BD Launches Near Patient CD4 Counter System for HIV Patients

BD Biosciences is launching its FACSPresto Near Patient CD4 Counter System in CE mark countries after receiving authorization March 28, the company said Thursday.

UNAIDS and the World Health Organization estimate that in 2012, there were 2.2 million people living with HIV in the WHO European region, which includes 53 countries from Iceland in the west to Turkey and Israel in the east.

FACSPresto — comprised of disposable cartridges, workstation, software and instrument — is portable, uses graphics rather than language, has a rechargeable battery and weighs only 13.2 pounds. This allows for use in remote areas of the world and by speakers of almost any language, BD said.

The lag in time between diagnosis of HIV and CD4 testing can be a disincentive to get tested at all, potentially aggravating the spread of the virus by patients who don’t know that they’re infected, BD spokesman Scott Bornheimer told Device Daily Bulletin.

FACSPresto’s four-minute result time is a critical innovation, because it simplifies the workload and allows clinicians to test multiple people quickly, he added.

To use the test, blood is drawn, incubated in the cartridge and then inserted into the instrument, which produces both absolute and percentage CD4 T lymphocyte counts and hemoglobin concentrations. Clinicians can accurately stage the disease in both adults and children, the devicemaker said.

BD Biosciences plans eventually to bring FACSPresto to the U.S., where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 1.1 million people were living with HIV in 2013. — Lena Freund

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