Biochemistry analysers

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Tim Cheyne — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 15:53:13 GMT

You have my sympathy, Hannah, and the name makes it sound like an exotic ice cream. It does illustrate, though, why I prefer the flexibility of wet chemistry even though it takes a little more time and requires various accessories such as pipettes.

Re: Biochemistry analysers

HMC — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 10:21:41 GMT

I have a hatred for our biochemisty machine (Menarini Spotchem EZ). I cannot imagine any vet choosing to buy it (it was the powers-that-be who dictated the choice).

It is obviously meant for human medicine: the 'heart profile' (of which we have 25 strips that will never be used) is for detecting myocardial infarctions, so the paperwork tells me. The liver profile does not contain ALP (which does not come as a separate individual strip) and the kidney profile does not contain phosphate (but this comes individually). AST also does not come individually so cannot be measured except in the liver profile. It does not measure bile acids. I could go on and on....

We have had some really dodgy results- in the 8 weeks that I have been here I can think of 3 examples, 2 of which were so outlandish that it was obviously a fault and repeat testing came back more normal.

I avoid using it wherever possible but we do not have a courier service for external bloods, so sending to Greendale takes a few days to get results.

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Tim Cheyne — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:34:53 GMT

Way back in late June there was a discussion of biochemistry analysers. Did anyone decide on a suitable replacement for their existing equipment?

I considered the Randox Rx Monza amongst others, quite a nice semi-automatic wet chemistry machine but the price being asked (out here) was not sufficiently competitive with other, very similar, analysers that we were considering although, to be fair, Randox Head Office did eventually imply that they could come to an arrangement with us but too late (another machine was already on order). How did others fare?

Tim.

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Paul Herriot — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:48:27 GMT

Hi Rob,

Please let me introduce myself, my name is Paul Herriot and I work for Randox Laboratories as the Regional Sales Executive.

Randox Laboratories are a clinical diagnostic manufacturer based in Crumlin, County Antrim. Randox is a prestigious name among the veterinary and diagnostics market. We have almost 30 years experience in manufacturing laboratory equipment and reagents and have over 60,000 customers across the globe that choose Randox every day. Due to experience and research, Randox have become a market leader in veterinary diagnostics.

We can provide specialist tests which are difficult to source, some of our most popular being bile acids, copper, fructosamine, non-esterified fatty acids and d-3 hydroxybutyrate. The RX Monza boasts a total of 128 programmable channels, 64 pre-programmed channels and 33 tests designed for the veterinary market.

At Randox we our pleased to introduce the RX Monza on a monthly payment package, from £136 per month.

Thank you for your time and if you have any queries or would like a demonstration please feel free to contact myself.

My email is paul.herriot@randox.com

You can also check out our website, www.randox.com

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Rob Davis — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:25:09 GMT

Many thanks for all the replies so far. The vetscan certainly sounds worth a look, although I would prefer more versatility to run single tests. I am also keen to be able to run more than one sample concurrently which I suspect isn't an option with the vetscan. The Quantum analyser from Woodley looks interesting, though I have no idea what it costs yet. I am planning to organise some demonstrations over the next few weeks and will report back in due course.

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Colin Cameron — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:30:58 GMT

Still using vettest 8008 which has proved to be very reliable over the last 8 years and now it is on secondary rental and quarterly maintenance agreement running costs are very modest at less than £7.00 a week plus slides. I also have the Lasercyte and Vetstat . The Lasercyte can be a little bit temperamental but the Vetstat seems on par with the Vettest 8008. I agree with others that the sales pitch can be hardline so be careful here!!! All in all it is basically decent kit with technical support pretty good (post purchase support from sales is not good at all!) We have direct transfer of results to clinical records on Jupiter Voyager. I like the versatily of vettest 8008 as you can do individual slides or up to 12 parameter profiles. I have no experience of any wet system but have been satisfied with Idexx kit on the whole. The company, however, is a different matter!!! I have contacted other suppliers of in house lab equipment and had very poor reponses so did not pursue any thoughts of buying their stuff. I will stick with Idexx until it is all out of lease and then look at the alternatives again. It all seems a bit of a jungle out there now and you will have to do lots or arithmetic ( do not rely on the company rep ) etc . Good luck

