6. Microfluidic Technology

Microfluidic chip technology integrates basic operational units such as sample preparation, reaction, analysis, and detection, harnessing techniques from the fields of chemistry and biology into a chip of several square centimeters, automatically completing the entire analysis process. POCT instruments based on microfluidic technology have allowed further miniaturization and refinement, allowing quick, accurate, and high-throughput detection. Microfluidic technology has been applied in blood gas, biochemical diagnosis, immune diagnosis, molecular diagnosis, and other fields. Microfluidic chips have controllable liquid flow, consume minimal samples, and reagents, and offer from ten up to one hundred times faster analyses. Microfluidic technology allows simultaneous analysis of hundreds of samples in a few minutes or less, and online sample pretreatment and whole-process analysis can be realized, such as in the POCT detection of urinary tract infections (UTIs). Each chip can be used for multiple detection of bacteria to accelerate the diagnosis of UTIs. The entire process of chemical cell lysis, solid phase DNA extraction, secondary washing, DNA elution, multiple loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), and real-time fluorescence detection can be completed in 100 min, and the concordance rate of bacterial detection can reach as much as 100%.

7. Infrared and Near-Infrared Spectrophotometry

Infrared and far infrared spectrophotometry are commonly used in the manufacture of percutaneous detection instruments. They are convenient, rapid, noninvasive, nonpolluting, and inexpensive. Thus, they show great potential for application in medical tests. Within POCT, these technologies are commonly used for noninvasive blood glucose detection. Using near-infrared spectroscopy for blood glucose detection can avoid cross-infection and blood sample pollution caused by blood draw, reduce the cost of each test, and shorten the reporting time. However, its stability, accuracy, and sensitivity still require improvement.

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