A new engineering thermoplastic alloy combining the advantages of styrene maleic anhydride (SMA) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) has been developed by Polyscope Polymers B.V. Developed to meet the application needs of the rapidly growing Point of Care ("POC") microfluidic drug testing equipment.

Devices made from this material are undergoing final institutional review and are expected to be available to healthcare professionals for commercial applications soon.

The injection-mouldable polymer is called XILOY™ SO2315"SMA/PMMA alloy has excellent optical properties, biocompatibility with a wide range of patented coatings, reagents, blood and tissue products, and high dimensional stability to ensure accurate and reliable immunoassay results.

The healthcare industry is currently undergoing a phase change due to the introduction of new technologies designed to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes, including the use of electronic medical records, improved organizational management processes, the development of accountable care organizations, and the correlation of supplier reimbursement with quality metrics. Shifting away from the traditional fee-for-service payment model common in private and decentralized insurance-based health care systems.

The prime movers behind these trends. — In particular, POC diagnostic equipment has been developed in remote or resource-poor areas with limited medical infrastructure and access to quality and timely medical care.

These small (often hand-held) devices are used to diagnose and monitor a variety of diseases and are suitable for use in conditions in primary care Settings such as doctors' offices, hospitals, and even the patient's home.

When samples must be sent to an external testing lab, it takes only a few minutes for providers and patients to trace back test results from days or weeks ago, dramatically reducing the time providers and patients have to wait for test results, speeding up referrals and/or access to appropriate care, and ultimately potentially reducing the cost of testing.

Dr. Milos Todorovic, founder of the MT Analytics Group, a management consultant and health technology expert, predicts that initially the use of POC devices and their consumables will be concentrated in hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices, but in the long term, as regulators and consumers gain trust in the technology, The trend will shift toward direct consumer diagnostics and condition monitoring in homes and assisted living Settings, rather than traditional healthcare Settings.

The key factors affecting the accuracy and speed of POC test devices are already making headway in the emerging field of microfluidic chips.

These disposable films, molded from transparent thermoplastics, have functional substrates modified for surface reactivity and must be guaranteed to have 50 to 100µ m wide molded microchannels to transport tiny amounts of human fluids and reagents for diagnostic tests.

By using such a small amount of fluid for diagnosis, the patient is more comfortable (as the amount of blood and other fluids is much smaller to be inhaled), and quantitative immunoassay results can be returned faster due to the short diffusion distance, high surface/volume ratio, and better thermal control.

Currently, the materials used to form this single-use film are polystyrene (PS) and cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), but both have their limitations: while PS has good transparency, it lacks inherent surface reactivity, which requires a functional coating step to be completed after molding, which increases time and cost; COC is a new type of polymer and is expensive.

The latest material used to shape microfluidic chips is an alloy of SMA and PMMA. — XILOY SO2315, the special reactivity of the SMA part of the copolymer's anhydride group, is particularly useful for microfluidic chip applications because of its inherent ability to react with a "bioanchor" to capture and bind analytes (such as amino acids, peptides, and proteins) in fluid samples. It also simplifies the post-mold coating process, making it more powerful and cost-effective.

SMA also provides higher thermal stability than PS for tests that require heat treatment of samples, and it maintains extremely high dimensional stability to ensure that the microchannels work properly and the film can fit into the test equipment.

In general, SMA and PS are not particularly miscible, resulting in a less transparent copolymer.

Therefore, chemists combined SMA with PMMA, and both achieved a high degree of miscibility. The PMMA part of the

copolymer provides good transparency for optical detection test methods and has good biocompatibility with human tissues and body fluids.

SMA in combination with PMMA produces copolymers that are chemically compatible with proprietary coatings and reagents commonly used in microfluidic films.

It is also easy to process and ensures that intricately formed micropatterns have consistently tight dimensions, which are essential for accurate and reliable test results.

In addition to single-use microfluidic film suitable for POC medical diagnostic equipment, XILOY SO2315 copolymers are suitable for use in a variety of demanding applications such as lighting, displays, household goods and consumer disposable products.

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