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Lateral Flow Testing
Rapid lateral flow test strips – also referred to as lateral flow assays (LFA) or lateral flow immunoassays – have been utilized for many years in the medical diagnostic arena, perhaps the most common application being rapid pregnancy tests that give a positive or negative result. Over the past two decades, many advances have been made that enable these tests to be developed and used in a variety of industries.
Original test strips were simply qualitative, producing a visible positive or negative line read by the naked eye indicating the presence or absence of a specific analyte. As antibody and antigen purification technologies improved, these tests were able to be upgraded to semi-quantitative and fully quantitative results. This advancement required a sharper user interpretation and hence created a need for an automated reading device.
In 2004, Detekt Biomedical launched the patented world’s first digital reader that could be used to analyze the semiquantitative test strips using software algorithms and a digital image of the test strips. In collaboration with partners, Detekt continued to advance the technology and began to offer quantitative interpretation that allowed users to track subtle differences in lateral flow line intensity and thus provide more relevant clinical information.
Detekt continues to offer a universal lateral flow reader that can be customized for handheld or desktop use in the laboratory on in the field. Real-time result reporting and recording is now a mainstay feature of this and many other platforms