Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Introduces Portable Coagulation Analyser For Fast And Reliable Testing At The Point Of Care

Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics has launched the hand-held and portable Xprecia Stride Coagulation Analyser to deliver fast, reliable testing in any clinical environment. The analyser can be used for prothrombin time testing (PT/INR) for point-of-care monitoring and management of oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT) with warfarin, a vitamin K antagonist. Xprecia Stride was specifically designed to meet the growing demand for fast and reliable PT/INR results to help clinicians make rapid and confident decisions.

“PT/INR tests are undertaken as part of therapy monitoring for patients with a host of conditions, including atrial fibrillation, open and minimally invasive heart valve replacement, deep vein thrombosis, and congenital heart defects,” states Steve Carey, Product Manager Point of Care at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. "Xprecia Stride is among the most user-friendly designs of point-of-care coagulation analysers since they became widely available more than 20 years ago. The analyser is designed to be safe and efficient whilst allowing many patients to be tested in a broad variety of environments.”

The Xprecia Stride Coagulation Analyser is similar in size to a smartphone and weighs 300g, it can be held at many angles and brought directly to the patient's finger for efficient and comfortable blood sampling. Its user friendly interface uses simple icons and animation for ease of use. To help increase workflow efficiency and usability, an integrated bar-code scanner simplifies data capture for identification of operator and patient plus accurate calibration of new lot numbers prior to testing. Upon testing, PT/INR results are realised in seconds, utilising the same reagent used by Siemens central laboratory analysers to minimise any potential for variability.

Steve Carey continues, “Useful and innovative features are important as the use of point-of-care PT/INR testing becomes critical to a growing number of procedures and treatments that utilise anticoagulation therapy. Xprecia Stride allows easy data transfer to a computer; a colour display and provides animated step-by-step instructions to help guide the user during testing. Safety features include a first-of-its kind test strip eject button that allows the user to eject a used test strip and easily dispose of it without touching it, minimising any potential biohazard exposure.”

Xprecia Stride is the winner of the internationally respected Red Dot Award: Product Design for 2015, validating the analyser’s innovative product design. Receiving the Red Dot award reinforces Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics’ efforts to bring a highly usable, lab-accurate coagulation analyser to the point of care, building on more than 30 years of central lab hemostasis leadership.

Siemens Healthcare is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimising clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 52,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world www.siemens.co.uk/healthcare.