Enhanced point of care detection of urinary tract infections via microfluidic enrichment and photothermal sensing (Conference Presentation)

Urinary tract infections (UTIs), typically caused by E.coli, pose detection challenges in point-of-care settings due to slow and insensitive traditional methods. This study improves UTI detection by integrating microfluidic sample processing for bacterial enrichment with photothermal sensing in lateral flow immunoassays (LFAs). Using polyethylene oxide (PEO) in various microchannel designs, we achieved rapid E.coli enrichment. Photothermal sensing showed enhanced sensitivity, correlating signals to E.coli concentrations, promising a rapid, sensitive, and affordable UTI detection method with broad healthcare and environmental applications.