Abstract:
The use of antibody-based diagnostic testing has increased significantly over the past decade. Most rapid point-of-care tests are based on manual assays using immunochromatographic strips (also known as "strip tests") which provide a qualitative positive or negative test outcome. Alternatively, quantitative diagnostic tests require the use of dedicated and expensive instruments making them ill-suited for small to mid-size clinical testing laboratories. An optical device was developed to read immunodiagnostic test results using commercially available components. This low cost portable instrument consists of a webcam, a white LED, two lasers and a long pass filter housed in an acrylic body. This device was used to read results from an array of antibodies conjugated with either an enzymatic or fluorescent tag resulting in a coloured or fluorescent readout. The presence of analyte was recorded as a change of red, green and blue (%RGB) colour, both as a time-course and end-point assay. A prototype of a low cost, portable analysis system has been developed