Development of a microfluidic paper-based device for point-of-care measurement of serum Cystatin C in chronic kidney disease
| dc.contributor.author | Abolfathi, Amir Hossein | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Sokoro, AbdulRazaq A. H. (Pathology) | |
| dc.contributor.examiningcommittee | Liu, Song (Biosystems Engineering) | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Lin, Francis | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-06-09T15:03:12Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-06-09T15:03:12Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-06-03 | |
| dc.date.submitted | 2025-06-03T21:53:10Z | en_US |
| dc.degree.discipline | Biomedical Engineering | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Science (M.Sc.) | |
| dc.description.abstract | In clinical practice of chronic kidney disease (CKD), Cystatin C (CYS-C) is recommended as a superior serum biomarker for the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) compared to the traditional sole creatinine-based eGFR equation, owing to its minimal influence by non-filtration-specific factors such as muscle mass, age, and gender. However, the current CYS-C test is limited to specialized diagnostic labs and no point-of-care (POC) tools are clinically available. To address this gap, we leveraged the enabling power of microfluidic devices for POC tests of CYS-C. Among the various types of microfluidic devices, paper-based dry chips have been widely used for disease biomarker measurements with their respective advantages and limitations. Therefore, in this study, we developed a paper-based microfluidic lateral flow immunoassay chip with a unique channel design and a novel electric field-assisted antibody loading protocol for quantitative CYS-C tests. We demonstrated that paper chips meet the clinical requirements of the serum CYS-C detection range and limit. Importantly, this microfluidic chip is packaged into a special housing cartridge integrated with a custom-developed portable reader. The reader is wirelessly controlled by a smartphone app as a POC test prototype. In validation studies using serum samples from CKD patients across different disease stages, the proposed chip tests showed a similar agreement level with the traditional well plate-based immunoturbidity assay test results. As an integrated POC test system, the microfluidic CYS-C paper chip test showed high accuracy to determine the eGFR range based on several clinically relevant grouping criteria. Collectively, this integrated microfluidic assay offers practical solutions for decentralized POC diagnostic tests of CKD with competitive advantages over existing methods. | |
| dc.description.note | October 2025 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1993/39104 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.subject | Point-of-care Testing | |
| dc.subject | Microfluidics | |
| dc.subject | Lateral Flow Immunoassay | |
| dc.subject | Paper Microfluidics | |
| dc.subject | Chronic Kidney Disease | |
| dc.subject | Disease Diagnostics | |
| dc.title | Development of a microfluidic paper-based device for point-of-care measurement of serum Cystatin C in chronic kidney disease | |
| local.subject.manitoba | no | |
| project.funder.name | Sponsored Research Agreement with AssureCKD inc. |