New low-cost home kidney disease monitoring kit created in UK

UK-based medical engineers have developed an innovative kit for use in the day-to-day monitoring of kidney disease.

Created by Bio Nano Consulting – a company jointly owned by Imperial College London and University College London –  the quantitative electrochemical lateral flow assay (QELFA) device is able to use nanoparticles to determine the exact amount of protein in a patient's urine.

The device is simply dipped into a urine sample, giving a result as an exact number. It offers results in seconds, can be performed by patients in their own home, and is only expected to cost around ten pounds.

Over the next 18 months, the researchers will aim to take the device from the laboratory to the prototype stage.

Dr Paulo Actis, a consultant and project manager at Bio Nano Consulting, said: "Its development fits in well with the NHS five-year plan, which involves decentralising medicine and letting patients have more control over their own health, as well as helping to reduce the workload for testing laboratories."

Currently, it is estimated that kidney disease costs the NHS over 1.4 billion pounds every year – more than breast, lung, colon and skin cancer combined.