Free Health Testing For Sandwell Residents As Council Partner With Randox Health To Detect Early Warning Signs of Serious Illness
Free Health Testing For Sandwell Residents As Council Partner With Randox Health To Detect Early Warning Signs of Serious Illness
Sandwell Council partners with Randox Health to launch free health checks service
Sandwell Council initiative places prevention at the centre of healthcare
Thousands of eligible Sandwell residents are being offered diagnostic NHS Health Checks to detect any early signs of diabetes, heart and kidney disease and hypertension.
The early identification of individuals with the potential to develop these conditions will enable the NHS to intervene and, in many cases, prevent the onset of potentially life-changing and life-threatening illnesses.
In a pioneering initiative, the Sandwell tests and online self-assessment provision will be provided by a partnership comprising the council’s Healthy Sandwell team, the NHS and diagnostics company Randox Health – whose tests and clinics will be used to facilitate the innovative testing. Tests and clinics will be available for Sandwell residents in both Sandwell and, if convenient, in Birmingham.
The awarding of the contract to Randox Health to provide the tests follows an open tender process by Sandwell Council. The company has demonstrated success in providing 17 million PCR tests to NHS Test and Trace during the Covid-19 pandemic, helping prevent thousands of hospitalisations and deaths in the UK.
Free tests will be offered to Sandwell residents aged between 40 and 74 who have not previously suffered coronary heart disease, strokes, diabetes or kidney disease. Each will, in the next few weeks, begin receiving letters inviting them to the 20-minute NHS check, with branding from Randox, Healthy Sandwell and the NHS. The letter will include a link to the Randox website through which the tests can be booked.
Sandwell residents who have not yet received a GP letter and believe they are eligible can visit the Randox website https://nhshealthcheck.randox.com, take an eligibility check and then book their own appointment.
Tests will be carried out by specially trained staff at a number of community pop-up clinics in locations in Sandwell such as leisure centres and community spaces, aiming to reach those most at risk of having an undiagnosed serious illness.
Tests for Sandwell residents will also be available at Randox Health’s Birmingham Clinic (39-40 High Street, B4 7SL).
Test results will be made available to GPs for inclusion on patient medical records through Health Diagnostics Ltd, a third-party provider. Randox will hold none of the data from the test results.
Not only will the testing programme enable prevention and mitigation through the early identification of serious illness, it will also allow lifestyle modification on issues including smoking, alcohol and weight management.
Councillor Suzanne Hartwell, Sandwell Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults, Social Care & Health, said:
David Ferguson, Chief Operating Officer for Randox Health said:
Editors Notes
1. Sandwell Council
Sandwell Council will participate in the partnership through Healthy Sandwell, which is part of the council’s Public Health team. Healthy Sandwell provides a range of services to support local people to make positive lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking or losing weight. Further information: https://www.healthysandwell.co.uk/
2. Randox Health
Established in 1982, Randox is the largest healthcare diagnostics company from the UK and Ireland.
Undertaking research, development, manufacture and distribution of innovative laboratory tests and analysers, Randox provides 15% of all worldwide cholesterol tests and 10% of all clinical chemistry tests. More than 5% of the world’s population (over 370 million people) receive medical diagnosis using Randox products each year.
Randox Health focuses on the provision of timely and accurate testing to identify risk to health, improve clinical diagnoses and promote preventative healthcare; aiming to achieve better healthcare outcomes whilst reducing the burden on clinical services.
In early 2020 Randox recognised the threat from COVID-19 and quickly developed a test to accurately identify the virus. Testing at scale commenced within weeks to support the UK’s National Testing Programme and private clients. Randox has processed more than 25 million gold-standard PCR tests for the National Testing Programme and private COVID testing for travel.
Randox Health is clear that better diagnostics are unquestionably critical to future improvements within healthcare and is committed to remaining at the forefront of that field.
Its growing network of High Street clinics now operate in 20 locations around the UK and Ireland, including Birmingham.
