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Roche v-TAC revolutionises blood gas testing to fight COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is putting an unprecedented demand on healthcare staff and resources. Healthcare systems all over the world are looking for innovative solutions to assist in the early and accurate diagnosis and effective monitoring of the disease.

For COVID-19 patients that show signs of respiratory distress, or who have been placed on ventilation support, blood gas testing is critical.1,2 The v-TAC software solution is a new technology offered by Roche that is revolutionising blood gas testing. 

Roche v-TAC calculates arterial blood gas values from venous blood.  This may circumvent the need to draw blood from arterial punctures, which can be complex and painful, and offers the potential to provide key results faster to optimise treatment and care pathways. 

 

Rapid patient screening in the emergency department

 

A blood sample for venous blood gas testing can easily be collected and then converted to arterial values which may guide towards faster and more appropriate treatment for COVID-19 and other patients.

 

Monitoring of COVID-19 patients in non-intensive care unit (ICU) settings

 

The Roche v-TAC solution enables the use of venous blood and closer monitoring of patients with respiratory compromise in non-ICU settings.3 Early detection of rapid clinical deterioration and change of treatment strategy is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines.4,5

 

Product information

 

Roche v-TAC is an advanced software algorithm that converts venous blood gas values, combined with an oxygen saturation measurement (SpO2), to arterial blood gas values.

The software can be used with the cobas b 123 POC system (configurations 3 and 4) and cobas b 221 system from Roche.  In addition, v-TAC works seamlessly with the existing blood gas analyzers from leading manufacturers by capturing venous blood gas results through a data manager in the hospital IT system.

The v-TAC software calculates arterial values instantly and automatically transfers the results to the patient information system and allows their printing on a normal network printer. 

Roche v-TAC is CE-marked as an in vitro diagnostic (IVD).

Roche v-TAC

A mobile, cartridge-based, critical care blood gas and electrolytes analyser designed for point of care (POC) blood gas testing.

cobas b 221 system

cobas b 221 system

Deliver rapid and reliable results at the point of care with this easy to handle blood gas and electrolytes analyser system.  

Abbreviations

covid-19: coronavirus disease 2019; POC: point of care; SARS-CoV-2: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

 

References

  1. Anesi GL. (2020). Article available from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-critical-care-and-airway-management-issues [Accessed May 2020]
  2. Nicastri E, Petrosillo N, Bartoli TA et al. (2020) Infect Dis Rep 16, 8543
  3. OBI Medeical. (2020). v-TAC Product Description. 
  4. World Health Organisation. (2020). Article available from https://www.who.int/publications-detail/clinical-management-of-severe-acute-respiratory-infection-when-novel-coronavirus-(ncov)-infection-is-suspected [Accessed May 2020]
  5. Alhazzani et al.(2020). Intesive Care Med 46, 854-887