Dr. Mercola April 02 2000 1,137 views
A noninvasive hand-held device no bigger than a typical electronic oral thermometer may soon replace the common syringe as the means by which doctors and nurses conduct a complete blood count (CBC) -- and the method will provide almost immediate results.
Typically, a patient's blood is tested either as part of a general work-up or during illness, to determine the specific composition and characteristics of several types of blood cells. A CBC calculates the number of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in the patient's blood. In the US, billions of CBCs are performed each year, the researchers note.
Currently, the standard procedure for a CBC involves the insertion of a needle into an adult patient's arm or the pricking of an infant's heel in order to draw blood, which is then sent to a laboratory for analysis. The turn-around time from the doctor to the lab and then back to the doctor may take anywhere from several hours to several days.
Now, a professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School has pioneered the development and use of a new medical tool that uses a spectral imaging process called reflectance spectroscopy. This optical process results in a detailed computerized picture of a patient's blood without actually taking a physical sample.
The device is in the form of a small probe equivalent in size and weight to an electronic thermometer. Placed by a doctor or nurse under the patient's tongue, it relays a picture to an image-processing unit of the individual's blood as it flows in the capillaries lining the mucous membranes underneath the tongue.
The processing unit -- which is the size of a typical personal computer -- can display the captured picture on a monitor and even print an optical image for chart filing by the physician. CBC results are provided within approximately 60 seconds from the time the probe is inserted into the patient's mouth. The researchers hope to reduce the time, eventually, to less than 10 seconds. The device is currently in clinical trials, after which point it will be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval, ideally allowing for the device to be in doctors' hands by the end of the year.
Isn't technology grand. We are getting closer and closer to "Star Trek" medicine where we will have non-invasive probes that quickly and reliably tell us more and more about what is happening in the biochemistry and physiology of our body. Modern medicine is absolutely stupendous with diagnostic technology. Their major problem is the treatment paradigm, which focuses on medicine and surgery, and is an unmitigated disaster for nearly all chronic illnesses as it fails to address the true cause of the problem.