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Beckman Coulter offers this panel of three assays on its fully automated platforms.

“The study results demonstrate that sleep apnea induces a characteristic signature cluster of blood biomarker changes,” principal investigator and lead author Wesley Elon Fleming, MD, Sleep Center Orange County, Irvine, Calif., said in a statement. “Concurrent elevations of HbA_1c, CRP, and EPO levels should generate a high index of suspicion of obstructive sleep apnea, and thus may be useful as an initial screening tool in adult males.”

Jon-Erik Holty, MD, MS, of Stanford University School of Medicine and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, said, “The combination of these three blood tests correlates with the severity of disease and may assist sleep centers in identifying and triaging patients for diagnosis and treatment.”

“Important to note,” Rohit Budhiraja, MD, of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in the statement, “is that the blood tests were superior to standard screening methods, such as the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Stop-Bang questionnaire, in identifying obstructive sleep apnea.” The blood tests also demonstrated superiority over the use of body mass index as an indicator in non-obese patients.

Research points to NHS savings with greater use of in vitro diagnostics

Research commissioned by Innovate UK and the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association reveals that the UK’s National Health Service could save significant sums within five years through quick adoption of new diagnostic tests as they come on the market.

Patients would benefit from three new tests—for heart attack, preeclampsia, and inflammatory bowel disease—by reducing unnecessary procedures and medication while delivering NHS savings.

The research says the tests are used now in only a handful of clinics and hospitals but that many health experts predict they would save large sums if used more widely. They are high-sensitivity cardiac troponin, placental growth factor, and calprotectin.

Doris-Ann Williams, BIVDA’s chief executive, said, “Whilst the shakeup of NHS services and funding so often takes the headlines, simply making the most of the tests we already have would result in dramatic savings.”

The report calls on health care leaders and policymakers to reassess how these three high-impact examples, along with many other diagnostic technologies available now, could be better deployed within the NHS.

BIVDA represents manufacturers and distributors active in the UK. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation, a nondepartmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government.