World Heart Day from Randox Biosciences
29 September 2019
World Heart Day 2019
The World Heart Federation (WHF) is the acting global voice in leading the universal fight against cardiovascular disease (CVD). Part of the WHF mission is to ensure heart health equity for everyone. They believe everybody is entitled to cardiovascular health and well-being through health promotion, access to prevention, control and management of CVD 1.
World Heart Day falls on the 29th September where people make a promise to promote and implement healthier lifestyles to maintain a happy and healthy heart, reducing the potential risks of heart disease and stroke. CVD takes the lead being the number one cause of death world-wide 2 relating to all heart and circulatory diseases consisting of coronary heart disease, angina, heart attack, congenital heart disease, hypertension, stroke and vascular dementia 3.
According to the World Health Organisation2:
- An estimated 17.9 million people died from CVD in 2016, representing 31% of all global deaths. Of these deaths, 85% were due to heart attack and stroke.
- Out of the 17 million premature deaths (under the age of 70) due to noncommunicable diseases in 2015, 82% were in low- and middle-income countries, and 37% were caused by CVD.
- Most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and alcohol abuse.
Cytokines have a central role within the immune system; they are a category of signalling molecules that mediate and regulate immunity, inflammation and hematopoiesis 4. Cytokine and inflammatory mechanisms have major implications for the vascular system and can lead to CVD.
Cytokines exist in broad families that are structurally related but exhibit diverse function. The major classes of cytokines include: pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, cytokines of neutrophil and eosinophil recruitment and activation, cytokines derived from T-helper (Th) and T-regulatory (Tregs) cells, and cytokines of T-cell recruitment and growth factors. 5
Randox offers a comprehensive menu of 26 cytokine, cytokine receptors and growth factors over four multi-analyte arrays. Each cytokine assay is performed on biochip array technology with spatially discrete test regions containing antibodies specific to each of the analytes. The combination of highly specific antibodies and advanced chemistries enables up to 12 cytokines and growth factors to be detected simultaneously in a single sample.
Cytokine Array I Cytokine Array III
- Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) – Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating
- Interferon-y – Interleukin-5
- Interleukin-1a – Interleukin-15
- Interleukin-1b – Macrophage Inflammatory Protein-1a
- Interleukin-2
- Interleukin-4
- Interleukin-6
- Interleukin-8
- Interleukin-10
- Monocyte Chemotactic Protein-1
- Tumour Necrosis Factor-a
- Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor
Cytokine Array IV Cytokine Array V
- Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 – Interleukin-3
- Soluble IL-2 Receptor a – Interleukin-7
- Soluble IL-6 Receptor – Interleukin-13
- Soluble Tumour Necrosis Factor Receptor I – Interleukin-12 p70
- Soluble Tumour Necrosis Factor Receptor II – Interleukin-23
Key Benefits of Randox Cytokine Arrays:
- Multiplex testing from a single sample.
- Suitable for human serum and plasma samples.
- Small sample volume required.
- Excellent analytical performance.
- Fast throughput.
- Applicable to fully automated and semi-automated Evidence analysers.
Randox manufacture the majority of assay raw materials in-house and can therefore take a more tailored approach, by adapting assays to the needs of your research project to best fit your individual requirements.
- https://www.world-heart-federation.org/
- https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cardiovascular-diseases-(cvds)
- https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/conditions/cardiovascular-disease
- https://www.sinobiological.com/cytokine-rerview-receptor-source-targets-main-function-disease-association-a-1310.html
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/cytokines
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Randox Biosciences on Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH)
What is Familial Hypercholesterolemia?
Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic condition which is passed down from the parents’ genes. The British Heart Foundation has highlighted that FH is caused by a genetic mutation which means the liver is unable to remove excess ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL), therefore, the LDL level in the blood remains high.2 Someone who suffers with FH would have high cholesterol from birth which can cause other health issues including heart and circulatory disease.
Heart UK states that more than 260,000 people in the UK may have FH. However, less than 10% of this number have been diagnosed and therefore, may not be aware of their condition.3 However, to date there are no clear symptoms if someone has FH until it is considered too late.
Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) symptoms
- Swollen tendons/fatty lumps on the knuckles of your hands, at the back of your ankles and knees
- Cholesterol deposits around the eye-lids (looks like pale and yellowish patches)
- Grey-white cholesterol deposits around the corneas
If untreated, about 50% of men and 30% of women with FH will develop coronary heart disease by the time they are 55. More worryingly, on average in the UK, one person a day with FH has a heart attack. About a third of people don’t survive their first heart attack, and many who do survive will have damaged hearts.
The good news is that a 2008 study part-funded by the BHF found that people with FH who are diagnosed and treated before they develop heart disease generally live as long as people who don’t have FH. That’s why it is vitally important to get diagnosed as early as possible.
How Randox Biosciences can help
Randox Biosciences offers the Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) Arrays I & II to help encourage early diagnosis with rapid turnaround time. This allows results to be reported within days compared with NHS waiting lists which can be substantially longer.
Our two arrays are rapid, simple and accurate which enables the simultaneous detection of 40 FH-causing mutations (20 mutations per array) within the LDLR, ApoB and PCSK9 genes.
The mutational status can be determined rapidly from a single test, with a reduced need for confirmatory testing. Genetic analysis for FH mutations also allows for more accurate diagnosis compared to lipid profiling.
Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) Arrays I & II:
LDLR – 38 mutations
APOB – 1 mutation
PCSK9 – 1 mutation
Contact us
To find out more about the products that we offer, email us info@randoxbiosciences.com
Randox Evidence Series highlights National Heart Month in February
National Heart Month is held every February to raise awareness and remind the public of the importance of taking care of your heart. Every day, your heart will beat approximately 100,000 times and it is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body via the circulatory system, supplying oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes. 1
British Health Foundation (BFH) states that over 7 million people are living with heart and circulatory disease in the UK: 3.5 million men and 3.5 million women. 2
There are many different heart conditions and problems that can arise which include angina, heart attack, heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms, congenital heart disease and inherited heart conditions which are highlighted further below:
Angina is a chest pain which is often caused when the coronary arties become partially blocked. It causes an uncomfortable feeling of heaviness or tightness which is often mistaken to indigestion. 3
Whereas a heart attack is when the arteries are completely blocked which can cause permanent damage to the heart muscle therefore, it is essential to be aware of the symptoms. The signs are similar to angina although it is more severe. This may include feeling pain in the arms, jaw, neck and back, lightheadness, sweating, nausea and breathlessness. 3
Heart failure is the most dangerous condition. It often occurs when the individuals heart is too weak to pump blood around the body making it difficult for the person to breathe. There are two types of heart failure. Acute heart failure which can occur suddenly or chronic heart failure which develops over time. 3
Being aware of the different types of heart disease and the symptoms can save a person’s life in the long-run. There are many ways to avoid developing heart disease. One of the simple changes could include having a healthier diet to reduce your risk of developing heart disease and maintaining a healthy weight. A healthy diet could include plenty of fruit and vegetables, starchy food, choosing whole grain varieties, including some dairy products and a small amount of fat and sugar in your diet. Exercising regularly can benefit your heart and its health, making small changes to your lifestyle can make a difference for example, walking to work or school instead of driving or taking public transport, taking the stairs instead of using the lift or even taking on a hobby! Quitting smoking, decreasing your alcohol intake, eating healthier and exercising more will make a huge impact to your health!
Randox offer the Cardiac Risk Prediction Array on their Evidence Investigator. We developed a rapid array which will allow all 19 SNPs to be genotyped simultaneously on one single sample. The genotype information is then put into an algorithm which weights each SNP and calculates a CHD genetic risk score. This score is combined with common risk factors and an overall CHD risk score is calculated. A SNP which can predict response to statin therapies is also included. The results are easy to interpret using our Evidence Investigator which allows for more accurate classification and prevention actions to be taken.
