A new approach for sweat analysis used in cystic fibrosis (CF) diagnosis is proposed. It consists of a noninvasive skin-wipe sampling followed by analysis of target ions using capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductometric detection (C4D). The skin-wipe sampling consists of wiping a defined skin area with precleaned cotton swab moistened with 100 μL deionized water. The skin-wipe sample is then extracted for 3 min into 400 μL deionized water, and the extract is analyzed directly. The developed sampling method is cheap, simple, fast, and painless, and can replace the conventional pilocarpine-induced sweat chloride test commonly applied in CF diagnosis. The aqueous extract of the skin-wipe sample content is analyzed simultaneously by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductometric detection using a double opposite end injection. A 20 mmol/L L-histidine/2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid and 2 mmol/L 18-crown-6 at pH 6 electrolyte can separate all the major ions in less than 7 min. Skin-wipe sample extracts from 30 study participants-ten adult patients with CF (25-50 years old), ten pediatric patients with CF (1-15 years old), and ten healthy control individuals (1-18 years old)-were obtained and analyzed. From the analyzed ions in all samples, a significant difference between chloride and potassium concentrations was found in the CF patients and healthy controls. We propose the use of the Cl-/K+ ratio rather than the absolute Cl- concentration and a cutoff value of 4 in skin-wipe sample extracts as an alternative to the conventional sweat chloride analysis. The proposed Cl-/K+ ion ratio proved to be a more reliable indicator, is independent of the patient's age, and allows better differentiation between non-CF individuals and CF patients having intermediate values on the Cl- sweat test. Figure New approach for cystic fibrosis diagnosis based on skin-wipe sampling of forearm and analysis of ionic content (Cl-/K+ ratio) in skin-wipe extracts by capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductometric detection.
Keywords: Capillary electrophoresis; Cystic fibrosis; Diagnosis; Ion ratio; Skin wipe; Sweat.