Taking Cytokine Testing by Storm: Automated 7-Test Inflammation Panel from Siemens Healthineers Offers Faster Insights, More Information

Not for publication in the U.S.

• Elevated patient cytokines are associated with acute and chronic inflammatory diseases 
• Early detection is critical to prevent a more extreme immune response 
• Broad, automated test menu enables more information, timely intervention, lower testing cost

Siemens Healthineers announced today it launched four new blood biomarkers for a fully automated inflammation testing panel of seven immunoassays with turnaround times ranging from 35-65 minutes.¹ These assays are performed on the IMMULITE 2000/2000 XPi Immunoassay System—a widely available analyzer for routine patient testing needs across 18 disease states, including allergies—to make inflammatory disease testing accessible to any-sized lab. The IMMULITE 2000 XPi inflammation marker panel includes the company’s proven IL-6, IL2R, and LBP markers and four new markers: IL-1β, IL-8, IL-10, and TNFα. 

While inflammation can be a normal body response to infection, more extreme immune responses including cytokine storm and chronic inflammatory conditions can cause wide-scale cellular and organ tissue damage when pro-inflammatory cytokines overwhelm and attack healthy cells. Dysregulated cytokines can cause fluid leakage from capillaries, for example, causing blood clots to form. The immunoassays offered by Siemens Healthineers detect cytokines that play crucial roles in inflammation. When detected early, they can indicate the onset of inflammatory or immune-mediated diseases that raise warning flags to physicians that their patients may be at risk of further damage. 

Inflammation also can occur in acute situations such as post-operation infection or with chronic diseases or result from more extreme immune responses associated with COVID-19, sepsis, and other conditions. Elevated serum levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines have been found in patients with conditions such as cytokine storm,² respiratory diseases,² cancer,³ major depressive disorder,⁴ rheumatoid arthritis,⁵ and diabetes.⁶ 

“Offering this testing on the IMMULITE platform is particularly useful for hospitalized patients suspected to have life-threatening inflammation because their samples can more easily be tested within the hospital’s own laboratory rather than being outsourced to a third-party reference or specialty laboratory,” said Bob Stowers, executive vice president and head of the Specialty Lab Solutions business for Diagnostics, Siemens Healthineers. “The broad menu enables laboratory staff to support physicians with more information about their patients’ health faster for earlier intervention, while simultaneously eliminating higher costs and longer turnaround times associated with outsourcing this testing or running these tests on a non-automated instrument.” 

Inflammation testing on the IMMULITE analyzers offers advantages for patients, physicians, and laboratory staff over the traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or ELISA, method. The analyzers automate all of the sample handling such as performing pipetting steps from a single tube of blood for all the tests ordered in the full panel or individual markers as needed. The IMMULITE also automates the data analysis for streamlined test reporting to physicians. More information about the fully automated inflammation testing panel from Siemens Healthineers can be found at: https://siemens-healthineers.com/inflammation-panel.