New Device for Blood Donor Screening

A new device that uses a tiny laser beam for collection of capillary blood samples was introduced at the annual meeting of the American Association of Blood Banks in Baltimore (MD, USA) in October 2004. The procedure requires no physical penetration of the skin and eliminates the use of medical sharps for blood collection.

Called Lasette, the device was developed by Cell Robotics International, Inc. (Albuquerque, NM, USA). The device is designed to provide specific and significant advantages for blood donor screening that will result in a greater availability of donors. The second-largest blood collection agency in the United States, United Blood Services (UBS, Scottsdale, AZ, USA) studied application of the Lasette in blood donor screening for 13 months. The results showed that Lasette can provide more accurate anemia screening results, which are required from volunteer donors prior to donation.

Conventional steel lancets leave injured tissue in the skin. In contrast, Lasette removes injured tissue from the skin by laser ablation and produces cleaner, better blood samples over longer periods of time and without coagulation that can lead to errors in screening test results. In addition, fingers are not sore as they often are after the procedure. The absence of disposable needles eliminates the danger of patients or healthcare workers being stuck by a contaminated device.

"What [the Lasette] does is it provides a better sample for us to determine whether or not someone has enough blood cells to give a pint away,” explained Elizabeth Waltman, executive director of UBS' Albuquerque operations.



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