Update: PRISCA - prenatal risk calculation software
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics announced the release of PRISCA version 5.0 Prenatal Risk Calculation Software available in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The upgraded version offers the industry’s only Shared Database that allows laboratories to compare data and integrate patient demographic factors into the analysis. Both of these features help increase the accuracy of the median against which patient results are measured, ultimately improving the accuracy of the diagnostic results. The software’s expanded screening protocols also allow for greater precision in patient risk assessment.
PRISCA version 5.0 uses a combination of data from Siemens IMMULITE maternal screening assays, patient demographic data and ultrasound measurements to assess prenatal risk for fetal chromosomal abnormalities (trisomy 13, trisomy 18 and trisomy 21) and neural tube defects. The advanced software helps physicians minimize the use of invasive procedures like amniocentesis which carry the potential risk for fetal loss.
“Pathologists and physicians are faced with an overwhelming amount of patient data and are asked to make diagnostic decisions faster than ever,” said Eric Olson, Vice President of Informatics and eBusiness, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. “PRISCA 5.0 enhances maternal and prenatal care by bringing together laboratory, imaging and patient data to support clinical decisions.”
This latest version of PRISCA allows laboratories to track their median values against other laboratories participating in the Shared Database, helping laboratories to identify and use the most statistically appropriate data. The Shared Database also supports analysis of demographic factors, such as race and ethnicity, which have different statistical profiles and can impact the accuracy of the median value.
“The benefit of PRISCA is that it gives us reliable statistical results,” said Clara Corona de Lau, Chief Executive Officer of Biomedica de Referencia, a reference lab in Mexico. “The PRISCA Shared Database allows us to calculate our national medians increasing the precision of risk assessment by taking national demographic factors into account,” according to Corona de Lau, who pioneered the introduction of first trimester maternal screening in Mexico.
Screening protocols, like those provided with PRISCA 5.0, calculate prenatal risk by using a combination of patient demographics, nuchal translucency imaging and biochemical markers, providing up to 90 percent detection rates with low false positives.1 The new version offers combined trisomy 13 and trisomy 18 screening in the first trimester as well as inhibin A quadruple testing in the second trimester.
“Maternal screening is a highly complex process. It is important that diagnostic software be updated regularly so physicians have access to the latest screening tools available and to help minimize the number of invasive diagnostic procedures performed,” said Prof. Tim Reynolds, MD, Consultant Chemical Pathologist for Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Deputy Chairman of the Joint Working Group on Quality Assurance in Pathology. “The new version of PRISCA ensures it maintains its reputation as a user-friendly, effective maternal screening software package for laboratory use.”
17.06.2010
