TU / e and Catharina develop algorithm that excludes coronavirus faster | NOW

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU / e), in collaboration with the Catharina Hospital, has developed a laboratory algorithm that can be used to rule out more quickly that the corona virus is in the blood. TU / e reports this on its website. This algorithm is currently being used at Catharina Hospital.

It is an algorithm that can quickly recognize COVID-19 in the blood. With this, a patient who enters the Emergency Department (A&E) can quickly be ruled out whether he or she has the corona virus.

It is therefore an addition to the existing research method. Thanks to the algorithm, the hospital has to use fewer standard corona tests. This allows care to be used more efficiently.

At the height of the pandemic, researchers were asked if there was no way to rule out faster that someone had the virus.

“We then started looking at the information we already had. Patients who come to the emergency department have blood taken as standard for a so-called quick scan”, says Arjen-Kars Boer, clinical chemist at the Catharina hospital and who works as researcher at TU / e.

Subtle changes in blood characteristic of COVID-19

“Blood from patients is tested for as many as thirty different values. We wondered if there were some subtle changes in their blood that are characteristic of COVID-19. Weren’t we able to find some sort of instantly recognizable barcode? And yes, it shows. so to be able to “, says Boer.

The researchers developed the test instrument in about three months. Normally it takes much longer to complete such a project.

The next step is to see whether the algorithm can also be applied in other hospitals. That still takes some doing, because every hospital carries out different tests at the emergency department and uses different equipment. Nevertheless, the researchers expect that other hospitals will also apply the algorithm.

–