School of Mechanical Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225127, China.
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering College, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
J Mater Chem B. 2023 Mar 1;11(9):1978-1986. doi: 10.1039/d2tb02338e.
Since procalcitonin (PCT) is a specific inflammation indicator of severe bacterial inflammation and fungal infection, it is of great significance to construct a sensitive and rapid microfluidic chip to detect PCT in clinical application. The design of micromixers using a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) device is the premise to realizing the adequate mixing of analytical samples and reagents and is an important measure to improve the accuracy and efficiency of determination. In this research study, we investigate the mixing characteristics of hyperbolic micromixers and explore the effects of different hyperbolic curvatures, different Reynolds numbers (Re) and different channel widths on the mixing performance of the micromixers. Then, an optimal micromixer was integrated into a microfluidic chip to fabricate a desirable hyperbolic microfluidic chip (DHMC) for the sensitive determination of inflammation marker PCT with a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 0.17 ng mL a chemiluminescence signal, which can be used as a promising real-time platform for early clinical diagnosis.
降钙素原（PCT）是严重细菌炎症和真菌感染的特异性炎症标志物，构建一种用于临床应用中检测 PCT 的灵敏、快速的微流控芯片具有重要意义。使用芯片实验室（LOC）设备设计微混合器是实现分析样品和试剂充分混合的前提，也是提高测定准确性和效率的重要手段。在这项研究中，我们研究了双曲型微混合器的混合特性，并探讨了不同双曲曲率、不同雷诺数（Re）和不同通道宽度对微混合器混合性能的影响。然后，将一个优化的微混合器集成到微流控芯片中，制造出一种理想的双曲微流控芯片（DHMC），用于灵敏地检测炎症标志物 PCT，其检测限（LOD）低至 0.17ng mL，具有化学发光信号，可作为早期临床诊断的有前途的实时平台。
