Tag: CBC testing

Can blood be tested more quickly, conveniently, and inexpensively, in order to save lives? It’s a question of what tools and methods are used to accurately detect blood anomalies and differentiate between all types of blood cells, in order to identify blood-based diseases. Blood tests are done for many reasons – for example, to help diagnose disease or, conversely, to rule out the possibility of a disease even when symptoms suggest its presence. Whether caring for an individual patient or responding to a worldwide epidemic, rapidly establishing the cause of disease is fundamental to quality care. Established Methods of Diagnosis: Microscopy, RDTs, and PCR Classic microscopy is considered to be the gold standard – the most effective approach to the diagnosis of infectious disease, particularly malaria. The history of microscopy goes back to the late 1660s, when Antony van Leeuwenhoek began to grind his own lenses and make simple microscopes. Modern microscopy started in 1931, when a pair of German scientists invented the electron microscope, which directs a beam of speeded-up electrons at a cell sample. As the electrons...