For further information about the Randox Cardiac Risk Prediction Array or our Evidence Investigator, please email: info@randoxbiosciences.com or visit our newly improved website: https://goo.gl/8qkYkg
Randox Health: Looking After Your Heart
This February, Randox Health are focusing on Heart Health. Heart health is becoming a much greater talked about subject because of health trends and figures. There are around 7 million people living with heart and circulatory disease in the UK. Heart and circulatory disease causes more than a quarter (26%) of all deaths in the UK; that’s nearly 160,000 deaths each year – an average of 435 people each day or one death every three minutes. Facts like these from BHF show us how how important our hearts are! Maintaining and having a healthy heart is essential to cut down your risk of heart disease.
Ways to Improve your Health
There are a number of things you can do to lower your risk of getting heart disease, and at the same time improve overall health. Lets look at three ways to lower your risk and help you become healthier:
- Managing a healthy weight
- Eating healthier
- Getting active
What You Can Do
All three of the above will lower your risk of heart disease and all are linked so by improving one it will help the others. To manage a healthy weight, first you need to work out what a healthy weight is for you. There are two main ways to tell whether you need to lose weight: your Body Mass Index (BMI), and your waist measurement. the risk of heart disease begins to increase at a BMI of 23, and people with a BMI of 27.5 will be at high risk.
Men with a waist of over 94 cm are at an increased risk of heart diseases and over 102 cm are at a severe risk. Women with a waist over 80 cm are at an increased risk and at 88 cm are at a severe risk. If you fall in these risk areas, eating well and being more physically active can help you reduce your weight.
Healthy Eating
A healthy diet can help reduce your risk of developing coronary heart disease and stop you gaining weight. This also reduces your risk of diabetes and high blood pressure. A well-balanced diet should include at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day. Try to vary the types of fruit and veg you eat.
You should try to replace saturated fats with small amounts of mono and polyunsaturated fats. Try and cut down on foods that contain trans fats as it can raise your cholesterol levels. Lowering your salt intake can improve your blood pressure and lower your chance of coronary heart disease. Eating a healthy well-balanced diet can make it a lot easier to control and maintain your weight.
Get Active! The BHF say that physical activity can help reduce your risk of heart and circulatory disease. It also links in and helps you control your weight! Being active reduces blood pressure and cholesterol and can even improve your mental health. If you do all three of these points not only will it lower your risks of heart disease but will improve your overall health!
Randox Health: What We Do and How We Can Help
This month we are focusing on heart heart, so make sure to check out our blogs with information about how to keep a healthy heart. If you’re worried about your heart health or have a family history of heart disease, contact a member of our team today for more information on how we could help you! We are determined to help you get to the heart of the matter and see what’s really going on with your heart. This Valentines day give a gift to the one you love that really matters, the gift of health.
Find out more here: https://www.randoxhealth.com/our-packages/
Womenās Health: Testing for CVD
Did you know that cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in women? Cardiovascular disease, or CVD, accounts for 27% of all female deaths. That’s much higher than what is commonly thought to be the biggest killer of women – breast cancer. At Randox, we’re using our innovative technology to diagnose CVD cases as early as possible so appropriate treatment can be sought.
The Randox clinical product range offers a wide range of products to combat heart issues including the RX series extensive cardiac testing panel, reagents such as H-FABP, Adiponectin an TxB Cardio and an extensive cardiac QC range available in both liquid & lyophilised format.
You can find out more about how Randox is helping to diagnose women’s health issues, such as CVD, here.
What is CVD?
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general terms for conditions that affect the heart and/or blood vessels. It is usually associated with the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries and an increased risk of blood clots.
CVD is one of the main causes of death and disability in the UK but can often largely be prevented with a healthy lifestyle.
Types of CVD
Coronary heart disease
This occurs when the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle is blocked or reduced
Stroke
A stroke is where the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off, which can cause brain damage and possibly death. A transient ischaemic attack (also called a TIA or “mini-stroke”) is similar, but the blood flow to the brain is only temporarily disrupted.
Causes of CVD
The exact cause of CVD isn’t clear, but there are lots risk factors that can increase your risk of getting it. The more risk factors you have, the greater your chances of developing CVD. Risk factors include:
- High blood pressure
- Smoking
- High cholesterol
- Diabetes
- Inactivity
- Being overweight or obese
- Family history of CVD
- Ethnic background
Preventing CVD
- Stop smoking
- Have a balanced diet
- Exercise regularly
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Cut down alcohol consumption
How is Randox helping to detect CVD?
