Alliance to Develop Cardiac Test

An agreement to collaborate on the first fully automated diagnostic test for ischemia modified albumin (IMA) has been announced by Wampole Laboratories (Princeton, NJ, USA) and Roche Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland).

The two companies plan to have the albumin cobalt binding (ACB) test for the detection of IMA to be available on Roche's Cobas Integra 700 and Cobas Integra 800 chemistry analyzer systems. IMA is a key marker of cardiac ischemia used in the assessment of patients with chest pain suggestive of a heart attack. The test will also be available on other analyzers of Roche: the Roche/Hitachi Modular Analytic Plus, the Roche/Hitachi 911, and the Roche Cobas MIRA Plus analyzers.

IMA is a serum marker used in conjunction with an echocardiogram (ECG) and cardiac troponin tests for early evaluation of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) in patients presenting to hospital emergency departments with chest pain. Chest pain is the second-most common reason for visiting an emergency department in the United States. Chest pain visits to U.S. emergency departments have risen 22% over the last decade.

Only about one in five patients with chest pain will ultimately be diagnosed with ACS. Yet it often takes more time and resources for emergency doctors to determine who does not have ACS than to determine who does have ACS. The rule-out process takes from eight to 48 hours. IMA can help emergency doctors to identify candidates for early discharge, saving both time and money. Chest pain visits to emergency departments have risen 22% over the last decade.

"We are very excited about adding IMA to the Cobas Integra lab systems, as this will greatly increase the number of hospitals that have access to this important cardiac marker, stated Ron Zwanziger, CEO of Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. (Waltham, MA, USA), the parent of Wampole Labs.





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