Portable device diagnoses sepsis within 15 minutes

The device, being developed by Leicester-based engineering company Magna Parva with funding from Innovate UK, uses antibodies to detect biomarkers for sepsis within blood samples.

Sepsis is a common yet deadly condition in which an infection triggers an extreme immune response, resulting in widespread inflammation, blood clotting and swelling. If left untreated, it can lead to organ failure and death.

Around six million people worldwide are killed by the condition each year. In the UK alone, sepsis is thought to kill 37,000 people every year, more than three times the number killed by breast or prostate cancer. Between a third and a half of hospital deaths are attributed to the condition, which costs the UK and US around £20bn each year.

Despite this, there is currently no effective tool for diagnosing the disease.

The RAPPID diagnostic tool is designed to detect markers for the disease from a sample within 15 minutes. A sample preparation tool first removes the plasma from the cellular material within the blood. It then concentrates the remaining plasma by vacuum boiling, ready for it to be fed into the biosensor.