Randox has developed the RX series of clinical chemistry analysers for superior semi-automated and fully automated testing. The RX series extensive dedicated test menu goes beyond routine testing and has many unique and high-performance tests available. Our range of tests covers many tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac diseases.
Cardiac Panel
| Cholesterol | CRP Full Range(0.3-160mg/l) | Direct LDL Cholesterol | sLDL |
| CK-MB | CRP High Sensitivity | Heart-Type Fatty Acid Binding Protein (H-FABP) | Triglycerides |
| CK-NAC | Digoxin | Lipoprotein(a) | TxB Cardio |
| CRP | Direct HDL Cholesterol | Myoglobin | Adiponectin |
Our world leading test menu of high quality reagents guarantees excellence in patient care ensuring unrivalled precision and accuracy reducing costly test re-runs or misdiagnosis and offering complete confidence in results.
The RX series clinical chemistry analysers provide laboratories with a robust and smart solution ensuring you maintain a consistent workflow and can provide accurate results first time, every time. Offering excellent customer support services, our trained engineers are on hand to work with you in preserving the continuity of your operations while maximising the potential of your RX series instrument.
For more information visit: https://www.randox.com/clinical-chemistry-analysers/
Did you know that cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in women? Cardiovascular disease, or CVD, accounts for 27% of all female deaths. That’s much higher than what is commonly thought to be the biggest killer of women – breast cancer. At Randox, we’re using our innovative technology to diagnose CVD cases as early as possible so appropriate treatment can be sought.
The Randox clinical product range offers a wide range of products to combat heart issues including the RX series extensive cardiac testing panel, reagents such as H-FABP, Adiponectin an TxB Cardio and an extensive cardiac QC range available in both liquid & lyophilised format.
You can find out more about how Randox is helping to diagnose women’s health issues, such as CVD, here.
What is CVD?
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general terms for conditions that affect the heart and/or blood vessels. It is usually associated with the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries and an increased risk of blood clots.
CVD is one of the main causes of death and disability in the UK but can often largely be prevented with a healthy lifestyle.
Types of CVD
Coronary heart disease
This occurs when the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle is blocked or reduced
Stroke
A stroke is where the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off, which can cause brain damage and possibly death. A transient ischaemic attack (also called a TIA or “mini-stroke”) is similar, but the blood flow to the brain is only temporarily disrupted.
Causes of CVD
The exact cause of CVD isn’t clear, but there are lots risk factors that can increase your risk of getting it. The more risk factors you have, the greater your chances of developing CVD. Risk factors include:
- High blood pressure
- Smoking
- High cholesterol
- Diabetes
- Inactivity
- Being overweight or obese
- Family history of CVD
- Ethnic background
Preventing CVD
- Stop smoking
- Have a balanced diet
- Exercise regularly
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Cut down alcohol consumption
How is Randox helping to detect CVD?
Randox has developed the RX series of clinical chemistry analysers for superior semi-automated and fully automated testing. The RX series extensive dedicated test menu goes beyond routine testing and has many unique and high-performance tests available. Our range of tests covers many tests for the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiac diseases.
Cardiac Panel
| Cholesterol | CRP Full Range(0.3-160mg/l) | Direct LDL Cholesterol | sLDL |
| CK-MB | CRP High Sensitivity | Heart-Type Fatty Acid Binding Protein (H-FABP) | Triglycerides |
| CK-NAC | Digoxin | Lipoprotein(a) | TxB Cardio |
| CRP | Direct HDL Cholesterol | Myoglobin | Adiponectin |
Our world leading test menu of high quality reagents guarantees excellence in patient care ensuring unrivalled precision and accuracy reducing costly test re-runs or misdiagnosis and offering complete confidence in results.
The RX series clinical chemistry analysers provide laboratories with a robust and smart solution ensuring you maintain a consistent workflow and can provide accurate results first time, every time. Offering excellent customer support services, our trained engineers are on hand to work with you in preserving the continuity of your operations while maximising the potential of your RX series instrument.
