A study led by an Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) professor has developed a method of using infra-red technology to rapidly test which patients are more at risk of becoming severely unwell from Covid. The study published in the journal Analytical Chemistry has been a collaborative work of Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia and Agilent Technologies and led by the IIT Bombay Professor Sanjeeva Srivastava.
The test, the study said, which performed with 85 per cent accuracy in a small pilot study of Covid patients, could in the future be used to triage patients in areas with large outbreaks of Covid. This study was performed with clinical collaboration from Dr Jayanthi Shastri, Head of Microbiology department from Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai said this kind of blood-based test will be beneficial for the clinicians in determining severity of COVID-19 patients in India.
“From our FT-IR study as well as previously performed mass spectrometry-based proteomics study, we can say that there is a correlation between blood chemical signature and becoming severely unwell with COVID-19. However, we can't conclude that slight differences in these chemical groups cause patients to become more unwell. We can only conclude that there is an association,” Professor Srivastava said.
“This simple infra-red test only takes a few minutes. We hope it could be a quick and cost-effective way of triaging patients who present at hospitals, particularly where capacity is limited,” Associate Professor Michelle Hill, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute said, adding that patients with a high likelihood of severe COVID-19 complications could be admitted early in their illness, while other patients could potentially be sent home to monitor their symptoms.