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Detection of Clostridium Difficile Infection in just 20 Minutes
Oxoid now offers a Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) test that provides results to healthcare professionals in just 20 minutes. The Remel Xpect™ C. difficile Toxin A/B Test, a valuable diagnostic tool for use in the rapid detection of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), is extremely easy to use and provides accurate and reliable results. This speed and convenience enables healthcare professionals to quickly and decisively initiate appropriate patient care and infection control procedures. Clostridium difficile infection
continues to be a major concern across Europe. With each case costing between €5000 and €15,000, the financial impact of this pathogen on the European Union could exceed €3,000 million every year. Elderly and immunocompromised patients who have recently received antibiotic therapy are most at risk of C. difficile-associated diarrhoea (CDAD). The emergence of a highly virulent C. difficile strain (ribotype 027) in Canada, North America and Europe has contributed to multiple outbreaks of severe disease in
hospitals and care homes. Recent guidelines recommend that, when CDI is suspected, a stool sample should be tested for the presence of C. difficile toxins immediately. Early diagnosis is recognised as one of several factors (including surveillance, education and infection control measures) that combine to prevent the spread of CDI.
The Xpect Clostridium difficile Toxin A/B Test allows the direct detection of both C. difficile toxins A and B in faecal samples. This is important since A-/B+ strains of C. difficile have been linked to CDAD. Diluted sample is simply mixed with a conjugate buffer and added to the test cassette. Within 20 minutes, the result is clearly visible and easily interpreted. No specialised equipment or expertise is required. Xpect Clostridium difficile Toxin A/B test is suitable for use in laboratories of any size. This is particularly important since the significance of community-acquired CDI is increasingly recognised. Rapid testing may help healthcare institutions limit the spread of disease.
Circle no. 191
Multiple Diagnostic Solutions Assist Swansea University’s Centre for NanoHealth
Flexibility is Trump
Adiabatic calorimetry is becoming increasingly important in many areas of modern materials research and safety engineering. As a compact tabletop unit, the newly developed MMC 274 Nexus from Netzsch closes the gap between large adiabatic reaction calorimeters and small differential scanning calorimeters. This instrument allows for the analysis of relatively large sample volumes consisting of several millilitres. During the measurements, additional substances can be injected and/or mixing of heterogeneous substances can be secured. Changes in pressure resulting from the reaction are also recorded. Furthermore, in addition to purely adiabatic or purely isothermal measurements, the investigations can be carried out in Scanning mode. Properties such as heat capacities can thus be quickly and precisely analysed. Also, exothermic and endothermic effects can be quantitatively characterised with the MMC 274 Nexus. This offers the user nearly unlimited application possibilities.
JPK Instruments is pleased to announce the installation of multiple instrument solutions at the new Swansea University Centre for NanoHealth. One of the biggest challenges facing the future of healthcare is enhancing early intervention in diagnosing and treating diseases in non-hospital environments; in the home, community clinic or local doctors’ surgery. Current medical practice is based around relatively late intervention, which with many diseases does not result in complete cure, but rather extends a patient’s life whilst, hopefully, maintaining quality of life.
The key to early intervention is the earliest possible detection of disease, and the swift identification of appropriate medical or surgical treatments. The Centre for NanoHealth is a unique interdisciplinary research centre based on the application of Nanotechnology leading innovations in Healthcare established to address these challenges.
The acquisition of the latest instrumentation techniques is of important benefit to the Centre’s future research programs and the announcement that JPK Instruments is supply multiple solutions is welcomed by the group. Using JPK’s patented NanoWizard®
AFM platform, systems will initially be used in three exciting applications areas.
Dr Chris Wright will lead a team to study cell mechanics as part of his program on bionanotechnology, which focuses on nanoscale mechanisms of disease and its control. Dr Peter Dunstan will be developing chemical finger printing techniques using TERS – tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy, which will couple the AFM to a Raman spectrometer. Professor Steve Wilks is to use new electrical mode innovations to develop the next generation of diagnostic sensors having unprecedented sensitivity by applying nanowire technology. The choice of JPK to supply these systems came after extensive evaluation of different vendors to match the needs of the Centre. JPK responded with the commitment to deliver the best instrumentation and unrivalled customer-focused applications support to match their company goal of bridging the worlds of nanotechnology tools and life science applications with cutting- edge technology and unique applications expertise.
Circle no. 193
The MMC 274 Nexus consists of a base unit with integrated electronics, a software package, and various easy-to-exchange measurement modules. These exchangeable modules make it quick and easy to optimally adjust the system to the measurement requirements. This allows for: characterisation of materials with regard to phase transitions; quick and easy analysis of the stability of chemicals; caloric analysis of complex systems and components such as batteries; and determination of the physical parameters of materials. The MMC 274 Nexus can be operated in a great variety of modes or in the Heat-Wait-Search mode. Furthermore, it is faster and easier to operate than conventional adiabatic reaction calorimeters while providing considerably higher sensitivity in many areas. Its flexibility and the manifold measurement possibilities allow the MMC 274 Nexus to be used in countless application fields: materials characterisation in research and development; process development in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry; investigation of the storage and transport behavior of chemicals; and analysis of batteries and battery components.
Circle no. 192 Microplate Reader Critical to Biopharmaceutical Data Acquisition
Avacta Group in York, UK, has chosen Tecan’s Infinite M200 microplate reader to play a pivotal role in offering innovative analytical services to the biopharmaceutical sector, where high quality and reproducible data acquisition is crucial.
Russell Hodgetts, MD of Avacta’s Laboratory Services, explained: “The Infinite M200 allows us to provide quality, high throughput services to our clients, and is integral to the development of solubility screening assays, which are the starting point for our formulation development service. The multiple detection methods and environmental control available with the Tecan instrument make it extremely versatile.” Avacta has recently developed MIDAS (multi immuno diagnostic assay system), a point-of-care platform designed to automate medical diagnostic tests usually performed manually in a laboratory. The Infinite plate reader has been central to this bioassay development, as Product Manager Dr Ed Quinn, explained: “The multimode detection capabilities of the Infinite reader allow us to carry out a wide range of assaying techniques – using absorbance, fluorescence and luminescence detection – on one instrument, and the built-in temperature control and shaking mean that the complete assay can be performed in situ. The easy-to-use i–control™ software allows us to rapidly set up experiments, defining our own plate parameters to improve the resolution of our assays. Data is automatically exported to our laboratory information system, seamlessly integrating into our research and development programme.”
Circle no. 194 New Testing Products Guide Critical Patient Treatment
Oxoid announced that the Oxoid range of M.I.C. Evaluator™ (M.I.C.E.) Strips, for the accurate determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values, has been expanded to include teicoplanin, meropenem, ceftriaxone and clindamycin. This range of antimicrobial susceptibility testing products has been designed for convenience and ease-of-use and provides important information to help guide the treatment of critically ill patients. Oxoid M.I.C.E. Strips provide a gradient of stabilised antimicrobial, covering 15 doubling dilutions, on a convenient polymer strip format. Upon application, the antimicrobial is released from the strip, forming a defined concentration gradient in the surrounding agar. After an appropriate incubation, the MIC value is easily read off where the interface between the zone and growth of the organism touches the strip. M.I.C.E. Strips have been designed to make interpretation easy, through the emphasis on the reading scale of whole step dilutions, as stated in the standard methods. Each strip is individually foil-wrapped with desiccant to maintain its integrity until use. For convenience, and to meet the needs of every laboratory, M.I.C.E. Strips are available in stackable boxes of 10 or 50. New antimicrobials are continually being added to the M.I.C.E. range.
Circle no. 195
Spotlight
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