For more information visit: https://www.randox.com/clinical-chemistry-analysers/
Understanding your heart health with Randox Health
Today in the UK, on average, 530 people will be admitted to hospital with a heart attack – even though 75% of heart disease is preventable.
Why wait?
At Randox Health, we believe in preventing disease, instead of waiting for it to occur. We do this through our comprehensive health checks, which use innovative Randox technology to provide you with up to 350 test results, covering over 25 different areas within the body. One of those areas is the heart, by using our ‘Heart Health test panel’. This panel offers up to 21 tests, including a cardiovascular risk score, which assesses your risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years.
Our Heart Health panel also measures apolipoproteins, which are proteins which bind cholesterol for transport around the body. Measuring apolipoproteins along with traditional cholesterol markers, such as LDL (bad) cholesterol and HDL (good) cholesterol, gives us a much more detailed understanding of your Heart Health, compared to using traditional cholesterol levels alone. A unique test in our panel can identify damage to heart muscle, which can occur with a heart attack.
It’s in the genes
As well as our comprehensive Heart Health panel, offered within our programmes, Randox Health also offer more specialised cardiac testing.
Taking cardiac risk assessment one step further, our Cardiac Risk Prediction testing can predict your risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) using not only traditional cholesterol and blood pressure measurements, but using advanced genetic testing. Such testing will combine various genetic tests known to be associated with increased risk of CHD, along with measurements such as blood pressure and cholesterol to calculate and provide you with an overall CHD risk score.
If you have high cholesterol, or heart disease runs in your family, you may benefit from our Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) genetic screen. FH is a hereditary condition involving high cholesterol levels and a high risk of having a heart attack or stroke at a younger age. FH occurs in approximately 1 in every 250 people worldwide and it is thought that 90% of individuals with the condition remain undiagnosed! At Randox Health we recognise the importance of detecting this condition as early as possible; therefore, we offer testing which can check simultaneously for several genetic mutations known to be involved in FH. Early diagnosis and treatment of FH significantly improves and lengthens the lives of those affected, as well as saving the lives of their beloved family members.
To find out more, click here or call 0800 2545 130 and one of our team will be able to discuss this in more detail with you.
The Complete Solution to Cardiac Risk Assessment
“CVDs are the number 1 cause of death globally: more people die annually from CVDs than from any other cause”. In 2015, roughly 17.7 million people died from CVD, representing 31% of all global deaths: 7.4 million were due to coronary heart disease and 6.7 million were due to stroke. (WHO, 2017)
Cardiac health and regular cardiovascular screening is important to enable risk factors to be detected in their earliest stages. There are a few factors which contribute to CVD. These include: smoking, unhealthy diet, excessive alcohol consumption, low physical activity levels. Whilst there are only a few factors contributing to CVD, these can be maintained by the patient through living a healthy lifestyle including: quitting smoking, consuming no more than the recommended allowance of alcohol, cutting out junk food, and exercising for 30 minutes a day, 3 – 5 days a week. In a perfect world, this would be easy and CVD would not be a global problem. However, due to busy lifestyles, cravings, reduced willpower, and convenience, not all individuals in today’s world will be able to avoid CVDs. Therefore, it is vitally important that individuals are tested for CVDs to detect them in the earliest stages to reduce damage, prevent further damage, or even death. Furthermore, many individuals suffer from inherited cardiac risk factors, which stresses the need for accurate testing of both traditional and novel cardiac risk biomarkers.
Randox offer the complete solution to cardiac risk assessment including: RX analysers, traditional and novel reagents, internal quality control (Acusera), and external quality control (RIQAS).
RX Series
Randox has developed the RX series range of clinical chemistry analysers for high-quality semi-automated and fully automated testing. Choose between the RX misano, RX monaco, RX daytona+, RX imola, and the RX modena depending on the throughput of your laboratory. The RX series offers a suitable analyser for your laboratory’s needs. For more information on the Randox RX series, please click here or email therxseries@randox.com
Reagents
As previously mentioned, early assessment of cardiac risk is vital. Randox offer a range of novel risk biomarkers for both very early and the genetic assessment of cardiac risk.
