PORTLAND, Ore. and ACCRA, Ghana, June 20, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hemex Health announced that the results of two investigations into the effectiveness of their Gazelle™ point-of-care Hb Variant test confirm that the test is suitable for screening for sickle cell disease in remote settings and is highly accurate for use in therapy monitoring.
The two studies, based in Ghana, demonstrate the value of the Gazelle™ Hb Variant test in multiple environments and use cases. The studies, one set in an urban hospital and the other in rural primary care clinics, show the utility and accuracy of Gazelle for sickle cell testing and use in therapy monitoring at point of care.
Researchers believe the findings are significant because populations with a high prevalence of the sickle cell gene living in remote settings often lack access to testing. The Gazelle test allows these patients to be tested near their homes, avoiding significant travel or the wait times involved with sending tests off to a central lab.
Data from the studies were presented recently at conferences.
Cathy Segbefia, MD, Department of Child Health, University of Ghana Medical School and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana presented “Point-of-care diagnostic for foetal haemoglobin quantification in children undergoing hydroxyurea therapy for Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) in Ghana” at the 2024 Foundation for Sickle Cell Research conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on June 9th.
The purpose of this study was to assess the use of Gazelle for monitoring patients on hydroxyurea. Hydroxyurea is a treatment that encourages production of fetal hemoglobin in patients with SCD, with the effect of mitigating many of the complications due to the disease. The study, led by Dr. Segbefia, shows that Gazelle could accurately quantify fetal hemoglobin levels in patients who used the drug and that Gazelle’s correlation with HPLC (a high-end laboratory test) was 0.98.
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