Image-based Tracking of Immunoassay Reaction Progress in Quantitative Lateral Flow Kits

Abstract

Point-of-care (POC) technology plays a vital role in the fields of medicine and diagnostics. POC diagnostic tests assist in the early and rapid detection of various medical conditions. Lateral Flow Immunoassays (LFIA) form the most widely used point of care testing devices. They are cost-effective and easily accessible diagnosis tools, facilitating for a quick reach in remotely located areas. The LFIA test cartridges involve paper-based diagnostics, used for detecting and quantifying a specific target analyte in test samples. The R&D of quantitative LFIA test cartridges involves tracing of multiple parameters like the stability time of the kit, fixing the location of test regions etc. In this paper, we present an image-based analysis tool which can be used for determining the reaction tracking and stability of quantitative LFIA cartridges. An image processing based algorithm is designed to track the reaction of samples under test during the incubation period of test cartridge. The initial algorithm evaluation was performed with Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1C) test cartridges. The trend of quantitative measurements with varying time is obtained and reported.