Liver disease causes serious public health problems because of its high prevalence, particularly affecting low- and middle-income countries. Alanine transaminase (ALT) is considered to be one of the most sensitive indicators for diagnosing liver disease. Although many strategies have been reported for ALT detection, few of them have solved the problem of automatic detection. In this work, for the first time, a dry chemistry-based electrochemiluminescence (DC-ECL) device is developed for point-of-care testing (POCT) of ALT, achieving real sample-to-answer detection. The proposed DC-ECL device consists of the following two components: (a) a DC-ECL chip consisting of the outer shell (including the top cap and pedestal) and detection layer (including the baseplate, electrode pad and carrier pad) and (b) an automatic ECL analyzer mainly including the data processing and instrument control unit, imaging detection unit, electrochemical reaction excitation unit, open detection window unit and rechargeable power supply. Under optimized conditions, the device had a wide detection range (0–1000 U/L), the ECL intensity linearly increased with ALT concentration (5–50 U/L) and logarithmic ALT concentration (50–1000 U/L), and the limit of detection was calculated to be 1.702 U/L. In addition, the DC-ECL device had the ability to measure ALT levels in human serum samples and showed acceptable selectivity, stability and repeatability. These results reveal that the DC-ECL device can overcome the disadvantages of traditional methods for ALT detection (such as high cost and requirement of professional technicians) and potentially opens the door to the development of similar POCT analyzers.

肝病因其高患病率而导致严重的公共卫生问题，特别是影响低收入和中等收入国家。丙氨酸转氨酶（ALT）被认为是诊断肝病最敏感的指标之一。尽管已经报道了许多用于 ALT 检测的策略，但很少有解决自动检测问题的。在这项工作中，首次开发了一种基于干化学的电化学发光 (DC-ECL) 装置，用于 ALT 的即时检测 (POCT)，实现了真正的样本到答案检测。拟议的 DC-ECL 装置由以下两部分组成：(a) DC-ECL 芯片，由外壳（包括顶盖和基座）和检测层（包括底板，电极垫和承载垫）和（b）全自动ECL分析仪，主要包括数据处理和仪器控制单元、成像检测单元、电化学反应激发单元、检测开窗单元和可充电电源。在优化条件下，该装置具有较宽的检测范围（0-1000 U/L），ECL 强度随 ALT 浓度（5-50 U/L）和对数 ALT 浓度（50-1000 U/L）线性增加，并且检测限计算为1.702 U/L。此外，DC-ECL 装置能够测量人血清样品中的 ALT 水平，并显示出可接受的选择性、稳定性和可重复性。