A device inspired by fidget spinner toys can diagnose a urinary tract infection (UTI) in less than an hour, without the need for a laboratory or electricity.
The device takes advantage of the centrifugal force generated by spinning to push the urine sample through a membrane lining its interior. Any bacteria in the urine will be separated from the liquid and stick to the surface of the membrane. Adding a dye that stains bacterial cells orange will then reveal their presence within 45 minutes.
鈥淚t is easy to operate,鈥� says Yoon-Kyoung Cho at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. One or two spins is usually enough to get a diagnosis, she says.
Advertisement
Cho and her team tested their device using urine samples from 39 people who had suspected UTIs. They found that it gave similar results to the standard laboratory-based test, which involves culturing bacteria and takes several days.
Because of the longer turn-around time for the standard test, patients are often treated with antibiotics before receiving a diagnosis, says Cho, which contributes to the rise of antibiotic resistance.
After confirming the diagnoses with their device, the researchers found that 54 per cent of the people with suspected UTIs had received antibiotics unnecessarily and 5 per cent didn鈥檛 receive antibiotics when they should have.
An advantage of the fidget spinner device is that patients can be diagnosed quickly and given an appropriate treatment if required, says Cho.
The device could also help determine which specific bacteria are present in a sample and how sensitive they are to different antibiotics. Using samples from another group of 30 people with UTIs, Cho and her colleagues found that a commercially available strip sensor could determine whether the bacteria collected by the device were E. coli,聽a common cause of UTIs.
After exposing the urine sample to various antibiotics for 20 minutes, the researchers were also able to use the fidget spinner device to determine which, if any, of the antibiotics were able to kill the bacteria in the sample.
The next step will be to extend this to allow identification of multiple bacterial species, says Cho, as well as to adapt the fidget spinner device for processing other samples, such as saliva, which could enable diagnosis of viral infections too.
Nature Biomedical Engineering
Sign up to our free Health Check newsletter for a monthly round-up of all the health and fitness news you need to know
