A self-pressure-driven blood plasma-separation device for point-of-care diagnostics

Abstract

We aimed to develop a portable, simple-to-use, and self-pressure-driven blood plasma-separation device that can be combined with rapid diagnostic test kits. This simple, disposable, and electrical equipment-free apparatus has been designed to separate plasma from a few microliters of blood with only hand-powered operation. The refined plasma sample is then delivered to multiple lateral flow assay kits directly connected to the device for the detection of various serological markers. The required time for all steps was just 1 min. We validated the device through multifaceted experiments. The developed multifunctional device enables to perform all blood test steps of diagnostic medical examination at the point-of-care.

Keywords: Blood plasma-separation; Infectious disease; Lateral flow assay; Point-of-care diagnostics; Rapid diagnostic test kit; Serology.