Advances in Microfluidic Systems and Numerical Modeling in Biomedical Applications: A Review.

The evolution in the biomedical engineering field boosts innovative technologies, with microfluidic systems standing out as transformative tools in disease diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. Numerical simulation has emerged as a tool of increasing importance for better understanding and predicting fluid-flow behavior in microscale devices. This review explores fabrication techniques and common materials of microfluidic devices, focusing on soft lithography and additive manufacturing.

Polydimethylsiloxane Surface Modification of Microfluidic Devices for Blood Plasma Separation.

Over the last decade, researchers have developed a variety of new analytical and clinical diagnostic devices. These devices are predominantly based on microfluidic technologies, where biological samples can be processed and manipulated for the collection and detection of important biomolecules. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is the most commonly used material in the fabrication of these microfluidic devices.

How is Integration Defined and Measured, and what Factors Drive Success in Brazil? An Integrative Review.

Introduction: Integration in health and care can improve quality and outcomes, but it is challenged by expansion of medical knowledge, social pressures on patient needs, and demands to deliver critical information. In Latin American and in other lower and middle-income countries integrated care remains in development. This paper examined the available literature on integrated care to understand how Latin American countries identify and measure integration, and what factors influence success.

Geometry effect in multi-step crossflow microfluidic devices for red blood cells separation and deformability assessment.

The efficient separation of blood components using microfluidic systems can help to improve the detection and diagnosis of several diseases, such as malaria and diabetes. Therefore, a novel multi-step microfluidic device, based on passive crossflow filters was developed. Three different designs were proposed, fabricated and tested in order to evaluate the most suitable geometry to perform, simultaneously, blood cells separation and cell deformability measurements.

Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy to Analyse Human Blood over the Last 20 Years: A Review towards Lab-on-a-Chip Devices.

Since microorganisms are evolving rapidly, there is a growing need for a new, fast, and precise technique to analyse blood samples and distinguish healthy from pathological samples. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy can provide information related to the biochemical composition and how it changes when a pathological state arises. FTIR spectroscopy has undergone rapid development over the last decades with a promise of easier, faster, and more impartial diagnoses within the biomedical field.

Organ-on-a-Chip Platforms for Drug Screening and Delivery in Tumor Cells: A Systematic Review.

The development of cancer models that rectify the simplicity of monolayer or static cell cultures physiologic microenvironment and, at the same time, replicate the human system more accurately than animal models has been a challenge in biomedical research. Organ-on-a-chip (OoC) devices are a solution that has been explored over the last decade. The combination of microfluidics and cell culture allows the design of a dynamic microenvironment suitable for the evaluation of treatments' efficacy and effects, closer to the response observed in patients.

[Application of conceptual mapping in the regulation of access to public health services in the Federal District, Brazil].

Health regulation in the pursuit of equity is the goal of management and requires evaluation methods that improve work processes. The scope of this article is to analyze the application of conceptual mapping in the regulation of access to public health services. It is an exploratory and descriptive study, using a mixed approach, carried out at the Health Regulatory Complex of the Federal District.

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This reflective article presents a theoretical model of behavioural evaluation and intervention for women with urinary incontinence. Nola Pender's health promotion model (HPM) was used as a reference to develop this proposal. Behavioural measures were identified to build the model: constipation control, bladder training, urination position, reduction of irritating drinks, water intake, and pelvic floor muscle training.

Establishment of Colorectal Cancer Organoids in Microfluidic-Based System.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Significant advances in the molecular mechanisms underlying colorectal cancer have been made; however, the clinical approval of new drugs faces many challenges. Drug discovery is a lengthy process causing a rapid increase in global health care costs.

Manual and Automatic Image Analysis Segmentation Methods for Blood Flow Studies in Microchannels.

In blood flow studies, image analysis plays an extremely important role to examine raw data obtained by high-speed video microscopy systems. This work shows different ways to process the images which contain various blood phenomena happening in microfluidic devices and in microcirculation. For this purpose, the current methods used for tracking red blood cells (RBCs) flowing through a glass capillary and techniques to measure the cell-free layer thickness in different kinds of microchannels will be presented.

Visualization and Measurements of Blood Cells Flowing in Microfluidic Systems and Blood Rheology: A Personalized Medicine Perspective.

Hemorheological alterations in the majority of metabolic diseases are always connected with blood rheology disturbances, such as the increase of blood and plasma viscosity, cell aggregation enhancement, and reduction of the red blood cells (RBCs) deformability. Thus, the visualizations and measurements of blood cells deformability flowing in microfluidic devices (point-of-care devices) can provide vital information to diagnose early symptoms of blood diseases and consequently to be used as a fast clinical tool for early detection of biomarkers. For instance, RBCs rigidity has been correlated with myocardial infarction, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, among other blood diseases.

Interprofessional simulation effects for healthcare students: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To conduct a systematic review of studies describing the effects of interprofessional education (IPE) on collaborative competence using simulated-based training of undergraduate healthcare students.

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on PRISMA guidelines.

Data Sources: PubMed and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature databases were searched to identify articles in all languages published up to 2018.

An interprofessional international research collaboration: exploration of key opportunities and challenges.

Interprofessional research has made substantive progress in Brazil over the past decade, in line with globalization and the worldwide expansion of university international relationships. This sustained growth of interprofessional research in many other countries around the world has been increasingly reported in the literature. Interprofessional international research involves interactions and exchanges between researchers from different countries with different professional and disciplinary backgrounds who collaborate to undertake scholarly work.

A Microfluidic Deformability Assessment of Pathological Red Blood Cells Flowing in a Hyperbolic Converging Microchannel.

