SPONSORED: POINT OF CARE
Delivering diagnostics
Gemma Church explains how optical filters from Delta Optical Thin Film help PoC diagnostic tests
A
s the world continues to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s more important than ever
to deliver the right medical diagnosis, at the right time. This is where point-of-care (PoC) instruments help, bringing diagnostic tests to the patient. Oliver Pust, vice president
of sales and marketing at Delta Optical Thin Film, explained: ‘The goal is to bring medical diagnostic and treatment methodologies from large central laboratories and operation theatres to local physicians, to patients’ beds or homes. ‘Today, blood or other body liquids are sampled in the doctor’s office and sent to a central laboratory. This causes a delay of several days that can make the difference between life and death, putting psychological stress on the patient. PoC also has the prospect to make advanced diagnostics available for patients in remote locations or developing countries.’ Delta Optical Thin Film is
working with a range of medical OEMs to help them design and develop the next-generation of PoC devices, using the company’s expertise as an OEM supplier of high-quality
30 Electro Optics March 2021 Point-of-care instruments can bring diagnostic tests directly to the patient
custom optical filter sets for fluorescence microscopy. Optical filters are a key component of any PoC device. They effectively control the spectral content of the incident and emitted light, to test everything from glucose and cholesterol levels, to completing enzyme and electrolyte analyses, and testing for substance abuse and infectious diseases. Delta Optical Thin Film
recently worked with medical device producer Qlife, helping the company rapidly adapt its existing Egoo PoC device to test for Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19. Ebbe Finding, chief
technology officer and co- founder of Qlife, said: ‘We already had plans to add a test for viruses to Egoo in the future,
but with the current situation, we went full steam ahead with developing it.’ Finding added: ‘With the
outbreak of Sars-CoV-2, we rapidly got underway with testing it for the Egoo platform. The first step was to enter into an agreement with Finnish company Aidian, to use their patented SIBA technology.’ The Strand Invasion Based Amplification (SIBA) test is slightly different from the RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) method of testing for Sars- CoV-2, which is widely used in hospitals and must be conducted in a certified laboratory with a testing time of roughly six hours. Instead, a saliva sample is taken from the throat and put
in a solution that releases the virus’ RNA. The solution is then transferred to a capsule, which is placed in the Egoo PoC device and, after 20 minutes, the result is available. During the test, a specific
part of the virus’ RNA strand is amplified and a fluorescent molecule attaches itself to each new strand. The fluorescent molecule emits light at a specific wavelength and, the more of this characteristic light, the greater the number of amplified strands in the sample. The sample is then illuminated with light from a standard LED. To ensure the accuracy of the test result, it is vital to separate the light from the fluorescent molecule and the light from the LED. In just ten days, Delta Optical Thin Film worked with medical
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