Smart microfluidic devices integrated in electrochemical point-of-care platforms for biomarker detection in biological fluids.

Abstract

The increasing demand for decentralized, accessible, and rapid analytical tools is driving a transformation in healthcare toward point-of-care (POC) analytical technologies. The final aim is to reduce the cost of healthcare management originating from frequent patient hospitalizations and expensive and time-consuming laboratory-based analyses. This review explores the integration of microfluidic technologies with electrochemical sensing platforms, aiming to address the urgent need for POC analytical platforms. Owing to the miniaturization of fluid management systems and exploiting fluid automation, microfluidic devices enable low sample consumption, cost-effective analysis, and multiplexed detection, offering promising tools for real-time health monitoring. Among the other materials, the most commonly used substrates for microfluidics fabrication are paper, PDMS, and adhesive tape, which support custom-designed microchannel architectures, passive fluid motion, and wearable integration. Special attention is given to wearable sensors for sweat analysis, with various approaches employing capillary-driven flows and smart microfluidic designs to enable continuous and autonomous monitoring of biomarkers. Highlighting relevant works from the last 5 years, the review explores the role of integrated microfluidic electrochemical sensing devices in delivering advanced decentralized analytical platforms, with significant potential for clinical use in biomarker detection.