21st Century Point-of-Care, Near-Patient and Critical Care Testing—2nd Edition

A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Point-of-Care Diagnostics and Devices".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 100

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Interests: point-of-care testing; critical limits/values; global warming; pre-hospital diagnostics; crisis response
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Point-of-care testing is medical testing at or near the site of patient care. COVID-19 brought about the worldwide acceptance of point-of-care strategies to manage a major infectious threat. This Special Issue builds on that progress. We welcome papers focused on point-of-care themes addressing (a) rapid pathogen detection; (b) discovery, mitigation, and management of outbreaks; (c) antimicrobial resistance; (d) home and self-testing; (e) mobile identification of community contagion; (f) rapid diagnostics for disasters, emergencies, and public health crises; (g) instrument robustness in harsh environments; (h) multiplex pathogen detection for targeted therapeutics; (i) results in interpretation in different prevalence settings; (j) smartphone-enabled tests; (k) land, sea, and air ambulance prehospital technologies; (l) cost-effectiveness for limited resource users; and general point-of-care inventions and innovations for the diagnosis of infectious diseases with the goals of enhanced decision making, standards of care, and public health resilience at points of critical need.

Dr. Gerald J. Kost
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • point-of-care testing
  • infectious diseases
  • early detection
  • emergency management
  • disaster readiness
  • prehospital diagnosis
  • health promotion
  • public health resilience

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 2556 KiB  
Article
Genogroup-Specific Multiplex Reverse Transcriptase Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay for Point-of-Care Detection of Norovirus
by Wahedul Karim Ansari, Mi-Ran Seo and Yeun-Jun Chung
Diagnostics 2025, 15(15), 1868; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics15151868 - 25 Jul 2025
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Norovirus is a major cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. Considering its highly infectious and transmissible nature, rapid and accurate diagnostic tools are of utmost importance for the effective control of outbreaks in the context of point-of-care testing (POCT). In this study, we [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: Norovirus is a major cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. Considering its highly infectious and transmissible nature, rapid and accurate diagnostic tools are of utmost importance for the effective control of outbreaks in the context of point-of-care testing (POCT). In this study, we developed a genogroup-specific multiplex reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay to detect the human norovirus genogroups I and II (GI and GII, respectively). Methods: For the comprehensive detection of clinically relevant genotypes, two sets of primers were incorporated into the assays targeting the RdRp-VP1 junction: one against GI.1 and GI.3, and the other for GII.2 and GII.4. Following optimization of the reaction variables, we standardized the reaction conditions at 65 °C with 6 mM MgSO4, 1.4 mM dNTPs, 7.5 U WarmStart RTx Reverse Transcriptase, and Bst DNA polymerase at 8 U and 10 U for GI and GII, respectively. Amplification was monitored in real-time using a thermocycler platform to ensure precise quantification and detection. Finally, the assay was evaluated through portable isothermal detection device to test its feasibility in on-site settings. Results: Both assays detected the template down to 102–103 copies per reaction and showed high target selectivity, yielding no non-specific amplification across 39 enteric pathogens. These assays enabled prompt detection of GI within 10–12 min and of GII within 12–17 min after the reaction was initiated. Onsite validation reveals all template detection below 15 min, demonstrating its potential feasibility in point-of-care applications. Including the sample preparation time, test results were obtained in less than 1 h. Conclusions: This method is a rapid, reliable, and scalable solution for detecting human norovirus in POCT settings for both clinical diagnosis and public health surveillance. Full article
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