Fully Automated Centrifugal Microfluidic Disc for Qualitative Evaluation of Rheumatoid Factor (RF) Utilizing Portable and Low-Cost Centrifugal Device

Rheumatoid factor is a biomarker for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, and latex agglutination is a qualitative method for Rheumatoid factor evaluation. In this study, in addition to manufacturing a portable and low-cost centrifugal device, a microfluidic disc was designed and manufactured to meter 400 µl of a whole blood sample. Next, it separates serum from whole blood and meters 40 µl of serum to mix it with coated latex buffer on the detection chamber surfaces. Finally, Qualitative examinations of the mixed samples were performed by checking the detection chambers, positive or negative in terms of agglutination. As a result, 100% agreement was observed between manual and microfluidic disc-based methods. Accordingly, centrifugal microfluidic discs showed excellent potential for integrating and automating several latex-based assays such as C-Reactive Protein (CRP), D-dimer, and blood type in a disc for utilization in a low resource setting, clinics, and as a point of care test (POC).