Roche announced to introduce its new blood gas analyzer, the cobas b 123 POC systems, in Europe and several markets in Latin America, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
The cobas b 123 POC system is a fast, multi-parameter analyzer, delivering many of the vital results that physicians need in order to make decisions in time critical situations. From one drop of blood the system can assess a patient’s oxygenation and acid/base status as well as deliver important information on electrolytes and the metabolites glucose and lactate within 2 minutes.
The new portable analyzer is designed for use in intensive care units for monitoring of blood gases mainly to determine whether a patient is receiving sufficient respiratory support, in emergency departments for patients suffering from heavy trauma or acute heart and lung diseases, operating rooms during surgery and other clinical areas including neonatal and dialysis units.
“Blood gas analyzers must be particularly fast and reliable,” said Daniel O’Day, Head of Roche’s Diagnostic Division. “Roche has designed the easy-to-use cobas b 123 POC system in order to meet the needs of a broad range of clinical settings, where high quality results for immediate medical decisions and treatment adjustments are needed.”
The nearly maintenance free new system expands the portfolio of existing Roche blood gas solutions. Globally, blood gas testing is the biggest segment within hospital point of care testing with a volume of one billion US$ a year.
In very unstable conditions, patients have to be monitored very closely, with tests being conducted up to every half an hour or even more frequently. The cobas b 123 POC system can process up to 30 samples an hour, making it ideal in time-critical situations.
The system can analyze pO2, pCO2, pH, Hct, Na+, K+, Ca++, Cl–, glucose, lactate, tHb, SO2, O2Hb, HHb, COHb, MetHb, neonatal bilirubin and calculate more than 30 other clinically useful parameters. The cobas b 123 POC system processes whole blood and aqueous solutions, displaying high quality results in less than 2 minutes. Results can be automatically printed or transmitted to the laboratory information system. Quality control (AutoQC) is fully automated. All workflows are graphically guided.
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS and is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management.