Development of a bedside diagnostic tool to determine low levels of free haemoglobin in whole blood

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Haemoglobin (Hb) is predominantly localised within the cellular compartment of red blood cells. However, traumatic injuries, surgery and some disease states (e.g. sickle cell, thalassemia and malaria) cause red cell rupture/haemolysis which releases free Hb into the circulation. Endogenous protection is afforded by the Hb binding and removal protein haptoglobin (Ha), but this reserve is rapidly overwhelmed. Free Hb has recently been implicated in kidney failures, infection, sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), hypertension and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Thus there is an emerging need to develop a sensitive and rapid, bedside, free Hb quantitation method to help inform diagnosis and clinical management of patients. In this project, we will explore two potential solutions to this challenge one based on electrochemical detection and the other spectrophotometry.