Microfluidic chip systems for color-based antimicrobial susceptibility test a review

Clinical bacteria pose a significant public health threat, underscoring the need for reliable and rapid diagnostic methods for early disease detection, which can facilitate patient recovery. Current diagnostic methods for rapid pathogen detection often take hours to days and require numerous reagents and lengthy protocols. Microfluidic chip system offers a promising solution for clinical microbiology detection by reducing detection time with minimal setup and providing a point-of-care solution for patients. These systems are also easier to handle and, with advancements in technology, offer more conclusive observations. This review focuses on recent developments in microfluidic chip-based systems that use colored fluorescent and non-fluorescent dyes for phenotypic tests in clinical pathogen detection. Recent advancements in non-conventional observation methods, such as smartphones and software combined with microscopy, are paving the way for microfluidic systems to revolutionize point-of-care devices. Significant challenges for these systems include antimicrobial susceptibility testing protocols, which depend on color formation, observation methods, and reducing detection time. In the future, working with live cultures remains a major hurdle in developing efficient and accurate microfluidic diagnostic systems for antimicrobial susceptibility testing.