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Significant Sensitivity Improvement for Camera-Based Lateral Flow Immunoassay Readers
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Document Title
Significant Sensitivity Improvement for Camera-Based Lateral Flow Immunoassay Readers
Author
Saisin L, Amarit R, Somboonkaew A, Gajanandana O, Himananto O, Sutapun B
Name from Authors Collection
Scopus Author ID
23110409300
Affiliations
Suranaree University of Technology; National Science & Technology Development Agency - Thailand; National Electronics & Computer Technology Center (NECTEC); National Science & Technology Development Agency - Thailand; National Center Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (BIOTEC)
Type
Article
Source Title
SENSORS
Year
2018
Volume
18
Issue
11
Page
-
Open Access
Green Published, gold, Green Submitted
Publisher
MDPI
DOI
10.3390/s18114026
Format
Abstract
Recent developments in smartphone-based strip readers have further improved the performances of lateral flow test kits. Most smartphone cameras encode an unaltered and nonlinear power-law transfer function that maps the light intensity to a pixel value; this poses some limitations for camera-based strip readers. For faint-color test lines which are almost as white such as with nitrocellulose pads, the slope of the transfer function is low. Therefore, it is difficult to differentiate between the faint test lines and the white background. We show that by manually setting the camera exposure time-instead of using the automatic settings-to the high-slope region of the transfer function, the reader's sensitivity can be improved. We found that the sensitivity and the limit of detection of the Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli (Aac) test kit were enhanced up to 3-fold and 5-fold, respectively, when using the readers at the optimal camera settings, compared to the automatic mode settings. This simple technique can be readily applied to any existing camera-based colorimetric strip reader to significantly improve its performance.
Keyword
lateral flow immunoassays | LFA reader | smartphone reader | strip reader | test kits
Funding Sponsor
National Science and Technology Development Agency [P-14-50467]
License
CC BY
Rights
Authors
Publication Source
WOS