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Point-of-care testing for cardiac biomarkers improves results turnaround time

Cardiac and thrombosis testing in accident and emergency in Buckinghamshire has benefited from use of a point-of-care immunoassay system from Radiometer, saving time and resources and improving patient care. Instant bedside immunoassay testing for critical cardiac biomarkers can be crucial to the provision of swift and appropriate treatment in an acute care setting, allowing further assessment or urgent treatment of a patient to be ruled in or ruled out without delay. Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust has introduced point-of-care immunoassay analysis in the accident and emergency (A&E) department at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, improving turnaround times for troponin I (TnI) and D-dimer, and consequently patient flow. Unnecessary treatment has now been reduced, with corresponding time and cost savings.

Buckinghamshire perspective
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is a major provider of community and hospital services in south central England, caring for over half a million patients from Buckinghamshire and the neighbouring counties annually. The trust is responsible for the majority of NHS care in the county, from community health services provided in people’s homes or at one of the many local bases, to acute hospital services at Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe hospitals.

International guidelines require test results to be available within 60 minutes of drawing blood, preferably within 30 minutes, and significant differences have been observed between test result turnaround times from point-of-care instrumentation compared to laboratory analysis. Rapid point­of­care immunoassay testing enables faster triage processes and reduces the length of stay in the emergency department. Buckinghamshire Healthcare has equipped its A&E department at Stoke Mandeville Hospital with a Radiometer AQT90 FLEX point-of-care immunoassay analyser, resulting in shorter turnaround times, better processes and faster treatment of patients.

Prior to purchasing the AQT90 FLEX analyser, Buckinghamshire Healthcare performed D-dimer analysis exclusively in the laboratory. As there is no out-of-hours laboratory service available to process these tests, and the laboratory has some downtime each morning while staff calibrate and quality control their measuring systems, samples are typically not submitted before 9.30 am or after 4.00 pm. Therefore, the A&E department uses the AQT90 FLEX to analyse samples taken outside these hours, as well as when they experience exceptional numbers of admissions. Additionally, the laboratory does not perform D-dimer testing for patients aged over 65 years, as they predict that D-dimer levels will be raised for patients in this age group. In such situations, the AQT90 FLEX is used to ensure that patients are correctly ruled in or ruled out, avoiding unnecessary treatments.

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