Olympus Markets Unique Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG) Test for Alcohol Abuse

Olympus has amended its distribution agreement with the Clinical Diagnostics Group of Thermo Fisher Scientific, to market a completely new test parameter, Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG), which is used for monitoring alcohol-free regimes. Marketed by Olympus as a Thermo Scientific-labelled product in European countries, the DRI EtG Assay kit includes liquid, ready-to-use reagents with high analytical accuracy and is fully compatible with all Olympus AU clinical chemistry analysers.

Ethyl glucuronide or EtG is a direct phase-II metabolite of ethanol, usually only produced when alcohol has been consumed. EtG alcohol testing is unique compared to other alcohol tests since, unlike ethanol, EtG may last for up to five days in urine and confirms beyond all doubt that someone has consumed alcohol during that time. Consequently, it is an ideal test for the detection of recent alcohol intake or for the monitoring of abstinence.

The new easy-to-use EtG test (DRI® Ethyl Glucuronide Enzyme Immunoassay [DRI EtG EIA]) is an enzyme immunoassay based on a new monoclonal antibody. A recent evaluation study1 has demonstrated that the new DRI EtG EIA used on an Olympus AU clinical chemistry analyser is “a sensitive and specific method for quantification of EtG in urine samples, and [it] also offers a low and clinically relevant measuring range”. Due to its high sensitivity for recent alcohol consumption, the study concludes that DRI EtG EIA may be applied for routine screening of recent alcohol exposure in both clinical and forensics settings.

Thermo Fisher Scientific and Olympus have been working together since 2003 when an original agreement was signed between the two companies which covered Olympus distributing a range of Thermo Fisher Scientific products, both as OEM (Olympus livery) and as Thermo Scientific -labelled products (MLP) in European countries.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to expand our agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific since it gives both our customers and theirs access to a wide range of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Drugs of Abuse kits, all of which are optimised for use on the most efficient and best performing clinical chemistry analysers on the market,” said Brian Hickey, Director of Strategic Development, Life Science, Olympus Life Science Europa.

Reference 1: Michael Böttcher, Olof Beck and Anders Helander (2008) Evaluation of a new immunoassay for urinary ethyl glucuronide testing. Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 46–48.