New Products - Laboratory Medicine

NEW PRODUCTS
Computerized drug
monitoring
Drug detection kit
Circle Reader Service Card No. G-50.
Circle Reader Service Card No. G-49.
LABORATORY MEDICINE
•
JULY 1971
Automatic digital osmometer
The Osmette freezing p o i n t
osmometer is designed to perf o r m automatically entire osmolality d e t e r m i n a t i o n . The maker
claims that as rapidly as 45 seconds f o l l o w i n g sample introduct i o n , final result is displayed d i g i tally on Nixie tube panel meter
and is locked there until sample
is removed. Noninteracting c o n trols are said to reduce calibrat i o n t i m e to five minutes or less.
A c c o r d i n g to the manufacturer,
Osmette A is capable of precision
to ± 1 m O s m / k g . over a range of
0 to 3,000 m O s m / k g . The osm o m e t e r is made to handle both
2.0 and 0.2 m l . samples.—Precision Systems, Inc.
Circle Reader Service Card No. G-45.
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The ITLC Kit detects c o m m o n l y
abused drugs w i t h t h i n layer
chromatography, according to the
manufacturer. It is designed to
meet the need for a simple
m e t h o d of d r u g analysis requiring
little training to produce clear
separations. The kit is also made
to handle routine laboratory separations of serum lipids, steroids,
and amino acids. The kit includes
chromatography chamber, solvent
saturations pads, chromatography
d y e , ninhydrin spray reagent,
sample spotting guide, 50 sheets
silica gel m e d i u m , 25 sheets silicic
acid m e d i u m , 25 sheets fluorescent m e d i u m , instruction manual,
and a b o o k by F. C. Haer on
chromatography.—Gelman Instrument
Company.
The p r o b l e m of adverse d r u g
reactions has led to the development of Cybertek's d r u g metabolism index (DMI), applications for
w h i c h are: predicting therapeutically effective dosage levels to
avoid potential side effects prior
to the initiation of d r u g therapy;
m o n i t o r i n g periodically for the
detection and prevention of d r u g
interactions; screening of new
hospital admissions to detect a d verse d r u g reactions; m o n i t o r i n g
of o u t p a t i e n t s to d e t e r m i n e
w h e t h e r prescribed course of
d r u g therapy is being f o l l o w e d ;
screening of pregnant w o m e n to
prevent adverse effects in the
n e w b o r n ; screening to determine
effective dosage levels for new
drugs; using as a general screen
to identify persons w h o are taking
or w h o have recently been exposed to a w i d e range of drugs
and chemicals. The new index is
a ratio of adrenal hormones and
their metabolites w h i c h monitors
the rate at w h i c h drugs are metabolized by a person. The c o m pany bases its D M I on the fact
that the great majority of drugs
are eliminated f r o m the body by
metabolic reactions in the liver,
and that the same group of e n zymes w h i c h metabolize drugs
also result in the elimination of
certain specific hormones and
their metabolites in the urine.
A c c o r d i n g to Cybertek, a single
D M I system is capable of screening more than 1,000 samples per
day.—Cybertek.
Bacterial control cultures
The Fleaker is a new type of
laboratory container designed to
do all the things flasks, beakers,
funnels, and bottles d o . The
borosilicate glass Fleaker features
a w i d e m o u t h / n a r r o w neck design to facilitate p o u r i n g powders
and liquids in or out. The closure
is a c o m b i n a t i o n of a conventional rubber stopper and a polypropylene cap. The containers are
stackable, the b o t t o m of one
Fleaker nesting in the t o p of
another. The stopper is a l o w
sulfur g u m rubber. Packed in cartons of 10 bottles and caps, the
Fleakers come in six sizes; n o m i nal volumes are 150 m l . , 300 m l . ,
500 m l . , 800 m l . , 1,000 m l . , and
1,200 ml.—Spectrum Medical Industries, Inc.
Circle Reader Service Card No. G-52.
Circle Reader Service Card No. G-44.
Blood bank control
programmer
The O r t h o Blood Bank Control
Programmer is a self-contained
w o r k station for routine processing of patients and donors for
b l o o d transfusion. The programmer is designed to permit the
h a n d l i n g of six donors or patients, or combinations of the
t w o and to provide for a f l o w of
test procedures, standardization
of test conditions, and self-contained controls. The control p r o grammer is the second phase of
the O r t h o Blood Bank C o n t r o l
Program. The first, a 24-page procedures chart, leads the t e c h n o l ogist through g r o u p i n g , t y p i n g ,
reverse g r o u p i n g , a n t i b o d y
screening, c o m p a t i b i l i t y testing,
and a n t i b o d y i d e n t i f i c a t i o n . —
Ortho
Diagnostics.
Circle Reader Service Card No. G-53.
LABORATORY MEDICINE
•
JULY 1971
Downloaded from http://labmed.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on October 14, 2016
Instead of flasks and beakers
Bact-Chek Quality Control Set
contains eight different viable organisms preserved in stable, single-use discs and is designed to
provide reference cultures for
immediate use in many key bacteriological quality control procedures. The system is said to
detect deficiencies in or deterioration of media, reagents, stains
and biochemical procedures. The
introductory set contains one vial
each of eight organisms; 30 discs
in each vial. The gram-positive
organisms are:
Staphylococcus
aureus, S. epidermidis,
and S.
pyogenes. The gram-negative organisms are: Enterobacter
cloacae,
Escherichia coli, Proteus
vulgaris,
Pseudomonas
aeruginosa,
and
Salmonella
typhimurium.
Each
disc contains f r o m 10 5 to 10 7 organisms.—Roche
Diagnostics.