Multiple enzyme-doped thread-based microfluidic system for blood urea nitrogen and glucose detection in human whole blood

This research presents a multiple enzyme-doped thread-based microfluidic system for blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and glucose detection in human whole blood. A novel enzyme-doped thread coated with a thin polyvinylchloride (PVC) membrane is produced for on-site electrochemical detection of urea and glucose in whole blood. Multiple enzymes can be directly applied to the thread without delicate pretreatment or a surface modification process prior to sealing the thread with PVC membrane. Results indicate that the developed device exhibits a good linear dynamic range for detecting urea and glucose in concentrations from 0.1 mM-10.0 mM (R-2 = 0.9850) and 0.1 mM-13.0 mM (R-2 = 0.9668), which is suitable for adoption in detecting the concentrations of blood urea nitrogen (BUN, 1.78-7.12 mM) and glucose (3.89-6.11 mM) in serum. The detection result also shows that the developed thread-based microfluidic system can successfully separate and detect the ions, BUN, and glucose in blood. The calculated concentrations of BUN and glucose ante cibum (glucose before meal) in the whole blood sample are 3.98 mM and 4.94 mM, respectively. The developed thread-based microfluidic system provides a simple yet high performance for clinical diagnostics. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.