A Microwave System for the Extraction and Measurement of Candida Cells in Blood

Rapid detection and identification of Candida cells in infected patient blood is needed for proper candidemia treatment. In this work, Candida spiked bovine blood was processed with two microfluidic devices — a mixer where blood cells are lysed and a separator where Candida cells are separated from the lysate. The extracted Candida cells were then injected into a broadband microwave sensing device to detect and differentiate two Candida species, Candida tropicalis and Candida krusei. The obtained scattering plot of microwave measurement signals of the Candida tropicalis and Candida krusei showed a clear separation between the two species. Thus, the system is successfully used to extract and measure Candida from bovine blood within 2 hours. The results show that microwave sensors are promising to extract, detect and differentiate Candida cells from infected blood.