Patient Stories: Improving Point of Care Treatment with epoc® Blood Analysis System
epoc® and Sepsis - Meet Dora
Get critical test results quickly with our epoc Blood Analysis System. A handheld, wireless solution to enable comprehensive blood analysis testing at the patient’s side.
It is estimated that sepsis causes 6 million deaths per year1, a serious medical condition caused by an overwhelming immune response to infection.
How quickly can epoc help your patients?
Serum lactate and creatinine, as part of a sepsis resuscitation bundle are recommended as critical measures in surviving sepsis. A result from the epoc handheld device is ready in less than a minute and is used at the patient side. Paramedics can call in the results while en route to the hospital.
In comparison, lab results - even as a STAT - can take 30 minutes.
Why are quick results vital for patient care?
Serum lactate and creatinine, as part of a sepsis resuscitation bundle are recommended as critical measures in surviving sepsis. Lactate clearance is associated with improved patient outcomes3 and high initial levels are associated with an increased risk of death4.
What can epoc do for the health sector?
Sepsis can be expensive to treat, costing the UK economy up to £15.6 billion annually4. Using the epoc Blood Analysis System can transform care delivery across the sepsis clinical pathway with fast and accurate results. In doing so, it reduces cost, decreases time to therapy and improves outcomes.
epoc and Kidney Function - Meet Tom
Before many imaging procedures, patients are injected intravenously with contrast media, substances used to enhance contrast in medical imaging and improve visualisation. While these contrast agents are safe, in rare cases they cause kidney damage. Therefore, clinicians may assess a patient’s kidney function to determine if there’s risk in using the contrast agents.
Assessment may begin with a simple checklist, identifying key risk factors such as being over 60 years old or having certain illnesses such as diabetes. Then, if necessary, the clinician may order a blood test.
What does contrast media have to do with kidneys?
Contrast agents are injected intravenously, but are cleared from the body by the kidneys. When kidney function is impaired, it takes longer for the contrast media to leave the body, prolonging exposure to the kidneys, which may cause additional damage.
How do blood tests indicate a need for concern when contrast material is injected?
An accurate measure of kidney function is the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), which takes into account the serum creatinine value and also the patient’s age, race, and gender. Four large studies released in 2013 and 2014 found that in patients with a stable baseline eGFR ≥45 mL/min/1.73 m2, contrast media are not an independent nephrotoxic risk factor, and patients with a stable baseline eGFR 30-44 mL/min/1.73 m2, contrast media are rarely nephrotoxic, if at all1.
Improving the patient experience with point-of-care testing
Having a blood test could cause an additional burden for patients who need their eGFR tested. They may need to schedule a separate appointment just for the blood draw, or wait up to a few hours for the sample to be transported to the lab and processed before the imaging can occur.
However, with point-of-care testing, clinicians can take a small sample of blood right in the radiology centre and obtain creatinine with eGFR results in less than 5 minutes. By optimising the diagnostic experience, patients like Tom save time, and the clinic has streamlined the patient-testing workflow.
