A paper microfluidic cartridge for automated staining of malaria parasites with an optically transparent microscopy window - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2014 Jun 21;14(12):2040-6.

doi: 10.1039/c4lc00293h. Epub 2014 Apr 29.

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A paper microfluidic cartridge for automated staining of malaria parasites with an optically transparent microscopy window

Matthew P Horning et al. Lab Chip. 2014.

Abstract

A paper microfluidic cartridge for the automated staining of malaria parasites (Plasmodium) with acridine orange prior to microscopy is presented. The cartridge enables simultaneous, sub-minute generation of both thin and thick smears of acridine orange stained parasites. Parasites are stained in a cellulose matrix, after which the parasites are ejected via capillary forces into an optically transparent chamber. The unique slanted design of the chamber ensures that a high percentage of the stained blood will be of the required thickness for a thin smear, without resorting to spacers or other methods that can increase production cost or require tight quality controls. A hydrophobic snorkel facilitates the removal of air bubbles during filling. The cartridge contains both a thin smear region, where a single layer of cells is presented unobstructed, for ease of species identification, and a thick smear region, containing multiple cell layers, for enhanced limit of detection.

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