Solution standardizes blood collection, stabilization, and purification

Medical Laboratory Observer, May, 2009

* Solution standardizes blood collection, stabilization, and purification. PreAnalytiX GmbH, a QIAGEN/BD company, received marketing clearance from the FDA for the automation of its PAXgene Blood RNA system on the QIAcube, enabling labs to automate an IVD-purification method, which is part of an integrated IVD blood-collection method for intracellular RNA.

When blood is collected in a lab, there are challenges by variations in expression profile and sample degradation, which can be caused by sample collection, storage, and transport conditions. This can significantly alter the patient profile from what it was in vivo to what is seen at the point of analysis, The product is designed to stabilize whole blood in the tube at point of collection. The PAXgene blood-collection tube contains a proprietary reagent which immediately stabilizes intracellular RNA for up to three days at room temperature and up to 50 months at -20[degrees]C to -70[degrees]C. The ability to store and archive samples minimizes the urgency to process them, thus enhancing lab efficiency.