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Tim Cheyne — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:47:02 GMT

Yes, for an individual sample or just two or three in a day I am sure that VetScan is very convenient; pre-programmed profile, about one minute set-up time, and read after a 15 minute spin, but we tend to work on batches of up to twenty samples with slightly different requirements. To test one every 15 minutes and obtain a profile the whole of which we might not want would be extremely tedious. That is why I prefer the flexibility of wet chemistry in a semi-automated analyser. As I said earlier, what you buy is determined by what you want and how many samples to be tested. Unfortunately there is no one size fits all, although the reps will try to convince you otherwise.

Tim.

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Rob Loxley — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:07:50 GMT

Some background might help - what do you currently have; what do you use it for (range of tests, profiles or individual assays); what type of practice; what do you like/dislike about your current machine; how many tests a day etc. etc. In particular, are you looking at buying a Vettest or moving away from one?

Another +1 for the Vetscan2 (upgraded from the original Vetscan) in terms of size of machine, ease of use, reliability, lack of routine maintenance needed, ability to do proper T4s, small sample volume and run on whole blood. Obviously same limitations as mentioned on running profiles only (e.g. no just checking serial calcium levels), slowish throughput, cost of rotors vs. bottles of wet chemicals.

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:29:36 GMT

+1 for Vetscan. I find I run their comprehensive profile virtually every time because it has K and Na on as well. We used to have a Vettest and a separate electrolyte analyser but the convenience of being able to do individual tests is outweighed by ease of use and the overall economy of having one machine. I also find the results correlate well to reference labs, possibly because it is wet chemistry, but in a convenient package. QCR/Trio are generally good to deal with although the telephone staff are occasionally surly, the reps and tech guys are friendly and accomodating. They will repair Vettest, Statspin and QBC machines as well quickly and more cheaply than Idexx. Their maintenance contracts are good and they'll send out loan machines the same day.

I had a colleague who like Menarini machines but I have no experience and they looked pricy to me.

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Tim Cheyne — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:18:28 GMT

It does depend upon what you want, and expect from your analyser, and how many samples you intend to analyse at a time or in a day. . I would always look for alternatives to VetTest (!) and have seen too many problems with the IDEXX conglomerate in other labs to want it in mine. I prefer wet chemistry to dry chemistry and I do not like the rigid profiles of such as VetScan but if you are examining only one or two samples such systems have their advantages.

Do you want full automation where you set it up and allow it to get on with the job while you do something else, or semi-automatic where you feed samples in and continuously monitor the results. Do you want a separate electrolyte analyser?

I too am re-equipping my lab to replace an old faithfull Unifast Sclavo for which spare parts are no longer available and at the moment am battling to get working a BPC biosed Kuadro for fixed end point analyses (proteins, minerals) to support a semi-automated BPCbiosed 'Prime' for the kinetics (muscle enzymes, etc) that I like to monitor and repeat or dilute as necessary. I hear that the successor to the Kuadro, the name of which I forget, is better than the original; try 'VetLab supplies' website for info. I am looking also at the Randox Monza (advertised on this site) but it does seem expensive.

Overall there are many good analysers on the market but you need to find one that suits your needs and pocket and then ask for a free demo or 7-day test run.

Tim.

Re: Biochemistry analysers

Bob Russell — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:13:58 GMT

We have run the VetScan for a lot of years. it has looked after us well. Because it uses rotors it is a little less flexible than the VetTest.

Running costs are Ok and it has been extremely reliable - 2 problems in 7 years, one of which was overheating because the fan at the back was blocked with fur! A quick phone call and a couple of minutes with a screw driver it was back to normal.

I refused to move to Idexx when we were considering changing but they came out and did the hard 'double glazing' sell and offered me a deal that was too good to be true. Unsurprisingly it was too good to be true and simple maths showed that it would have cost of fortune to go with their machines.

QC samples sent to our external lab have shown remarkably similar results to theirs so overall I am quite confident in the results given.

QCR service is generally good although it was a bit patchy at times in the past.

Very easy to use indeed.

If you are running large numbers of samples this may not be the machine for you but for a small to medium SA practice seems a safe bet.