Portable Electrochemical System and Platform with Point-of-Care Determination of Urine Albumin-to-Creatinine Ratio to Evaluate Chronic Kidney Disease and Cardiorenal Syndrome

Shuenn-Yuh Lee; Ding-Siang Ciou; Hao-Yun Lee; Ju-Yi Chen; Yi-Chieh Wei; Meng-Dar Shieh

doi:10.3390/bios14100463

Portable Electrochemical System and Platform with Point-of-Care Determination of Urine Albumin-to-Creatinine Ratio to Evaluate Chronic Kidney Disease and Cardiorenal Syndrome

Biosensors (Basel). 2024 Sep 27;14(10):463. doi: 10.3390/bios14100463.

Authors

Shuenn-Yuh Lee¹, Ding-Siang Ciou¹, Hao-Yun Lee¹, Ju-Yi Chen², Yi-Chieh Wei³, Meng-Dar Shieh³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.
² Department of Internal Medicine, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.
³ Department of Industrial Design, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701401, Taiwan.

Abstract

The urine albumin (Alb)-to-creatinine (Crn) ratio (UACR) is a sensitive and early indicator of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cardiorenal syndrome. This study developed a portable and wireless electrochemical-sensing platform for the sensitive and accurate determination of UACR. The developed platform consists of a carbon nanotube (CNT)-2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)(ABTS)-based modified UACR sensor, a miniaturised potentiostat, a cup holder embedded with a magnetic stirrer and a smartphone app. The UACR sensing electrode is composed of two screen-printed carbon working electrodes, one screen-printed carbon counter electrode and a screen-printed AgCl reference electrode. The miniaturised potentiostat, which is controlled by the developed app, performs cyclic voltammetry and amperometry to detect Alb and Crn, respectively. Clinical trials of the proposed system by using spot urine samples from 30 diabetic patients indicate that it can accurately classify all three CKD risk statuses within 30 min. The high accuracy of our proposed sensing system exhibits satisfactory agreement with the commercial biochemical analyser TBA-25FR (Y = 0.999X, R² = 0.995). The proposed UACR sensing system offers a convenient, reliable and affordable solution for personal mobile health monitoring and point-of-care urinalysis.

Keywords: chronic kidney disease; electrochemical sensor; electrochemical system and platform; point-of-care testing; urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio.

MeSH terms

Albuminuria* / urine
Biosensing Techniques
Cardio-Renal Syndrome* / diagnosis
Cardio-Renal Syndrome* / urine
Creatinine* / urine
Electrochemical Techniques*
Humans
Nanotubes, Carbon
Point-of-Care Systems*
Renal Insufficiency, Chronic* / diagnosis
Renal Insufficiency, Chronic* / urine

Substances

Creatinine
Nanotubes, Carbon

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Taiwan, R.O.C., under grants MOST 110-2218-E-006-015, NSTC 112-2221-E-006-181 MY3, and NSTC 113-2640-E-006-006.