LDL cholesterol is often referred to as the ‘bad cholesterol’. High concentrations of LDL-cholesterol is considered to be the most important clinical predictor, of all single parameters, with respect to coronary atherosclerosis. However, sLDL is a smaller, more dense subfraction of LDL-cholesterol. sLDL particles more readily permeate the inner arterial wall and are more susceptible to oxidation. Individuals with a predominance of sLDL have a 3-fold increased risk of myocardial infarction. Measurement of sLDL allows the clinician to get a more comprehensive picture of lipid risk factors and tailor treatment accordingly.
Elevated levels of Lp(a) are considered to be both a casual risk factor and independent genetic marker of atherosclerotic disorders. The major challenge associated with Lp(a) measurement is the size variation of apo(a) within Lp(a). Dependent upon the size of apo(a) in the assay calibrator, many assays under or overestimate apo(a) size in the patient sample. Numerous commercially available products suffer apo(a) size related bias, resulting in an over estimation of Lp(a) in samples with large apo(a)molecules and an under estimation in samples with small apo(a) molecules. The antibody used in the Randox method detects the complete Lp(a) molecule providing accurate and consistent results. This was proven by the IFCC who developed a gold standard ELISA reference assay and compared 22 commercially available tests. The Randox Lp(a) method displayed the least (minimal) amount of apo(a) size related bias, proving it be a superior offering.
HDL3 Cholesterol is a smaller and more dense subfraction of the HDL particle. HDL is the scavenger of cholesterol within arterial walls and the levels of HDL3 is too low, the ability to remove this cholesterol is reduced. Therefore, it is widely accepted that there is an inverse correlation between HDL3 and CVD risk.
Instrument Specific Applications (ISA’s) are available for a wide range of biochemistry analysers. Contact us to enquire about your specific analyser.
For more information on Randox Reagents, please click here or email reagents@randox.com
Acusera – Internal Quality Control
The Acusera cardiac controls have been designed to cover a wide range of cardiac markers at clinical decision levels, eliminating the extra expense of an additional low level control. The controls are available in a both liquid ready-to-use and lyophilized formats making them ideal for all situations and manufactured from 100% human serum a matrix similar to that of the patient is guaranteed. For more information on the Randox Acusera internal quality control, please click here or email acusera@randox.com
RIQAS – External Quality Control
The RIQAS Liquid Cardiac EQA programme is designed to monitor the performance of up to 9clinically significant cardiac markers including: CK-MB mass, D-dimer, Digoxin, homocysteine, hsCRP, myoglobin, NT proBNP, troponin I, and troponin T. RIQAS is ISO/IEC 17043 accredited and allows the registration of up to five instruments at no extra cost. All samples are 100% human serum and provided in a liquid ready-to-use format for enhanced convenience. Submit your results bi-weekly and view reports online via RIQAS.Net. For more information on RIQAS, the world’s largest international EQA scheme, please click here or email acusera@randox.com
For further information, please contact the Randox PR team via email: randoxpr@randox.com or phone 028 9442 2413
Heart attack test H-FABP 12 times faster than current methods
As the supplier of a pioneering diagnostic able to assist with differentiating between coronary pain and non-cardiac chest pain, Randox Laboratories has this week welcomed news about the importance of introducing new innovations which can significantly improve patient outcomes.
Prioritising people presenting with a heart attack over those with non-cardiac chest pain is one of the biggest challenges A&E doctors face – there are around 200,000 heart attacks each year in the UK, but around 1 million people come to A&E with chest pains. According to a team from King’s College London, as reported by the BBC, a faster, more accurate diagnosis of whether chest pain is caused by a heart attack would save the health service millions of pounds each year by sending well patients home and freeing up beds. Yet current testing methods do not efficiently differentiate between high-risk patients and the estimated 80% of patients who are not having a heart attack.
Randox’s revolutionary test for Heart-Type Fatty Acid-Binding Protein (H-FABP) however, when combined with current testing, is able to rule out a heart attack for patients who present at A&E with chest pain which is caused by other conditions such as respiratory issues, meaning they may not need emergency admission.
