Clinical evaluation of micro-scale chip-based PCR system for rapid detection of hepatitis B virus

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is widely used to amplify a small amount of DNA in samples for genetic analysis. Rapid and accurate amplification is prerequisite for broad applications including molecular diagnostics of diseases, food safety, and biological warfare tests. We have developed a rapid real-time micro-scale chip-based PCR system, which consists of six individual thermal cycling modules capable of independent control of PCR protocols. The PCR volume is 1 microl and it takes less than 20 min to complete 40 thermal cycles. To test utility of a chip-based PCR system as a molecular diagnostic device, we have conducted the first large-scale clinical evaluation study. Three independent clinical evaluation studies (n = 563) for screening the hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, the most popular social epidemic disease in Asia, showed an excellent sensitivity, e.g. 94%, and specificity, e.g. 93%, demonstrating micro-scale chip-based PCR can be applied in molecular diagnostics.