The Hartziekenhuis Hospital in Belgium introduced the BÜHLMANN Calprotectin Assay for testing of faecal samples of IBD patients. A thorough evaluation provided data for the excellent technical quality of the assay as well as the high sensitivity of our monoclonal assay for the patients tested. The data of the evaluation also resulted in a presentation at the annual meeting of the Belgian Society For Clinical Biology.

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.

The new product "oxidized DNA ELISA" (EK-ODG) is available now. The assay allows the quantitative detection of oxidized guanosin (8-OHdG) in urine which is one of the major products of oxidative Stress in the individual’s body. The ELISA is a complete and user-friendly kit.

Normal metabolism of oxygen produces so-called Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) which are highly reactive molecules. ROS permanently damage lipids of cellular membranes, proteins and also DNA and RNA.

In healthy people there is a balance between oxidants (ROS) and anti-oxidants and highly effective repair mechanisms which prevent continual destruction of genetic material.

In research oxidative stress takes a prominent place in the prevention of very different diseases. Numerous studies show tight correlation between oxidative stress and the appearance of more than 200 diseases like arthrosclerosis, AIDS, inflammatory diseases, Diabetes mellitus and general aging as well as cancer.

The knowledge of the individual oxidative stress status can be regarded as disease prevention.

Today, numerous service laboratories in the western countries offer already a large panel of different tests to estimate the status of oxidative stress. Besides the determination of anti-oxidants, micronutrients and marker of the iron metabolism oxidized lipids and DNA are of major interest.

Determination of oxidized DNA therefore must be regarded as one important brick in a complete clarification of the individual’s health and aging status.

The anti-MAG ELISA: a sensitive and reliable screening method for determining anti-MAG antibodies as shown in new study by Kuijf et al., Neurology (73), 2009 from ERASMUS MC in Rotterdam (NL).

Usefulness of the basophil activation tests in monitoring the immune response to bee venom immunotherapy and in identifying the culprit insect venom in case of double positivity to both wasp and honey bee venom.

The Quantum Blue^® Calprotectin is a POC Rapid Test - A sensitive non-invasive point of care tool to preselect patients requiring colonoscopy for confirmation of organic bowel disease (IBD). The quantitative results for calprotectin concentration in ug/g stool are available within 12 minutes and are very well comparable to the established Calprotectin BÜHLMANN ELISA.

CLI News

The BÜHLMANN Calprotectin ELISA has been successfully introduced to the Charles University in Prague.

In a clinical evaluation study the monoclonal assay by BÜHLMANN was used to analyze fecal samples from patients with Crohn's, ulcerous colitis and from healthy controls, resulting in excellent sensitivities and specificities. The results by the BÜHLMANN Calprotectin ELISA were also superior to the determination of this protein by using polyclonal antibodies in other tests.

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