Cardiovascular
Clinical Applications: Cardiovascular
Rapid, Accurate Cardiovascular Event Diagnosis: a Critical Challenge
Cardiovascular disease accounts for about 33% of all deaths in the developed world, placing a major burden on our current healthcare systems. The seriousness and scale of the problem have driven governmental agencies and medical bodies to designate it an urgent priority and to determine ways to quickly diagnose and treat cardiac events in order to avoid unnecessary deaths.
In fact, the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry has recommended a 1-hour maximum turnaround time (TAT) for reporting the presence of key cardiac biomarkers such as troponin. The recommendation places pressure on medical teams and on onsite labs to develop even more streamlined techniques to diagnose cardiac events. Currently, central workstations are still a fixture for processing tests or input results, delaying results and keeping medical teams from making informed treatment decisions during a critical time window.
Micropoint Point-of-Care CV Testing Systems: Speeding Diagnosis
The development of rapid, accurate cardiovascular point-of-care tests such as those available from Micropoint are serving to cut turnaround times from hours to minutes and avoid the time-consuming process of transporting and assessing samples using centrifuge and other equipment. Additionally, these microfluidics-based tests have enabled quick and cost-effective testing to migrate from the hospital to the clinic and bedside.
POC testing from Micropoint is now used by cardiologists to help in early and critical identification and stratification of patient risk. Micropoint’s mLabs® BNP, NT-ProBNP, and Troponin I tests are available for point-of-care administration and can improve diagnosis, minimize use of invasive procedures, and improve patient management for such conditions as heart failure, stroke and pulmonary embolisms.
Digital Health Record Integration
The ability to integrate the test results from bedside or wireless handheld testing systems into a hospital or clinic’s digital record system is key in saving time and reducing healthcare costs. Specialists and nurses alike will have rapid access to patient test results in order to better manage patient care.