Hi George,
I like your site. Thanks for all of your effort! We are going to purchase a new coagulation analyzer soon and leaning towards the Diagnostica Stago instrument (STAR Evolution). Wanted to know what you and your colleagues thought about this instrument especially in comparison to the Dade and the Beckman (IL) instruments. Any comments/help in this regards would be most helpful.
Thanks
Tom
__________________________________________________
Tom E. Howard, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Coagulation & Molecular Pathology Laboratories
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Bldg 500, Rm 1258
11301 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90073
[email protected]
Hi Tim (Dr. Howard). We’ve had Stago equipment at UAB for many years, beginning with the STA and now the STAR, and have had few complaints. We’ve received good attention from Stago’s sales and service departments.
Colleagues tell me the Dade (now owned by Siemens) and Beckman-Coulter instruments all work well, as do the MDAs distributed by Trinity Bio-Tech. The STARs have the advantage that they use electro-mechanical clot detection technology, thus eliminating concern for icterus or lipemia in the plasma sample. The others use optical detection, which is able to produce some form of clot signature (MDA calls it Wave-form) analysis. This enables the operators to check for technical anomalies.
Kim Kinney at Clarian in Indianapolis just switched over to Beckman equipment and has gone through lengthy validations. She may have some insight. I’ve provided your e-mail address in case respondents want to contact you privately, though recommendations are also welcome here. Geo
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