Sussex Biologicals & Llusern Introduce the Lodestar DX
Published: Fri, 22 Mar 2024 11:02:22 GMT
Rapid Diagnosis of UTI at the point of care.
Sussex Biologicals is delighted to announce that it has been appointed as the UK distributor for
Llusern Scientific’s Lodestar analyser and UTI panel test.
In a performance evaluation undertaken in collaboration with
Public Health Wales at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, the Lodestar UTI test demonstrated an overall
sensitivity of 84.9% and specificity of 83.1% (n=132) versus the traditional
method of laboratory culture testing. For the diagnosis of UTIs caused by E.coli,
the most common uropathogen, sensitivity and specificity results were even
higher at 97.8% and 90.7%, respectively. These results show the potential of
the test to inform treatment decisions.
Peter Nest, CEO of Sussex Biologicals said “We are very
excited to be working with Llusern Scientific in the UK. This test is new to the market and provides a
LAMP based molecular test for the presence of the six most common urinary tract
pathogens. It provides a positive or negative result for each of the
six pathogens in only 35 minutes directly from a urine sample.”
Urinary Tract Infections are a huge cost to UK healthcare. The
NHS performs more than 10 million UTI culture test each year and there are
approximately one million repeat GP appointments for UTI patients which could
be avoided if UTI diagnosis is improved. The Lodestar analyser and UTI test has
the potential to significantly contribute to
the reduction of unnecessary GP visits and hospitalisations..
Dr Emma Hayhurst, CEO of Llusern Scientific said “We are
delighted that after eight years of development we are launching our Lodestar
UTI test in the United Kingdom. The Lodestar UTI test has the potential to
change the way the NHS treats UTI patients and even to change lives through
fast, accurate testing that provides GPs, urologists and paramedics with the
information they need to make clinical decisions.” Alongside the launch of
the Lodestar analyser and the UTI panel, Sussex Biologicals has used its
in-house software development expertise as a LIMS provider to create POCnetTM a new middleware data management
system for Point of Care Testing.
Lodestar and POCnetTM combine to provide a point of care testing
system that complies with the recent
National Strategic Guidance document for point of care testing. POCnetTM may be networked with up to five analysers,
and has been designed to facilitate the use of Lodestar UTI testing in all
clinical settings. POCnetTM is a secure system that can act as a
stand-alone patient database or connect to upstream electronic patient record
systems (EPR), store and transmit results, maintain reagent batch information
and quality control results and provides real time information on the progress
of the tests being performed.
“It was important for Llusern to find a distribution partner
that understood the groundwork needed to introduce such a novel product into
the market” said Dr Hayhurst. “With the development of POCnetTM we
believe that, between Llusern and Sussex Biologicals, we have an integrated testing
solution that can make a significant difference for both UTI patients and
medical professionals.”
For all sales enquiries for the Lodestar analyser and UTI
testing panels please contact Sussex Biologicals on 01323 849944 or email us at
info@sussexbiologicals.co.uk