Nowadays sepsis is one of the most common causes of death in intensive care units. It often takes too long to draw a diagnostic report, especially if the patient is not in hospital at the beginning of an infection. In hospitals, blood and other patient samples are usually taken and analyzed in central laboratories. Afterwards the diagnosis is sent back to the physician/patient. Point-of-care (POC) diagnostic reduces the therapeutic turn around time drastically and allows inducing the essential therapy faster. This is achieved by decentralization of analysis to an on-site patient testing. For point-of-care testing compact and cost-efficient systems are needed, however, clinical requirements e.g. precision must be fulfilled. Additionally the medical result must be achieved within very sho rt time and without complex manual handling steps.
