Chronic kidney disease (CKD) typically evolves over many years in a latent period without clinical signs, posing key challenges to detection at relatively early stages of the disease. Accurate and timely diagnosis of CKD enable effective management of the disease and may prevent further progression. However, long turn-around times of current testing methods combined with their relatively high cost due to the need for established laboratory infrastructure, specialized instrumentation and trained personnel are drawbacks for efficient assessment and monitoring of CKD, especially in underserved and resource-poor locations. Among the emerging clinical laboratory approaches, microfluidic technology has gained increasing attention over the last two decades due to the possibility of miniaturizing bioanalytical assays and instrumentation, thus potentially improving diagnostic performance. In this article, we review current developments related to the detection of CKD biomarkers using microfluidics. A general trend in this emerging area is the search for novel, sensitive biomarkers for early detection of CKD using technology that is improved by means of microfluidics. It is anticipated that these innovative approaches will be soon adopted and utilized in both clinical and point-of-care settings, leading to improvements in life quality of patients.

中文翻译：

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使用微流控技术检测慢性肾脏疾病中的肾脏生物标志物：进展，挑战和机遇。

慢性肾脏疾病（CKD）通常在潜伏期中发展多年，没有临床症状，这对在疾病的相对早期阶段进行检测提出了关键挑战。准确及时地诊断CKD可以有效控制疾病，并可能阻止进一步发展。然而，由于需要成熟的实验室基础设施，专门的仪器和受过训练的人员，当前测试方法的周转时间长且成本较高，这对于有效评估和监测CKD尤其是在服务不足和资源匮乏的地区来说是不利的。在最近的临床实验室方法中，由于可能将生物分析方法和仪器小型化，微流体技术在过去的二十年中越来越受到关注。因此有可能提高诊断性能。在本文中，我们回顾了与使用微流控技术检测CKD生物标志物有关的最新进展。在这个新兴领域的总趋势是，使用通过微流体技术改进的技术，寻求新颖，灵敏的生物标记物，以早期检测CKD。预计这些创新方法将很快在临床和现场护理环境中采用和利用，从而改善患者的生活质量。