Immediate or non-immediate hypersensitivity reactions to contrast media occur in about 3% of intravenous Contrast Media applications. They are a concern for radiologists and cardiologists. The basophil activation test is very helpful for diagnosis of patients with Contrast Media hypersensitivity.

Previous reactors have an increased risk to develop repeated reactions. At the time beeing there are no reliable in-vitro tests for routine diagnosis of contrast media hypersensitivity. Now the Flow2 CAST assays offer a clinical cut-off to detect Contrast Media allergic patents with negative skin tests with Sensitivity around 60% and specificity of 90%.

BÜHLMANN now introduced 8 new contrast media allergens to our allergen portfolio. Detailed informations on these allergens are described in the single allergen data sheets.

BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG, Basel, Switzerland, announced today to have signed a Medical Adviser Agreement with Dr. Arne Roseth, Oslo, Norway, in order to support BÜHLMANN’s global initiative to promote fecal Calprotectin in diagnosis and therapy follow up of inflammatory conditions of the intestine.

Dr. Roseth is a US-Norwegian gastroenterologist with more than 15 years of practical experience in the use of Calprotectin and one of the global key opinion leaders for the application of this novel biomarker. “The cooperation with BÜHLMANN supports my goal to ease the daily life of patients with Crohn’s disease,” comments Dr. Roseth, “and to support clinicians around the world in using a simple, reliable and cost-effective diagnostic tool to differentiate between IBS and IBD.”

BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG is an independent Swiss manufacturer of high quality IVDs for niches in clinical routine diagnostics. The BÜHLMANN Calprotectin product group includes a Calprotectin ELISA as well as Quantum Blue®, an easy to use Point-of Care rapid test system.

Calprotectin, a GI inflammatory marker, has a fundamental role in the differentiating between Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Patients suffering from IBS do not have increased fecal Calprotectin values. Fecal Calprotectin concentrations, as measured by the BÜHLMANN Calprotectin assays, are significantly elevated in patients with IBD and correlate well with endoscopic and histological assessment of disease activity.

Over two million patients in Europe suffer from IBD, and it is estimated that IBS affects more than 30 million Europeans. This novel and simple test will avoid unnecessary colon endoscopies for Ulcerative Colitis or Crohn's disease and will minimize discomfort while offering substantial savings for patients and health systems.

The agreement of BÜHLMANN with Dr. Roseth adds to the global outreach strategy and recent cooperation agreement with Meridian Bioscience Europe and other specialized IVD suppliers in the Field.

Contact: Dr. Thomas Hafen, COO, BÜHLMANN Laboratories AG

+41 61 487 12 24 (office)

Determination of GHB (liquid Ecstasy) in human samples was a challenge until today. Expensive and laborious chromatographic methods did not allow the prompt determination of suspicious samples. The BÜHLMANN GHB enzymatic assay will give the toxicology laboratories a quick, easy and cost efficient screening tool to investigate even samples with lower suspicion.

The GHB enzymatic assay is available now as a CE marked in vitro diagnostics. Evaluated and CE marked protocols for the most important clinical chemistry analyser will be available soon.