AACC Meeting Highlights New Tests and Research to Better Detect Heart Attacks

New handheld technologies for faster, simpler testing will also be on display.

The 2015 AACC Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo (July 26–30, Atlanta, GA, USA), leading annual event for laboratory medicine, opened Sunday, July 26. This year’s meeting will host more than 400 educational sessions on topics ranging from personalized medicine and infectious diseases to point-of-care (POC) and laboratory-developed tests, and will feature more than 200 new cutting edge diagnostic products.

In addition to symposia, plenary sessions, courses, and poster sessions, AACC 2015 will showcase first-ever live research experiment to improve testing methods to identify heart attacks and risk of their future occurrence. AACC 2015 attendees will have the opportunity to donate blood samples onsite that will be studied in a groundbreaking scientific initiative to improve testing for heart attacks. The aim of this initiative is to establish a baseline for the protein troponin in healthy adults. This research will help accelerate the differentiation of heart attacks from other conditions with similar symptoms in the emergency room, and improve identification of patients at increased risk for cardiovascular events.

The latest tools from top medical diagnostics manufacturers. Exhibitors will show the latest in POC diagnostic tests, as well as tests that will be less invasive, faster, and cheaper. These include the Abbott Point of Care (Princeton, NJ, USA) i-STAT Total β-hCG, the first and only handheld blood test for pregnancy. Research has shown that 9 out of the 11 most popular hospital urine pregnancy tests are unreliable after the first few weeks of pregnancy. In emergency situations, this new blood test could play a crucial role in accurately determining a woman’s pregnancy status before she receives medical treatment that could harm her baby. The Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics’ (Tarrytown, NY, USA) Xprecia Stride Coagulation Analyzer, winner of the prestigious 2015 Red Dot Award for product design. This is the first handheld instrument that enables healthcare providers to determine—in the course of a regular doctor’s office visit—whether a patient who is on blood-thinning medication for the prevention of heart attack and stroke is at risk for uncontrollable bleeding.

AACC's annual meeting offers 5 days with opportunities to learn about exciting science. Plenary sessions feature expert presentations on using tumor DNA in the blood to diagnose and monitor cancer, reducing the risk of heart disease, transparency in healthcare delivery, the latest advances that could lead to a cure for HIV, and new tests and treatments for infection. At the AACC Clinical Lab Expo, over 700 exhibitors will fill the show floor of Atlanta’s convention center, Georgia World Congress Center, with displays of the latest diagnostic technology, including mobile health, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, point-of-care, automation, and more.

Related Links:
American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC)
AACC 2015 Annual Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo