Rapid Teststrip Assay for Acetaminophen and Salicylate

Acetaminophen and salicylates are contained in over 200 prescription and non-prescriptionformulations. Of all intentional and unintentional overdose ingestions of pharmaceutical andnon-pharmaceutical compounds, those of acetaminophen and salicylates are the most frequent, both innumber of exposures and fatalities. Many exposures are co-intoxications of both drugs. Approximatelyone half of all patients are children. The need for rapid estimation of acetaminophen and salicylates inacute intoxication and therapeutic monitoring is well documented. Rapid test methods for use bynon-laboratory personnel in emergency and point-of-care environments are currently unavailable. Somelaboratory spot-tests for urine exist but they lack specificity, and timely specimen acquisition, transferand analysis can be problematic. Available methods on automated instruments and compact analyzersare scarce and cost-intensive. We will develop of a novel non-instrumented dual-analyte teststripmethod for the rapid simultaneous semi-quantitation of acetaminophen and salicylates from unmeasuredmicro-specimens of whole blood, saliva and urine. The method is specific for each of the two drugs asenzymic-calorimetric detection principles are employed. Dry reagent technology enhances methodstability and product life time. Contributions of the devices are its functionality in a near-patient,non-laboratory environment, early detection, timely institution of treatment, and cost-savings.