The loss of the red blood cells (RBCs) deformability is related with many human diseases, such as malaria, hereditary spherocytosis, sickle cell disease, or renal diseases. Hence, during the last years, a variety of technologies have been proposed to gain insights into the factors affecting the RBCs deformability and their possible direct association with several blood pathologies. In this work, we present a simple microfluidic tool that provides the assessment of motions and deformations of RBCs of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients, under a well-controlled microenvironment.

Blood Cells Separation and Sorting Techniques of Passive Microfluidic Devices: From Fabrication to Applications.

Since the first microfluidic device was developed more than three decades ago, microfluidics is seen as a technology that exhibits unique features to provide a significant change in the way that modern biology is performed. Blood and blood cells are recognized as important biomarkers of many diseases. Taken advantage of microfluidics assets, changes on blood cell physicochemical properties can be used for fast and accurate clinical diagnosis.

A Passive Microfluidic Device Based on Crossflow Filtration for Cell Separation Measurements: A Spectrophotometric Characterization.

Microfluidic devices have been widely used as a valuable research tool for diagnostic applications. Particularly, they have been related to the successful detection of different diseases and conditions by assessing the mechanical properties of red blood cells (RBCs). Detecting deformability changes in the cells and being able to separate those cells may be a key factor in assuring the success of detection of some blood diseases with diagnostic devices.

Microfluidic Deformability Study of an Innovative Blood Analogue Fluid Based on Giant Unilamellar Vesicles.

Blood analogues have long been a topic of interest in biofluid mechanics due to the safety and ethical issues involved in the collection and handling of blood samples. Although the current blood analogue fluids can adequately mimic the rheological properties of blood from a macroscopic point of view, at the microscopic level blood analogues need further development and improvement. In this work, an innovative blood analogue containing giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) was developed to mimic the flow behavior of red blood cells (RBCs).

Deformation of Red Blood Cells, Air Bubbles, and Droplets in Microfluidic Devices: Flow Visualizations and Measurements.

Techniques, such as micropipette aspiration and optical tweezers, are widely used to measure cell mechanical properties, but are generally labor-intensive and time-consuming, typically involving a difficult process of manipulation. In the past two decades, a large number of microfluidic devices have been developed due to the advantages they offer over other techniques, including transparency for direct optical access, lower cost, reduced space and labor, precise control, and easy manipulation of a small volume of blood samples. This review presents recent advances in the development of microfluidic devices to evaluate the mechanical response of individual red blood cells (RBCs) and microbubbles flowing in constriction microchannels.

Investigating the nature of interprofessional collaboration in primary care across the Western Health Region of Brasília, Brazil: A study protocol.

Primary care can provide a supportive context for the development of interprofessional collaborative practice owing to its nature and dynamics. In Brazil, a number of practice changes have already occurred to primary care, notably the implementation of the Family Health Strategy which promoted interprofessional collaboration (IPC). In Brasilia, a new arrangement was implemented in 2016 that focused on an expansion of primary healthcare.

particulate analogue fluids for experimental studies of rheological and hemorheological behavior of glucose-rich RBC suspensions.

Suspensions of healthy and pathological red blood cells (RBC) flowing in microfluidic devices are frequently used to perform blood experiments for a better understanding of human microcirculation hemodynamic phenomena. This work reports the development of particulate viscoelastic analogue fluids able to mimic the rheological and hemorheological behavior of pathological RBC suspensions flowing in microfluidic systems. The pathological RBCs were obtained by an incubation of healthy RBCs at a high concentration of glucose, representing the pathological stage of hyperglycaemia in diabetic complications, and analyses of their deformability and aggregation were carried out.

Risk factors for medication errors in the electronic and manual prescription.

Objective: to compare electronic and manual prescriptions of a public hospital of Brasilia, identifying risk factors for the occurrence of medication errors.

Method: descriptive-exploratory, comparative and retrospective study. Data collection occurred from July 2012 to January 2013, using an instrument for the review of the information contained in medical records related to the medication process.

Particulate Blood Analogues Reproducing the Erythrocytes Cell-Free Layer in a Microfluidic Device Containing a Hyperbolic Contraction.

The interest in the development of blood analogues has been increasing recently as a consequence of the increment in the number of experimental hemodynamic studies and the difficulties associated with the manipulation of real blood because of ethical, economical or hazardous issues. Although one-phase Newtonian and non-Newtonian blood analogues can be found in the literature, there are very few studies related to the use of particulate solutions in which the particles mimic the behaviour of the red blood cells (RBCs) or erythrocytes. One of the most relevant effects related with the behaviour of the erythrocytes is a cell free layer (CFL) formation, which consists in the migration of the RBCs towards the center of the vessel forming a cell depleted plasma region near the vessel walls, which is known to happen in microcirculatory environments.

Red blood cells radial dispersion in blood flowing through microchannels: The role of temperature.

The behavior of suspensions of individual blood cells, such as red blood cells (RBCs), flowing through microvessels and microfluidic systems depend strongly on the hematocrit (Hct), microvessel topology and cell properties. Although it is well known that blood rheological properties are temperature dependent, to the best of our knowledge no work has studied the role of the temperature on the RBCs dispersion. A powerful way to investigate this latter effect is through a high-speed video microscopy system, which provides detailed flow measurements of each individual RBC.

A simple microfluidic device for the deformability assessment of blood cells in a continuous flow.

Blood flow presents several interesting phenomena in microcirculation that can be used to develop microfluidic devices capable to promote blood cells separation and analysis in continuous flow. In the last decade there have been numerous microfluidic studies focused on the deformation of red blood cells (RBCs) flowing through geometries mimicking microvessels. In contrast, studies focusing on the deformation of white blood cells (WBCs) are scarce despite this phenomenon often happens in the microcirculation.