Currently, diagnostic testing for Lyme disease is done by determination of the serologic responses to Borrelia burgdorferi antigens, with the exception of the early localized phase of disease where diagnosis must be done clinically. Here, we describe the use of microfluidics technology to develop a multiplexed rapid lab-on-a-chip point of care (POC) assay for the serologic diagnosis of human Ly...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Most current tests for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlmydia trachomatis require the support of a laboratory, and results are not usually available before the patient has left the clinic. This delay can lead to patients not returning for treatment and may allow further STI transmission to occur. Current rapid point of care (POC) STI tests and the syndromic approach are less s...

BACKGROUND Besides the great importance of the issue in terms of public health, there is a lack of studies evaluating the performance of several of the currently used point of care tests (POCTs) for the detection of anti-HCV. OBJECTIVES To investigate the performance of two POCTs for anti-HCV detection and to assess the impact of the reading time on diagnostic performance. PATIENTS AND METH...

Counting the different subpopulations of cells in a fingerprick of human blood is important for a number of clinical point-of-care (PoC) applications. It is a challenge to demonstrate the integration of sample preparation and detection techniques in a single platform. In this paper we demonstrate a generic microfluidic platform that combines sample processing and characterisation and enumeratio...

Low-cost assays have broad applications ranging from human health diagnostics and food safety inspection to environmental analysis. Hence, low-cost assays are especially attractive for rural areas and developing countries, where financial resources are limited. Recently, paper-based microfluidic devices have emerged as a low-cost platform which greatly accelerates the point of care (POC) analys...

Point of care (POC) testing in the Emergency Department (ED) is becoming more common. The implementation and maintenance of POC testing in the ED, however, is a complex issue. We performed a systematic review of the English language literature published between 1985 and June 2001 with a focus on POC testing and ED application. Articles that addressed the following were included in the review: i...

The diagnosis of acute human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (AHI) plays a unique role in preventing the spread of HIV and ending the epidemic. Acutely infected individuals are thought to contribute substantially to forward transmissions of HIV; however, diagnosing AHI in resource-limited settings has proven to be a challenge. While fourth generation antigen-antibody combination assays h...

Objectives. Systematic review of point of care (POC) diagnostic tests for sexually transmitted infections: Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV). Methods. Literature search on PubMed for articles from January 2010 to August 2015, including original research in English on POC diagnostics for sexually transmitted CT, NG, and/or TV. Results. We iden...

BACKGROUND The impact of new diagnostics on pre-treatment loss to follow up (Pre-treatment LTFU) has not been widely investigated. The reported rate of pre-treatment LTFU is however lower in studies where Xpert MTB/Rif (Xpert) has been used onsite as opposed to centrally. The use of the Xpert at point of care (POC) could have a role in reducing the pre-treatment LTFU rate among TB patients. We ...

Current food production faces tremendous challenges from growing human population, maintaining clean resources and food qualities, and protecting climate and environment. Food sustainability is mostly a cooperative effort resulting in technology development supported by both governments and enterprises. Multiple attempts have been promoted in tackling challenges and enhancing drivers in food pr...