Smartphone based lateral flow immunoassay quantifications

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Point-of-Care Diagnostics

Background:

• Lateral Flow Immunoassay (LFI) offers simple, disposable qualitative analysis.
• Limitations in quantitative analysis of traditional LFI necessitate advanced reader systems.
• The need for portable, user-friendly, and rapid diagnostic tools is growing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review research on utilizing smartphones as readers for quantitative LFI systems.
• To explore the classification and performance enhancement of smartphone-based LFI systems.
• To highlight the application of these systems in diverse fields, including disease diagnosis and contamination detection.

Main Methods:

• Smartphones leverage high-performance cameras as sensors and powerful processors for signal conversion and analysis.
• Systems are categorized based on the label particles employed in the assay.
• Performance improvement strategies for different label particle types are examined.

Main Results:

• Smartphones provide a mobile, user-friendly interface for quantitative LFI, integrating data acquisition, analysis, and transmission.
• Successful applications demonstrated in food/environmental contamination, drug detection, and human/animal disease diagnostics.
• Recent investigations include smartphone-based LFI for COVID-19 diagnosis.

Conclusions:

• Smartphones are effective readers for quantitative LFI, enhancing accessibility and utility of diagnostic tests.
• The versatility of smartphones supports a wide range of on-site diagnostic applications.
• Continued development promises further improvements in the performance and scope of smartphone-based LFI systems.