A Diagnostics & Imaging Week

Automation – essentially the removal of the human element via mechanical/computer intervention – continues to be the dominant feature of new product rollouts at the annual meeting of the American Association for Clin-ical Chemistry (AACC; Washington) in Chicago.

IRIS International (Chatsworth, California), a manufacturer of automated IVD urinalysis systems and devices used in hospitals and clinical reference laboratories, launched its new iChem100 Urine Chemistry Analyzer and its vChem urine chemistry test strip lines at the AACC Expo, thus representing, it said, its entry into the global urine chemistry market.

"The iChem100, a semi-automated benchtop instrument designed for small-volume hospital laboratories, outpatient clinics and large physicians' offices, represents a significant milestone for IRIS in that it rounds out the company's product offerings," said Dino Alfano, president of the company's Diagnostics Division. "The iChem100 enables IRIS to enter the $350 million global urine chemistry market in a most noteworthy manner.

"We are launching our new product lines with intensive sales campaigns through the company's U.S. and international sales channels," Alfano said. "We also are creating a vehicle to accelerate iChem100 and test strip sales internationally by connecting the instrument to the new iQ200 Select Urine Microscopy Analyzer, which addresses smaller hospitals. This creates a complete urinalysis system for smaller hospitals and reference laboratories internationally."

Cesar Garcia, president/CEO of IRIS, highlighted a variety of other product line expansions, including enhanced versions for its family of iQ200 analyzers and systems.

"We now can offer a complete line of products designed to meet the operational and workload needs of three distinct market segments – small-, medium- and high-volume users," he said.

The expanded family of iQ200 systems, which provides the company 10 different urinalysis products, will be available globally by the end of 3Q06, IRIS said.

IRIS bills itself as a leader in automated urinalysis technology with systems in major medical institutions throughout the world. The company's Sample Processing business unit (formerly the StatSpin subsidiary; Westwood, Massachusetts), manufactures centrifuges and blood analysis products. Advanced Digital Imaging Research (Houston), is the company's imaging R&D subsidiary. The IRIS Molecular Diagnostics subsidiary develops ultra-sensitive diagnostics and sample processing products with applications in the urinalysis, oncology and infectious disease markets.

In other rollouts at the AACC meeting:

• Artel (Westbrook, Maine), a liquid quality assurance company, exhibited its upgraded PCSplus Pipette Calibration System with new automation capabilities to streamline and improve the safety of laboratory pipette calibration.

Keeping track of pipettes and ensuring that they are properly calibrated can prove to be significant barriers to laboratory efficiency, Artel says, bannering the PCSplus's new features as enhancing the calibration process, facilitating compliance and helping laboratories ensure data integrity. The PCSplus is designed to reduce human transcription error and speed calibration by relying on several components: proprietary software, a barcode scanner and a laboratory-qualified printer. Affixing barcode labels with identification numbers to each pipette and scanning these labels prior to calibration eliminates the need for manual tracking of calibration.

Based on the company's Ratiometric Photometry technology, using two dyes to measure liquid volumes, the standardized PCSplus verifies that the pipette is performing within laboratory-specific tolerances, and a label can be printed with the pipette ID number, technician's name and calibration date, indicating that the pipette is in good working order. To maintain legibility in harsh laboratory environments, Artel labels are resistant to solvents and water.

"Automation has permeated many aspects of modern laboratories," said Kirby Pilcher, president of Artel. "But until now, pipette calibration was largely managed manually. Now, our customers can eliminate risk and inconvenience in calibration, focus resources on their critical laboratory tasks and strengthen data quality."

• Sysmex America (Mundelein, Illinois) exhibited its Body Fluid application on the Sysmex XT-2000i and Sysmex XT-1800 Automated Hematology Analyzers. The systems were recently FDA-cleared for the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid, serous and synovial fluids.

The XT-series is designed for mid volume laboratories, said John Kershaw, president of Sysmex America. The Body Fluid application on the Sysmex XE-Series Automated Hematology Analyzer, designed for high volume testing, was cleared by the FDA in 2004.

White blood counts are obtained on the XE and XT-Series analyzers using Sysmex's Fluorescent Flow Cytometry technology to separate WBC's into distinct cell clusters. Red blood count is obtained using DC detection with Hydrodynamic focusing. No specimen preparation is needed before sample analysis, according to Sysmex.

According to Dr. Ian Giles, director of scientific affairs for Sysmex, "Providing body fluid analysis on the XT-Series analyzers indicates our continued commitment to our 'best of breed' philosophy in hematology."

Recent FDA clearance of the Body Fluid application is Sysmex America's second clearance in 2006; the Sysmex XS-1000i Automated Hematology Analyzer was cleared for use in smaller clinical laboratories and physician offices.

Sysmex America is the U.S. subsidiary of Sysmex (Kobe, Japan), a developer of clinical laboratory systemization and solutions, including clinical diagnostics, automation and information systems.