Worm egg analysis: smear the sample on the smartphone display…
iPhone was taught to do a stool analysis for worms
The device proved its effectiveness during tests among schoolchildren living in one of the rural areas of Tanzania. The authors of the development are confident that their brainchild will be useful in poor, remote regions of the planet, where the problem of infecting the population with helminths is very relevant. The report on the work (Mobile Phone Microscopy for the Diagnosis of Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections: A Proof-of-Concept Study) is published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
The team led by Isaac Bogoch from Toronto General Hospital, Canada, used an eight-dollar glass lens, double-sided tape and a cheap battery-powered flashlight in their development. A slide with a fecal sample is wrapped in cellophane film, then it is glued to the smartphone camera with an adhesive tape, illuminated from below with a flashlight and photographed.
Instead of a flashlight, the authors also suggested using a small flashbulb that can run on a single battery for a long time. The total cost of the device, which can be assembled in five minutes, is estimated at $ 15, and as a base for it, in addition to the iPhone, any phone whose camera has a Zoom function can be used with no less efficiency, the authors note.
During field tests of the "telephone microscope" among schoolchildren of Pemba Island, Tanzania, Bogoch's team compared its effectiveness with a conventional microscope. It was found that although the sensitivity of the first of them is lower than that of the second, it is quite sufficient to detect cases of a high degree of infection, and also depends on the type of helminths.
Thus, the "telephone microscope" detects almost 70 percent of the eggs of intestinal parasites, regardless of the species, 81 percent of cases of infection with Ascaris lumbricoides, 54 percent with whipworms (Trichuris trichiura) and only 14 percent of cases of hookworm. According to the authors, due to the qualitatively lower presence of hookworm eggs in fecal samples compared to other parasites.
The authors of the development are confident that in the future they will be able to improve their invention and achieve 80 percent detection of infection cases, which will be quite enough for its wide clinical application. "I have no doubt that in the near future "telephone microscopes" will be widely used in underdeveloped countries. They are easy to make, they are cheap and do not take up much space, and besides, phones with cameras can now be found in the most remote regions of the planet," Bogoch said.
Recall that at the end of February, a cheap and affordable iPhone application was presented at the TED conference, which allows for rapid urine analysis for 25 different diseases.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru15.03.2013