Development of a new point-of-care testing system for measuring white blood cell and C-reactive protein levels in whole blood samples

摘要

Background: White blood cell (WBC) count and C-reactive protein (CRP) level are the most common markers of inflammation. There is a growing need for point-of-care testing (POCT) of WBC and CRP, and more advances in convenient devices are required. We developed an analyzer-free POCT system for measuring WBC and CRP using a low volume blood sample. Methods: The POCT-WBC is based on the granulocyte esterase assay, while the POCT-CRP is based on the immunochromatographic assay. These kits were examined for precision as well as correlation with currently used popular commercial automated assays. The correlations were clinically analyzed in children with acute infection (n = 62; mean age 4.2 y). The correlations regarding the monitoring of values were further examined in several follow-up subjects. Results: The POCT-WBC and POCT-CRP kits demonstrated good precision. POCT-WBC exhibited a significantly close correlation with those of the control assay (r = 0.94, p < 0.05). The results of POCT-CRP also exhibited a significantly close correlation with those of the control assay (r = 0.94, p < 0.05). In the follow-up study, the results of the respective kits were similar to those of the control assays. Conclusions: The POCT-WBC and POCT-CRP are promising tools for assessing infection in clinical practice.