Rapid and Digital Detection of Inflammatory Biomarkers Enabled by a Novel Portable Nanoplasmonic Imager

New point-of-care diagnostic devices are urgently needed for rapid and accurate diagnosis, particularly in the management of life-threatening infections and sepsis, where immediate treatment is key. Sepsis is a critical condition caused by systemic response to infection, with chances of survival drastically decreasing every hour. A novel portable biosensor based on nanoparticle-enhanced digital plasmonic imaging is reported for rapid and sensitive detection of two sepsis-related inflammatory biomarkers, procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) directly from blood serum. The device achieves outstanding limit of detection of 21.3 pg mL^-1 for PCT and 36 pg mL^-1 for CRP, and dynamic range of at least three orders of magnitude. The portable device is deployed at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Spain and tested with a wide range of patient samples with sepsis, noninfectious systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and healthy subjects. The results are validated against ultimate clinical diagnosis and currently used immunoassays, and show that the device provides accurate and robust performance equivalent to gold-standard laboratory tests. Importantly, the plasmonic imager can enable identification of PCT levels typical of sepsis and SIRS patients in less than 15 min. The compact and low-cost device is a promising solution for assisting rapid and accurate on-site sepsis diagnosis.