Advancing point of care testing in women’s health

Since time immemorial, women's health has been seeking point-of-care testing (POCT) solutions to provide insight and support in the diagnosis of a plethora of diseases and conditions. Throughout medical history, there is well-documented evidence of an age-old quest for medical diagnostics that could be executed in a timely way that was both convenient to the patient and the clinician. While the reliability of some of the approaches can be questioned, the notion that bodily fluids held the key to diagnosis has proven over time to have a sound medical basis.

As long as 4500 years ago, depictions on ancient Egyptian papyrus illustrate urine testing as a means of confirming pregnancy. The papyri depict women urinating on wheat and barley seeds over several days. If the barley sprouted first, the woman was pregnant with a boy, if the wheat grew first, she was pregnant with a girl. If none of the seeds sprouted, then she wasn't pregnant.¹ During the classical period, over two thousand years ago, physicians diagnosed urinary tract infections by pouring urine on the ground. If insects were attracted to the urine the test was considered positive for infection.²

Prophets during the Middle Ages claimed to be able to predict pregnancy with a variety of bizarre urine tests. It was believed that a pregnant women's urine would rust a nail, change the colour of a leaf, or be home to tiny, living creatures. Based on what we know today, it's unlikely that any of these tests were able to correctly detect pregnancy, notwithstanding the matter of how the nails, leaves and insects were calibrated remains elusive as does any evidence of internal and external quality control!