Cotton-based diagnostic devices.

A good diagnostic procedure avoids wasting medical resources, is easy to use, resists contamination, and provides accurate information quickly to allow for rapid follow-up therapies. We developed a novel diagnostic procedure using a "cotton-based diagnostic device" capable of real-time detection, i.e., in vitro diagnostics (IVD), which avoids reagent contamination problems common to existing biomedical devices and achieves the abovementioned goals of economy, efficiency, ease of use, and speed. Our research reinforces the advantages of an easy-to-use, highly accurate diagnostic device created from an inexpensive and readily available U.S. FDA-approved material (i.e., cotton as flow channel and chromatography paper as reaction zone) that adopts a standard calibration curve method in a buffer system (i.e., nitrite, BSA, urobilinogen and uric acid assays) to accurately obtain semi-quantitative information and limit the cross-contamination common to multiple-use tools. Our system, which specifically targets urinalysis diagnostics and employs a multiple biomarker approach, requires no electricity, no professional training, and is exceptionally portable for use in remote or home settings. This could be particularly useful in less industrialized areas.