When measured at the time a patient presents to A&E with chest pain, H-FABP enables doctors to triage patients suffering with a heart attack more efficiently than before.
Dr. Gary Smyth, Medical Director at Randox Laboratories, hopes that more efficient testing will become widely available so that doctors can identify and prioritise patients at risk;
“Despite the best efforts of our NHS colleagues, EDs across the UK are under tremendous pressure. In many cases people are presenting with chest pain but aren’t suffering from a heart attack, and given that current cardiac tests are not as sensitive as clinicians would like, these patients are being admitted unnecessarily, taking up beds and valuable resources.
“It is imperative that newer, faster tests are adopted because fundamentally this means saving lives.”
H-FABP is released into the bloodstream within 30 minutes of a heart attack, whereas people who are currently admitted to hospital with chest pains may have to wait several hours for test results. Even the latest heart attack test to be adopted by the NHS, troponin, can take up to six hours to provide confirmation.
H-FABP, conversely, is released from the heart during the early stages of a heart attack and because it is so small, it can be detected when the heart cells are being damaged, rather than at the stage when troponin would usually be detected – when cell death has already occurred. The test can also be used to identify people who are at high risk of heart attack in the near future.
Dr. Peter FitzGerald, Founder and Managing Director of Randox Laboratories, commented;
“Research shows that patients who were troponin negative and therefore sent home from hospital, but who were positive for H-FABP, were at high risk of death – as high as a 20% chance of death that same year.
“If the H-FABP test was added to existing tests upon arrival at hospital, doctors could quickly and accurately rule out the 80% of chest pain patients who are not having a heart attack, allowing resources to be focused on those who are actually at high risk.”
For further information on H-FABP, please visit http://www.randox.com/h-fabp/, or contact the Randox PR team by phoning (0) 28 9442 2413 or emailing randoxpr@randox.com
World Heart Day – 29th September 2017
World Heart Day – 29th September – Introduction
This year (29th September 2017) join us as we help to raise awareness for World Heart Day! The theme for this year’s World Heart Day is to share the power – and you know what they say… “Knowledge is Power” so throughout this blog we will be providing vital knowledge as well as tips to having a healthy heart!
The heart is a muscular organ that pumps blood around the body and is indeed central to your circulatory system. The system consists of a network of blood vessels, including, veins, arteries and capillaries. These vessels transport blood – as well as carrying oxygen and other important nutrients – to every part of the body. Ensuring a healthy heart is therefore vital.
What is CVD?
When too much pressure is put on our hearts we start to run into some issues – the general term for conditions affecting the heart is Cardiovascular Disease – better known as CVD. The exact cause of CVD is far from clear, with many factors increasing your chances of developing CVD. These risk factors can include, but are not limited to, high blood pressure, smoking, high cholesterol, being overweight or in many cases, can be hereditary.
It is important to note that Cardiovascular Disease is accountable for nearly half of all non-communicable disease (NCD) deaths, therefore making it the number one killer across the globe! Scary thought considering there are a whopping 17.3 million CVD related deaths per year – including stroke and heart disease. Understanding CVD in today’s society is more important than ever before, we need to know the truth about CVD and be able to decipher the facts from the fiction. Below you can see a few examples of common misconceptions regarding CVD and also some that are indeed true.
Only older men can get heart disease/CVD
False
Cardiovascular Disease can develop before birth
True
Exercising won’t help if you’re genetically predisposed to CVD
False
Low and middle-income countries are the most susceptible to CVD
True
It is estimated that by 2030 the number of deaths, due to CVD, will rise to an enormous 23 million globally! However, by raising awareness of the critical numbers and facts we can all help prevent CVD by making small, simple lifestyle changes.
Tips for a Healthy Heart
Using our “art into heart” graphic below, we decided to outline some of our Randox QC top tips for staying healthy! Why not try some of them and feel the effects of having a happy, healthy heart!
This World Heart Day, join us and many more around the world, to raise awareness for this great cause and unite together to “Share the Power”.