Global in vitro diagnostics company EKF Diagnostics has announced the successful evaluation of its Quo-Lab point of care HbA1c analyser by the European Reference Laboratory for Glycohemoglobin.

In a recently published paper, the reference laboratory’s evaluation study assessed HbA1c (glycated haemoglobin) point of care (POC) devices using international quality targets, posing the question “Are they fit for purpose?” Out of thirty available on the market and the four that agreed to participate, only EKF’s Quo-Lab and one other analyser passed the same stringent quality criteria as laboratory analysers, achieving excellent analytical performance.

The study aimed to evaluate the four POC HbA1c instruments according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) protocols and how they performed when different criteria were applied using four certified IFCC and NGSP secondary reference measurement procedures (SRMPs). The reference laboratory study confirmed there was minimal bias between Quo-Lab and the mean of four SRMPs, it also passed all relevant performance criteria going far beyond what is required for NGSP and IFCC certification.

Notably, Quo-Lab showed no consistent clinically significant interference from the common haemoglobin (Hb) variants HbAS, HbAC, HbAD, HBAE and elevated A2. It also easily met imprecision criteria, achieving a ≤2.4% CV in IFCC SI units and ≤1.7% CV in DCCT units which represents a significant improvement on previous studies.

This evaluation success follows last year’s similarly excellent evaluation of EKF’s Quo-Test HbA1c analyser which was again confirmed to meet IFCC performance criteria. Although not included in this latest study, Lenters-Westra felt it important enough to mention in the conclusion that the Quo-Test’s improved performance also had no bias compared to the mean of three SRMPs.

Gavin Jones, Diabetes Product Manager, EKF Diagnostics, said “The excellent performance that Quo-Lab has demonstrated in this latest study confirms that it is very definitely fit for purpose, delivering reliable HbA1c results in a range of settings. This study also highlights the performance improvements that we have made to both our Quo-Lab and Quo-Test HbA1c analyzers to fulfill increasingly tough requirements from the IFCC. This means that both analyzers meet the same rigorous quality criteria as laboratory analyzers.”

Quo-Lab HbA1c is a desktop analyser designed specifically to meet the needs of diabetes clinics and laboratories in settings that demand low cost of operation and ease of use. From a simple semi-automated procedure, Quo-Lab provides test results within four minutes from a venous or finger prick blood sample of just 4 μL. Quo-Lab uses the same boronate affinity methodology as Quo-Test which is also unaffected by Hb variants. Step by step instructions are displayed on a clear, multilingual display, therefore staff training time is minimised and the opportunity for error reduced. Quo-Lab is CE marked and available for sale in most global markets subject to local registration requirements.