Microfluidic tool box as technology platform for hand-held diagnostics.

Background: Use of microfluidics in point-of-care testing (POCT) will require on-board fluidics, self-contained reagents, and multistep reactions, all at a low cost. Disposable microchips were studied as a potential POCT platform.

Methods: Micron-sized structures and capillaries were embedded in disposable plastics with mechanisms for fluidic control, metering, specimen application, separation, and mixing of nanoliter to microliter volumes.

Clinical utility of a rapid test for uristatin.

Objectives: Uristatin is a trypsin inhibitor present in urine that is increased in most patients with bacterial or viral infections and in many with inflammatory disorders. We included the assay of uristatin as part of a screening program carried out by pediatricians on 4207 Japanese schoolchildren to judge the ability of uristatin to identify those with an infection and (or) inflammation of any cause. We used urine dipsticks for the assay of uristatin, creatinine, albumin, blood, leukocyte esterase, and protein.