Client: Thomas Chi, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Urology, UCSF School of Medicine
Team: Ariel Wang, Hong Joo Kim, Prithvi Bomdica
Purpose:
Hematuria, the presence of red blood cells in urine, is a marker for a variety of pathological conditions such as urethritis, urinary tract infection, kidney stones, enlarged prostate, and cancers of the bladder, prostate, and kidney. Asymptomatic microscopic hematuria occurs in up to 21% of the population. In a study of over-50 men, 70% of subjects who presented with hematuria were also diagnosed with pathological conditions. While gross hematuria is apparent in a urine sample due to the red color, microscopic hematuria must be diagnosed using dipstick tests or urinalysis through microscopy. The dipstick point-of-care (POC) products are inaccurate and require follow-up testing. Due to the necessity to source urine samples to a laboratory for accurate urinalysis, the diagnostic process is very time consuming. This project seeks to develop an inexpensive, time-efficient POC system capable of isolating red blood cells from a urine sample in order to accurately diagnose microscopic hematuria.