Impedance microcytometer for pre-analytical correction of biological age indicator

Abstract

This utility model relates to medical diagnostic equipment and in vitro laboratory diagnostics, including microfluidic impedance cytometers for rapid assessment of the white blood cell (WBC) count in whole blood. It can be used in automated systems for calculating biological age based on telomere indices (T / S) and / or associated biomarkers. The technical result is the elimination of biological age (BA) bias arising from interindividual differences in the white blood cell count (proportion of granulocytes and lymphocytes), without the use of a separate blood analyzer, thanks to integrated multi-frequency impedance classification of WBC and automatic transfer of the calculated proportions to the telomere computing circuit (TEL-BA / BA-Dock) for T / S → BA regression correction.The technical result is achieved in that the impedance microcytometer "WBC-Adjust" is made in the form of an embedded (inline) micromodule installed downstream of the qPCR cartridge, and contains a microfluidic channel with a hydrodynamic focusing system, an array of measuring electrodes connected to a multi-frequency impedance meter, an electronic unit for classifying cells according to a set of "size-multi-frequency dielectric profile" features, a communication interface (wired / wireless) for transmitting calculated WBC shares to the TEL-BA / BA-Dock, as well as a controller implementing self-testing protocols, temperature monitoring and synchronization with the main measuring cycle of the telomeric cartridge.