Microfluidics-based Low-Cost Medical Diagnostic Devices: Some Recent Developments

Abstract

Here we present a short review of recently developed low-cost microfluidic devices aimed towards medical diagnostic applications. This review specifically focuses on three inexpensive devices, namely lab-on-acompact-disc, paper-based, and thread-based devices. Here, we present a concise summary of all the recently developed protocols for simple bioassays to complex diagnostics. We also provide a new outlook on how the present practice of pathological diagnostics can be improved with the usage of such recent developments.

Microfluidics on Porous Substrates Mediated by Capillarity-Driven Transport

“…Such overwhelming complexities may be simplified to a large extent by harnessing capillarity-driven manipulations. 2 Such systems can be broadly categorized into the three sections: (i) closed system, (ii) semi-open system, and (iii) open system. Closed systems are those embodiments where the microconduits are fully enclosed.…”

Flow-through colorimetric assay for detection of nucleic acids in plasma

“…Microfluidics and chipbased devices have therefore been explored in order to overcome these limitations; however, sophisticated fabrication protocols and external instrumentation may be required [8,9]. On the contrary, paper-based assays are facile, cost-effective, easy to use, enabling diagnosis in resource-limited settings [10][11][12].…”

Hydroelectric power plant on a paper strip

“…Recent studies show that paper-based microfluidic devices may also be used for probing fundamental phenomena like micro-mixing 11 , electro-wetting 12 , digital microfluidics 13 etc. In most of the scenarios, paper-based devices have been utilized for qualitative/semi-quantitative purposes and have been preferred because of their frugality, disposability, and easy manufacturing 14 . In recent years, paper-based devices have also been found suitable for energy storage applications e.g.…”