Abbott Announces New Test for the Management of Patients with Diabetes

The new assay is performed on the ARCHITECT immunoassay systems and is available in several European countries, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Japan, Africa, Middle East and India, pending country registration.

11 Jul 2012 --- The new fully-automated assay measures glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), the recommended test to monitor diabetic patients in the laboratory.

More than 346 million people worldwide are living with diabetes, and the World Diabetes Foundation estimates that number will increase by nearly 27 percent by 2030. In order to help physicians appropriately monitor treatment efficacy for these patients, Abbott announced CE Marking (Conformité Européenne) for the Abbott ARCHITECT HbA1c (IA) Assay.

Glycated hemoglobin, also known as HbA1c, is a form of hemoglobin used primarily to monitor long-term diabetes control. This helps physicians understand how well the patient's diabetes is being managed from a treatment or dosing perspective. The HbA1c test differs from a patient-administered blood glucose test, which takes a snapshot of a patient's blood sugar level at a moment in time. The HbA1c test must be performed on a laboratory instrument.

Laboratories are seeing an increase of HbA1c testing volumes worldwide due to the rise in patients with diabetes. The Abbott ARCHITECT HbA1c assay is a fully automated chemiluminescent immunoassay to help laboratories manage the increased demand and offer rapid results to physicians. With a simple blood test, the Abbott ARCHITECT HbA1c (IA) Assay provides a result to the physician in just 36 minutes. It also demonstrates a good correlation to the gold standard (high performance liquid chromatography), which provides confidence in the accuracy and reproducibility of patient results.

"Abbott's ARCHITECT HbA1c (IA) Assay allows for consistent and accurate testing of HbA1c," said Brian Blaser, executive vice president, Diagnostics Products, Abbott. "We are pleased to offer an important tool to address the need for a fully automated glycated hemoglobin assay which can meet the demands of increased testing volumes.

With this test, health care providers can now confidently measure their patients' management of diabetes and use this information to potentially improve treatment decisions."

The new assay is performed on the ARCHITECT immunoassay systems and is available in several European countries, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Japan, Africa, Middle East and India, pending country registration.

The ARCHITECT HbA1c (IA) assay is a Chemiluminescent Microparticle Immunoassay (CMIA) for the quantitative determination of percent hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in human whole blood on the ARCHITECT i System. Percent HbA1c measurements are used in the clinical management of diabetes to assess long-term diabetic control.

Abbott has developed and launched a series of ARCHITECT analyzers that are delivering unprecedented flexibility, automation, and convenience to today's clinical laboratory. The first truly integrated portfolio of immunoassay and clinical chemistry instruments, ARCHITECT offers more than 170 assays and has features that minimize training and reduce inventory costs and sample contamination potential, which results in improved performance and outcomes for laboratories, physicians, and patients.