Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices for colorimetric detection of urinary tract infection biomarkers on adult diapers

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are common infection diseases in elderly patients. The conventional method of detecting UTI involves the collection of significant urine samples from the elderly patients. However, this is a very difficult and time-consuming procedure. This paper addresses the development of a microfluidic paper-based analytical device (µPAD) to detect UTI from urine collected from adult diapers. The design and fabrication for the µPAD is shown. The fabrication process involves melting solid wax on top of filter paper using a hot plate, followed by pattern transfer using a mold with rubbed wax. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method, the µPAD with deposited nitrite reagent had detected different concentrations of nitrite solutions from 0.5 ppm to 100 ppm spiked in urine samples. A calibration curve was obtained by plotting the gray scale intensity values against the various nitrite concentrations. The results showed that the proposed paper-based device holds great potential as low-cost, disposable solution to sensitively detect UTI markers in urine sampled from diapers.