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

血红蛋白（Hb）主要分布在红细胞的细胞腔内。然而，外伤、手术和某些疾病状态（如镰状细胞、地中海贫血和疟疾）会导致红细胞破裂/溶血，将游离Hb释放到血液循环中。内源性保护是由Hb结合和去除蛋白接触珠蛋白（Ha）提供的，但这种储备很快就会被淹没。游离Hb最近被认为与肾衰竭、感染、败血症、急性呼吸窘迫综合征（ARDS）、高血压和肺动脉高压有关。因此，迫切需要开发一种敏感、快速、床边、免费的Hb定量方法，以帮助患者的诊断和临床管理。在本项目中，我们将探索两种可能的解决方案，一种基于电化学检测，另一种基于分光光度法。

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.