Rapid microfluidic immunoassay for surveillance and diagnosis of Cryptosporidium infection in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients.

Cryptosporidiosis has been reported to be associated with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which greatly reduces the quality of life and shortens the life expectancy of HIV-infected patients. In order to properly treat the infected patients, accurate and automatic diagnostic tools need to be developed. In this study, a novel microfluidic immunochip system was presented for the surveillance and the rapid detection of Cryptosporidium infection in 190 HIV-infected patients from Guangxi, China, using the P23 antigen of Cryptosporidium. The procedure of detection can be completed within 10 min with 2 μl sample consumption. The system also was evaluated using the standard ELISA method. Among 190 HIV-infected individuals, the rate of P23 positivity was 13.7%. Seropositivity in HIV-infected individuals was higher in female patients. The seropositivity to P23 was higher in HIV-infected individuals with high viral load, although the difference was statistically insignificant. Significantly higher Cryptospor...