Health and Medicine
Automated Analysis Workstation
Automated microscopic analysis of fecal concentrates can be performed
at reduced cost, higher accuracy and with enhanced worker safety by a new
counter top clinical workstation. DiaSys Corporation of Waterbury, Connecticut
has developed the FE-2, an easy-to-use workstation for rapid location and
identification of parasites, cysts and ova in human feces.
Several years ago, information appearing in the pages of the NASA
Tech Briefs publication assisted DiaSys's manufacturing of the R/S
2000, the company's first product. There is now a family of "R/S"
workstations, all of which speed up, standardize, automate and make safer
the laboratory analysis of urine sediment. The initial "R/S"
workstation was made possible in part by coverage of work at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and Langley Research Center. This stimulated a fast-paced roll-out
of additional products from DiaSys.
The success of the R/S 2000 was followed by the R/S 1000, another product
that standardizes automated urine sediment analysis for small hospital
labs, physician group practices, "stat" labs, and outpatient
clinics.
| DiaSys Corporation's FE-2 workstation
eliminates the need and cost of disposable pipettes, microscope slides,
and cover slips for faster and safer analysis of fecal concentrates. |
In September 1995, DiaSys introduced its third product, the R/S 2003.
This larger, more advanced system standardizes and drives the cost out
of routine urine sediment analysis conducted by larger labs and lab networks.
The DiaSys workstations have been named the preferred practice by SmithKline
Beecham Laboratories, Kaiser Permanente of Southern California, and many
other hospitals and private lab groups.
Recently, a fourth workstation product was released to market--the FE-2.
This latest technology is a workstation that automates the process of making
and manipulating wet-mount preparations of fecal concentrates. A decrease
in time needed to read the sample is achieved, permitting technologists
to rapidly spot parasites, ova (eggs) and cysts, sometimes carried in the
lower intestinal tract of humans and animals.
The FE-2 workstation corrects the procedural shortcomings of current
methodologies in several significant ways. First of all, no special training
is required to operate the FE-2. To operate, the technologist inserts the
instrument's automatic dual aspirator into a prepared fecal concentrate
and presses the "sample" button on the workstation's control
console. Within 5 seconds, a consistent, measured amount of concentrate
is automatically transferred to the workstation's optical slide assembly
(OSA) on the stage of the microscope.
During this process, one chamber of the OSA is inoculated with a small
quantity of the fecal concentrate. The other chamber is inoculated with
an equal mix of fecal concentrate and iodine (for staining) or isotonic
saline (for dilution) as the lab prefers. Observations of the stained (or
diluted) and unstained fecal concentrate are then ready to begin. Purging
the system takes about 7 seconds, after which time the FE-2 is ready to
make the next concentrate slide.
| (Specimen courtesy of Dr. Dwight F. Miller
at Saint Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut.) Parasites in a fecal
sample (at a magnification of 100 power) can be detected by the FE -2. |
Among its virtues, the FE-2 increases the level of safety and precision
by automating the aspiration, resuspension, staining or diluting, transfer,
presentation, and disposal of fecal concentrates. Eliminated is the need
and cost of disposable pipettes, microscope slides, and cover slips. Moreover,
because the fecal concentrate is contained in and manipulated through a
sealed system, the technologist carrying out the work is not exposed to
prolonged inhalation of chemicals such as formalin which are conventionally
used to process raw fecal material.
Employing the FE-2 is non-invasive, can be performed on an out-patient
basis, and quickly provides confirmatory results, says DiaSys Corporation
president, Todd DeMatteo. "To the best of our knowledge, there is
no competitive product or system in the market today," DeMatteo says.
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