NEWS DESK
IIT, Bombay has developed a novel method using infra-red technology to detect which patients are more at risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19.
The head of the Proteomics Facility at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Professor Sanjeeva Srivastava, has confirmed that there is a correlation between a person’s blood chemical signature and becoming severely unwell with COVID-19.
According to an official statement, the pilot study conducted in collaboration with Mumbai’s Kasturba Hospital, Australia’s QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Agilent Technologies was found to be 85 percent accurate.
Head of Microbiology department from Kasturba Hospital, Dr. Jayanthi Shastri has said that this kind of blood-based test will be beneficial for the clinicians in determining severity of COVID-19 patients in India.
Stating that the pilot was conducted on 128 COVID-19 patients in Mumbai, Associate Professor Michelle Hill said that there were measurable differences in the infra-red spectra in the patients who became severely unwell; adding that diabetes was found to be a predictor in many patients. While a larger study is required to fine tune the method, the group hopes that this quick and cost effective test will help in triaging patients, especially at hospitals facing high volumes of COVID-19 patients.
The study was primarily funded by India’s Science and Engineering Research Board, the Government of India.