Hand-Held Zoom Micro-Imaging System Based on Microfluidic Chip for Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) of Vaginal Inflammation

Background: Vaginitis is a common and very private disease, and the current diagnosis is a frequent go to the hospital for testing. Objective: In order to improve the convenience and speed of detection, in this paper, we have developed a hand-held zoom micro-imaging system based on a microfluidic chip for point-of-care testing (POCT) of vaginal inflammation. Methods: This system consists of a microfluidic chip, an optical system and a hand-held zoom system assembled with a mobile phone. In terms of hardware, we designed a self-priming microfluidic chip, which can realize automatic sampling and full mixing of samples. We have also developed an optical system that can be adapted to smartphones, which has a lens group with a 37x magnification function and equipped with a zoom system with a focus range of 4mm to 6mm. In terms of software, we proposed an APP that can accurately identify cocci and can determine the inflammation level. Results: Compared with the recognition rate of the observers in the hospital, the detection accuracy of the portable recognition system is 95%, and after testing the clinical samples, the results were completely consistent with the hospital diagnosis results. The detection limit was 500 CFU / ml, which the relative error was (0.9 ± 0.3) %, and recognition time is 7 seconds. Conclusion: This system is definitely suitable for women’s point-of-care testing (POCT).