Analyser automates all the preparation and staining steps involved in anti-nuclear antibody screening and provides more consistent appearance of stained slides
The AFT 2000 is a totally open walk-away workload processor which allows immunology staff to automate the tedious and time-consuming process of slide preparation and staining.
The incidence of allergic and autoimmune disease has increased rapidly, which has lead immunology workloads to grow by 10-20% per annum nationwide.
Also, the range and complexity of autoimmune markers that can be tested for has expanded and growth in demand for these new tests is expected to soar.
Currently the most commonly requested assay is the anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) screen.
Most laboratories test for ANAs using rodent tissue blocks or HEp-2 cells and an indirect immunoflourescent (IIF) staining technique.
Patient samples are incubated on the slides and then stained with either a fluorescent or colour dye.
As numbers increase this process becomes increasingly laborious.
The AFT 2000 automates all the preparation and staining steps of this process, freeing laboratory staff's valuable time and allowing them to concentrate on the newer and more esoteric assays.
The analyser has the added advantage of removing the risk of samples being misplaced on the slide and of standardising the appearance of the stained slides as washing and incubation protocols are consistent for every batch.
This makes ANA pattern identification more reliable.
In conjunction with the AFT 2000, Alpha Laboratories offers a one-stop shop for all autoimmune serology testing.
