, /PRNewswire/ -- Beckman Coulter, a global leader in clinical diagnostics, today announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance of its Access NT-proBNP (N-terminal Pro B-type Natriuretic Peptide) assay for the assessment of heart failure in less than 11 minutes on the Beckman Coulter DxI 9000 Immunoassay Analyzer*.
The Access NT-proBNP assay aids in diagnosing patients suspected of having acute heart failure in emergency departments as well as assessing the severity and risk stratification of patients with heart failure and acute coronary syndrome. According to the , nearly 6.5 million Americans over the age of 20 have heart failure, accounting for approximately 8.
5% of all heart disease deaths in . Beckman Coulter's Access NT-proBNP assay measures concentrations of N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide in serum or plasma that originates in a person's heart. High levels of natriuretic peptides can indicate heart failure.
As recommended in the latest heart failure guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, the Access NT-proBNP assay provides age-based cutoffs for diagnosis of heart failure to ensure results are evaluated in the appropriate clinical context for each patient. In addition to age, other patient factors such as gender, obesity and kidney failure can affect natriuretic peptide levels. The Access NT-proBNP assay provides clinical performance information for these subsets of patients to assist clinicians' sample .
