Low-cost dual-channel probe for accurate point-of-care serodiagnosis of acute pancreatitis.

Multi-channel probes are important tools for accurate serodiagnostics. Yet, their use generally relies on expensive integrated equipment, which hinders their wide use in point-of-care diagnostics. In this study, we report a low-cost dual-channel probe Cu-S-ALG for the accurate quantification of H2S in serum by using inexpensive incandescent lamp and mobile phone with near-infrared camera as signal excitation and collection devices respectively. With thiol addition, the Cu-S-ALG nanogel is stabler than the conversional Cu-based nanogels in the presence of H2S, which makes it a low-cost and reliable sensor. Meanwhile, this sensor requires less expensive instrumentation than traditional multi-channel sensors (< €500 vs > €4000). Further using serum H2S level as a biomarker, we constructed test strips and optimal thresholds, achieving accurate point-of-care serodiagnostics of acute pancreatitis with reliable precision rate of 95.83 %, which is significantly higher than the conversional single signal methods (77.50 - 83.00 %).