A Diaper Pad for Diaper-Based Urine Collection and Colorimetric Screening of Urinary Biomarkers.

The high prevalence of urinary tract infection in aging adults is a challenging aspect of geriatric care. Incontinence and cognitive/functional impairment make collection of urine samples difficult and often require either catheterization for sample collection, which is a risk factor for infections, or more lenient criteria for initiating antibiotic treatment. We report the development of a diaper inlay with absorbent materials, superabsorbent polymer-based valve and chemical reaction pads for rapid screening of urinary tract infection of incontinent diaper-wearing elderly receivers of home care services. The developed diaper inlay was capable of collecting, isolating, analyzing samples and retaining results > 8 h. The diaper inlay can therefore be compatible with the diaper changing routines of nurses in home care services, without requiring much time or effort. A nurse can insert a diaper inlay in a diaper and the results can be recorded during a later diaper change. Although the research focuses on tools for home care services, the nursing home sector has similar problems and may benefit from technological development for rapid screening to avoid unnecessary catheterization and overuse of antibiotics.

Smartphone-Based Rapid Screening of Urinary Biomarkers.

An ambulatory pre-screening Point-of-Care (POC) device compatible with commercially available diapers has been developed to rapidly screen urine samples for incontinent or functionally impaired elderly. This POC device consists of a set of colorimetric reaction pads with accompanying reference colors. A smartphone with camera is a convenient tool for analysis of colorimetric assays; and a software application has been developed for smartphones to photograph the colorimetric assay and classify colorimetric reactions according to the reference colors. To facilitate detection of multiple biomarkers, e.g., 12 biomarkers with 2-7 references per biomarker, automatic localization of test/reference pads has been implemented through recognition of corner alignment marks and projective coordinate transformation for perspective removal. Each test run trains a set of classifiers from extracted reference data, which is used to classify the extracted test data. The smartphone application gives semi-quantitative results and functions independently of illumination intensity, illumination color, device type (smartphone brand/model), device settings (ISO, shutter speed, aperture) and automatic camera preprocessing. The smartphone application has been tested successfully on Samsung Galaxy S3, S6 Edge, S7 Edge, ZTE Nubia V7 mini and Iphone 6 in various illumination conditions.

A smart phone-based robust correction algorithm for the colorimetric detection of Urinary Tract Infection.

This paper presents the preliminary work of developing a smart phone based application for colorimetric detection of Urinary Tract Infection. The purpose is to make a smart phone function as a practical point-of-care device for nurses or medical personnel without access to strip readers. The main challenge is the constancy of camera color perception across different illuminations and devices, which is the first step towards a practical solution without additional equipment. A reported black and white reference correction and a comprehensive color image normalization have been utilized in this work. Comprehensive color image normalization appears to be quite effective at correcting the difference in perceived color due to different illumination, and is therefore a candidate for inclusion in the further work.

Aptamer-NASBA LOC as a prospective tool for systemic therapy of cancer: quantitative detection on signaling molecular profiling.

As the present technology of cancer treatment cannot cure the diseases, a prospective therapy, named 'systemic therapy', brings forth a new trend in cancer treatment. The aptamer-NASBA-based lab-on-a-chip (LOC) for systemic therapy was designed, fabricated and tested as an ultra-sensitive tool to monitor signaling molecular profiling in serum samples. The chip is divided into four parallel functional areas, corresponding to four groups of signaling molecules (i.e. hormones, neurotransmitters, cytokines and tumor biomarkers). The results can help doctors fully understand the body of patients. The chip is modeled on a 384-well microplate, which is completely compatible with common microplate readers in a biological laboratory. It can distinguish 24 signaling molecules in the same blood sample quantitatively and simultaneously. The chip was made of PDMS and silicon with a deposited gold layer, which was coated by aptamers before bonding; then, the LOC was operated by external valves and a vacuum pump. Its performance was demonstrated by detecting the presence of a synthetic peptide, GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone) in artificial samples. The results indicated that the LOC has the potential to quantify traces of biomarkers even at subfemtomolar levels. Compared with our previous immuno-NASBA LOC, the aptamer-NASBA LOC showed an increased sensitivity and better repeatability.