You usually need more than a few drops of blood, saliva or urine to detect diseases. Here’s why

In 2000, the biotechnology company Theranos promised Revolutionize a blood test. The founder of Elizabeth Holmes claimed that Theranos technology could perform hundreds of tests with a drop of blood. If this is true, their diagnostics would be faster, cheaper and more accessible.

Theranos collected hundreds of millions of dollars from investors and was valued in In 2015, over USD 9 billion.

However, the technology never worked, which leads to One of the biggest scandals In the history of biotechnology. Theranos secretly used customary machines for starting many tests, and then claimed that the results came from its own (non -functional) device. Finally Holmes convicted of fraud and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Today a novel startup, HaemanthusHe claims that he has developed a similar technology. Co -founded by Billy Evans (partner of Holmes), a novel company says It can detect and diagnose diseases using tiny amounts of blood, urine and even saliva.

While the technology has developed since Theranos, it is critical to carefully consider these claims.

Clinicists and laboratory technicians can now detect many states with blood, and some with urine or saliva. These are critical tools in state-of-the-art medicine. However, the required volumes are usually much larger than a few drops or DAB.

What can detect blood?

Blood circulates through all organs, transporting cells, nutrients, hormones and waste products. Blood tests collect several milliliters of blood from the veins and send them to the laboratory for analysis.

Blood tests can check If a person has signs of infection or illness, monitoring organs or showing how a person reacts to treatment. Blood tests are widely used to monitor heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease or iron deficiencies or vitamins.

A significant part of medical decisions is Based on laboratory analysis blood tests. Making them more affordable and available would have great benefits.

What about urine?

Urine is produced by kidneys and contains filtered waste from blood. The color and composition of urine provides a shutter down all problems that the body can try to solve.

Urine analysis can detect Urinary tract infections, kidney disorders, diabetes and liver disease by measuring sugars, proteins and cells.

Because urine tests are non -invasive and basic to serve, they can be used for quick testing in some conditions.

However, factors such as how much you had to drink and what you ate may affect Urine composition, potentially affecting the test results.

Saliva can also be used for diagnoses

Saliva is a see-through, watery liquid produced by salivary glands in the mouth. It is mainly water (about 99%), but also contains Various substances such as hormones, antibodies, enzymes, DNA, RNA and metabolites.

Saliva tests are already used in clinical conditions to detect HIV antibodiesMonitor levels cortisol (stress marker) and diagnosing viral infections such as Covid.

The potential of saliva as another non -invasive diagnostic tool is developmentEspecially when scientists identify more disease markers that they can contain.

However, saliva production varies depending on people. The composition of saliva can affect what you Eat and drinkThe time of dayand even stress. These variations can limit how coherent and reliable may be diagnosis saliva.

But how many of them do you need?

Although diagnosing diseases with body fluids is not novel, Haemanthus and other startups differentiate by aiming (and claiming) that they only need tiny amounts for many tests: a drop of blood, a cotton pad of saliva or a few milliliters of urine. This would mean faster, cheaper, more convenient tests that cause less discomfort.

But there are physical limitations of tiny samples. Many diagnostic markers (called biomarkers) occur only in very low amounts in our body fluids.

When the amount of sample decreases, just like the quantities of biomarkers, creating harder to detect They reliably. This is especially true for biomarkers such as hormones, cancer markers or disease indicators at an early stage.

What can you detect with a few drops?

Of course, some conditions can be diagnosed using tiny samples, but only one condition is tested with each tiny sample, as opposed to the claims of companies such as Theranos.

For example, blood samples with the prosecutor’s fingers can monitor Blood glucose levels people with diabetes.

Petite urine samples can detect urinary tract infectionsBut not all types of infection at the same time.

Specific biomarkers of these conditions can be reliable in tiny amounts of fluid.

To diagnose more sophisticated conditions and even unknown conditions, many tests may be required, each of which requires different preparation of samples. This requires both volume and precision – two tests with tiny amounts of samples are fighting for delivery.

What happens next?

While the idea of ​​diagnosing diseases with tiny fluid samples is promising, especially in the case of remote or restricted resources, science suggests that we should be careful.

Most human diseases are complicated and we usually need comprehensive approaches to testing to diagnose them. Relying only on tiny fluid samples could lead for incorrect diagnosis, delayed treatment methods or unnecessary interventions.

Innovations in Bio -diarrhea technologyIN Machine learning algorithms AND Biomarker discovery Continue progress in the field. And one day, quick and reliable tests of tiny volume can be possible.

However, much more reviewed tests and adjustment approval will be necessary to ensure patient safety and diagnostic accuracy.

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Read more: Are you worried about the blood test? 5 tips to facilitate them (and still right)

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