Point-of-care lithium monitoring in whole blood using a disposable, prefilled and ready-to-use capillary electrophoresis microchip

This paper describes a microfluidic capillary electrophoresis device with integrated conductivity detection. The device satisfies all major requirements for pointof- care testing, i.e., simple handling, low sample volume, fast measurements, clear readout, and inexpensive disposable cartridge usage. The system is currently being utilized and commercialized for monitoring lithium in whole blood, however, can potentially be applied to various other ions present in blood, urine or other bodily fluids. The chip contains a single inlet only and will be shipped prefilled with background electrolyte, sealed and blistered; ready for use at the patient’s place. A single droplet of blood is required to be placed inside the cartridge to perform the analysis typically within a couple of minutes.