitive and took longer to analyze.

Scientists say they are also developing other "artificial nose" capable of detecting cancer from the patient's breath as well as some explosives.

Blood poisoning is a deadly serious disease. In the United States alone, the number of deaths from blood infections each year is about 250,000 with a treatment cost of more than $ 20 billion.

If successfully developed, this device can be widely used to accelerate treatment separation and reduce global medical costs.