AI Driven Lab-on-Chip Cartridge for Automated Urinalysis

Area of Science:

• Clinical diagnostics
• Biomedical engineering
• Medical technology

Background:

• Urinalysis is a common clinical test, necessitating streamlined workflows and automated analysis.
• Conventional urinalysis requires centrifugation for sample enrichment, a time-consuming step.
• Automated analysis and simplified workflows are crucial for efficient clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel lab-on-chip cartridge for automated urinalysis.
• To create an AI-based system for analyzing urine elements from microscopic images.
• To enable efficient tele-reporting of urinalysis results.

Main Methods:

• Development of a Gravity Sedimentation Cartridge (GSC) for urine sample enrichment via capillary action and gravity sedimentation.
• Utilizing an AI100 device for capturing microscopic images of enriched urine samples.
• Employing an AI-based object detection model for automated image analysis and report generation.
• Establishing a cloud-based platform for expert review and tele-reporting.

Main Results:

• The GSC successfully enriches urine particles and cells within 5 minutes, circumventing centrifugation.
• The AI-based object detection model accurately analyzes microscopic images for urinalysis.
• Comparative analysis showed comparable results between the GSC approach and the gold standard method.
• The system facilitates evidence-based tele-reporting of urinalysis findings.

Conclusions:

• The developed Gravity Sedimentation Cartridge and AI-based autoanalyzer offer a viable solution for automated urinalysis.
• This approach significantly simplifies the workflow and enhances efficiency in clinical settings.
• The system is suitable for both point-of-care and large-scale automated urinalysis applications.