Mini sensing chip for point-of-care acute myocardial infarction diagnosis utilizing micro-electro-mechanical system...

A rapid and accurate diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is crucial for saving lives. For this purpose, we have been developing a rapid, automatic, point-of-care, biosensing system for simultaneous four cardiac marker quantification. This system performs a fluorophore mediated immuno-sensing on optical fibers. To improve the sensitivity of the sensor, novel nanoparticle reagents enhancing fluorescence were implemented. Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology was applied in the sensing chip development and automatic sensing operation was implemented to ensure a reliable and user-friendly assay. The resulting system is a point-of-care, automatic four cardiac marker sensing system with a 2 x 2.5 cm sensing chip. An assay requires a 200 microL plasma sample and 15-minute assay time.