Title : It’s in the blood: Examination of point-of-care blood testing systems for rapid analysis of biomarker profile in Atlantic salmon (salmo salar)
Abstract:
Objectives: To examine the performance of two readily available and affordable blood testing systems, Seamaty SMT-120VP and Mnchip Pointcare V2/V3, in analyzing blood-based biomarkers in Atlantic salmon and to determine the performance of whole blood versus plasma analysis.
Methods: The study evaluated the performance of two point-of-care testing (POCT) systems, Seamaty and Mnchip, by comparing them to the Vetscan V2 analyzer for common analytes. The study also included a repeatability assessment to determine the internal measurement variation. To compare the systems, plasma samples from 60 Atlantic salmon with an average weight of 3,500 g were analyzed simultaneously on all three POCT systems using different analytical rotors. In addition, internal measurement variation was assessed by conducting ten repeated measurements on the same plasma sample. Lastly, a whole blood and plasma comparison was conducted on 35 samples from Atlantic salmon smolt. Whole blood samples were run on Seamaty and Mnchip instruments, followed by centrifugation and rerun on plasma.
Results: After conducting a benchmarking test on the Seamaty SMT-120VP and Mnchip Pointcare V2/V3 against the Vetscan VS2, it was found that there were significant differences and low correlation levels for nearly all analytes across the different systems. However, the internal measurement variation was acceptable for most analytes, except for aspartate aminotransferase (Pointcare V2/3), alanine transaminase (Pointcare V2/3), blood urea nitrogen (Pointcare V2/3), and creatinine (both systems). Furthermore, the comparison of whole blood versus plasma analysis showed high concordance between whole blood and plasma for most analytes on both Seamaty SMT-120VP and Mnchip Pointcare systems. However, there were exceptions for sodium, total bilirubin, and tCO2.
Conclusion: The benchmark study has demonstrated that the three POCT systems are not interchangeable and that reference values must be established for each system before clinical assessments. The analysis of blood versus plasma has shown that whole blood can be used to determine analytes in Atlantic salmon on Seamaty SMT-120VP and Mnchip Pointcare. This study suggests that POCT systems like these could be utilized for rapid and comprehensive blood testing of Atlantic salmon.
Keywords: Point-of-care; Seamaty SMT-120VP, Mnchip V2/V3; Vetscan VS2; Atlantic salmon; whole blood; plasma.
