Point-of-care testing (POCT) allows physicians to detect and diagnose diseases at or near the patient site, faster than conventional lab-based testing. The importance of POCT is considerably amplified in the trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous point-of-care tests and diagnostic devices are available in the market including, but not limited to, glucose monitoring, pregnancy and infertility testing, infectious disease testing, cholesterol testing and cardiac markers. Integrating microfluidics in POCT allows fluid manipulation and detection in a singular device with minimal sample requirements. This review presents an overview of two technologies - (a.) Lateral Flow Assay (LFA) and (b.) Nucleic Acid Amplification - upon which a large chunk of microfluidic POCT diagnostics is based, some of their applications, and commercially available products. Apart from this, we also delve into other microfluidic-based diagnostics that currently dominate the in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) market, current testing landscape for COVID-19 and prospects of microfluidics in next generation diagnostics.

中文翻译：

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微流控即时测试：商业前景和未来方向

即时检测 (POCT) 允许医生在患者现场或附近检测和诊断疾病，比传统的实验室测试更快。在 COVID-19 大流行的艰难时期，POCT 的重要性大大增强。市场上有许多即时检测和诊断设备，包括但不限于血糖监测、妊娠和不孕不育检测、传染病检测、胆固醇检测和心脏标志物。将微流体技术集成到 POCT 中，可以在单个设备中以最少的样品需求进行流体操作和检测。本综述概述了两种技术 - (a.) 侧流分析 (LFA) 和 (b.) 核酸扩增 - 大部分微流体 POCT 诊断都基于这两种技术、它们的一些应用以及市售产品。除此之外，我们还深入研究了目前主导体外诊断 (IVD) 市场的其他基于微流控的诊断、当前 COVID-19 的测试情况以及微流控在下一代诊断中的前景。