Multiplex Technology for Autoimmune Diagnostics Can Reduce Costs and Increase Throughput

GSD has partnered with Theradiag (formerly known as Biomedical Diagnostics, BMD) to provide laboratories with the FIDIS™ suite of products for detection of the auto-antibodies associated with connective tissue diseases, CREST syndrome, lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis, polymyositis, dermatomyositis, scleroderma, Sjögren syndrome, thyroid syndromes, Celiac and many others.

Autoimmune diagnosis can be complicated and expensive. Multiplex technology allows clinicians to perform an entire panel of assays in a single well and generate the same results with drastically less laboratory resources and patient sample requirements. For example, the FIDIS™ Connective 10 panel simultaneously detects antibodies for dsDNA, SS-A, SS-B, RNP, Sm, Jo-1, Scl-70, ribosomal P and centromere, all in a single well. Major cost savings can be achieved through decreased labor and higher throughput.

The FIDIS™ system employs Luminex^® xMAP^® technology, along with proprietary MLX booster™ software to provide rapid and precise results for autoimmune diagnosis. xMAP^® uses proprietary microsphere beads for multiplexing. A single well can contain up to 500 microsphere beads, each coated with a reagent specific to a particular assay. The beads are color coded, allowing for accurate, automated reading of results by an advanced optical system.