Single-Imaging Parasite-Quantification Microfluidic Device for Detection and Analysis of Schistosoma Eggs in Urine

The accurate diagnosis of schistosomiasis for effective disease surveillance, treatment, and follow-up is crucial to attain the World Health Organization's 2030 goal to eliminate schistosomiasis as a public health problem. The current diagnostic tools for urinary schistosomiasis, including the gold standard urine filtration test, have been reported to show low sensitivity in detecting low-intensity infections, which, when missed, act as reservoirs for infections-an evident gap in endemic areas where preventive chemotherapy reduces infection intensities. This study assessed the laboratory-based performance of the newly developed urinary Single Imaging Parasite Quantification chip for Schistosoma haematobium egg detection across different infection intensities. Two designs of the urinary chips were evaluated using polystyrene particles as a model for Schistosoma haematobium eggs, where the prototype design effectively captured the particles in the field of view with 96.00% to 100% efficiency. The second-generation chip, while eliminating the need for the air-drying step that was necessary in the operation of the prototype chip, similarly showed high capture efficiencies (95.20% to 96.00%). Overall, the prototype chip slightly outperformed the second-generation chip, and this difference was statistically significant (unpaired t-test, p = 0.0319). Testing of the prototype chip with spiked goat urine maintained high efficiencies of 99.33% to 100%. Similarly, both chip designs could trap real Schistosoma haematobium eggs in their fields of view, demonstrating their potential as diagnostic platforms that can contribute to improved diagnostics, disease surveillance, and monitoring.