BioFire Diagnostics’ FilmArray Meningitis/ Encephalitis (ME) Panel is now available in the countries which recognize CE marking. The ME Panel provides highly beneficial medical value, as it addresses the critical unmet need for quick and accurate identification of central nervous system (CNS) infectious agents. The comprehensive ME Panel tests cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for the 14 most common pathogens (6 bacteria, 7 viruses and 1 yeast) responsible for community acquired meningitis or encephalitis in about an hour. Currently, testing CSF for multiple organisms can take days and is not always possible because it can be difficult to obtain enough fluid from each patient to run multiple tests.
The ME Panel received a de novo clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2015. The ME Panel brings a unique opportunity to test simultaneously and rapidly for most bacteria, viruses and fungi found in those pathologies that can be extremely severe and sometimes lethal. Such an approach will positively impact the management of those patients by helping clinicians and biologists speed the diagnosis of these potentially severe conditions and make much faster decisions on appropriate therapy to prevent complications. More than 1.2 million people every year are affected by meningitis worldwide, resulting in 120,000 deaths globally from bacterial meningitis. Bacterial meningitis can occur suddenly in healthy people and even with prompt diagnosis and treatment, approximately 10% of patients may die and up to 20% or more may sustain permanent damage and disability. The ME Panel is cleared for the FilmArray and FilmArray 2.0 systems and is commercially available around the globe.
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To face the tremendous problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, Coris BioConcept has developed a new range of tests under the brand name “RESIST”.  Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) represent a major health concern and any diagnostic tool helping their detection in the laboratory could improve patient safety. A first test (OXA-48 K-SeT) has been launched last March for the detection of OXA-48-like-producing Enterobacteriacae from culture colonies.  After this very successful launch supported by two oral presentations during ECCMID in Copenhagen, a second product is now available for the detection of KPC (Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase) belonging to class A carbapenemases.  It is the most frequent enzyme of this group and shows the highest spreading activity.  This new test, KPC K-SeT, combined with OXA-48 K-SeT will give diagnostic labs the possibility to identify within minutes two of the main carbapenemases observed in Europe.

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The RX series of clinical chemistry analysers has been developed by Randox laboratories to meet & exceed the growing needs of clinical laboratory testing. Robust hardware combined with intuitive software guarantees proven minimal meantime between failures, optimised workflow & the ultimate in precision, reliability and accuracy for results you can trust.

High quality reagents & instrumentation guarantees unrivalled performance, giving you complete confidence in results. Intuitive, easy-to-use software allows real time results for rapid diagnosis & treatment ensuring the best in patient care, while not testing your patience.

We offer astonishing flexibility through our world leading, extensive dedicated test menu allowing routine chemistries, specific proteins, lipids, therapeutic drugs, drugs of abuse, antioxidants and diabetes testing to be run on a single platform.

The perfect addition to a variety of laboratory settings, the RX series of semi-automated and fully automated clinical chemistry analysers guarantees cost savings, consolidation and convenience.

For more information please click here
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Panasonic’s Classic Eco MDF-DU300H with hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants minimizes energy consumption while reducing environmental impact. The introduction of natural HC refrigerants to the latest 333L ULT freezer results in more efficient cooling due to their high latent heat of evaporation. With a power consumption of just 5.9 kWh/day – a 45% reduction compared to equivalent non-HC models – this could lead to potential savings of over €3,000 in energy costs over 10 years. As well as reducing running costs, the use of more efficient refrigerants results in improved performance with reduced pull down times for even greater sample security. Because of their exceptionally low global warming effect, HC refrigerants are also much better for the environment.
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Sectra’s solution for storing, viewing and sharing digital pathology images has received the CE mark for primary diagnostic use. The system enables more efficient cancer care by enhancing collaboration and sharing of images between pathologists and radiologists. Pathologists will now be able to review cases digitally on a computer screen, enabling them to eliminate the microscope. The digital format brings new tools to the pathologists’ fingertips and also allows samples to be sent easily to other pathologists to share the workload or for specialist consultations, thereby facilitating quicker and more accurate diagnosis. Pathology and radiology are at the centre of cancer diagnosis and their collective findings are the basis for patient treatment and its outcome. Both disciplines are highly dependent on adequate clinical information in order to provide accurate and useful reports for the clinician, surgeon, oncologist or patient. Despite their joint responsibility for cancer diagnosis, the exchange of information between the two groups is often very limited as the radiology and pathology workflows are usually completely different. Sectra’s system for digital pathology is built on the same platform as its radiology PACS for managing radiology images. The common technical platform enables closer collaboration between the two specialties, sometimes referred to as integrated diagnostics, facilitating, for example, more efficient multi-disciplinary team meetings. Focusing on end-user experience and workflow efficiency, the system provides a platform where images from different hardware vendors can be viewed and archived, and where histology or cytology images can be shown together with macro images. Furthermore, it allows full case overview including integration with other image systems, enabling access to radiology or dermatology data and images in the same workstation. Sectra digital pathology workstation, IDS7/px, consists of a dedicated image window for pathology images and the regular IDS7 information window. The information window includes worklists, full patient information, with possibility to access images from other specialties such as mammography, radiology and dermatology and a reporting window with support for speech recognition. The possibility to reach different types of images, such as pathology and radiology from the same workstation is especially useful for multidisciplinary teams (MDT) meetings. The image window supports the pathologist during review, preparation of MDTs and education and it contains for example tools for text annotations, distance and area measurements. Images from the same block are registered as such and if similar enough are automatically synchronized by the software enabling efficient comparison of the same structure stained with different techniques.

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