According to the WHO, fertility issues affect one in ten couples, and up to 80 million people globally1. With this number rising, Roche Diagnostic’s new fertility test, Elecsys Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH), is expected to be a welcome diagnostics resource for medical practitioners across the UAE and wider region. Roche Diagnostic’s second and third launches of the day, the cobas HPV test and the Elecsys preeclampsia test are important to address this issue. HPV remains a leading cause of death in women, with nearly 300, 000 deaths per year worldwide2, whilst preeclampsia continues to be a rising concern and a main cause of preterm birth and consequent neonatal morbidity and mortality.

“In introducing these new solutions today, we further our unwavering commitment to providing the latest leading diagnostics solutions to the region,” said Moritz Hartmann, General Manager of Roche Diagnostics Middle East. “This is an outstanding example of how innovation in diagnostics is shifting the disease management paradigm to improve women’s health in the UAE and wider region by enabling local healthcare professionals to get more reliable results faster than conventional protocols being used.”

The AMH blood test is the first fully automated test of its kind for assessing a woman’s ovarian reserve, both locally and globally. Measured during any day of the menstrual cycle, it is an important fertility marker for healthcare professionals in offering superior indicators of ovarian reserve. In addition, the test produces standardized results compared with ultrasound, in which the result is often dependent on the operator or clinic.

New to the region the cobas HPV test, which is the only U.S. FDA approved test, can be used instead of or in addition to pap smear in first-line primary screening for women 25 and older. It provides specific genotyping information for HPV 16 and 18, the highest-risk types responsible for about 70% of cervical cancer. It also simultaneously reports the 12 other high-risk HPV types as a pooled result, all in one run, from one patient sample.

Using the cobas HPV test as a primary screen means that women across the region have access to better and a more accurate standard of care. Screening detects the virus that causes cervical cancer and does a better job identifying women at risk than pap smear testing alone. Furthermore, pap smear testing identifies women with cancer precursors, but not women at risk of developing them like the cobas HPV test does. 

Preeclampsia represents a continuing challenge across the region to clinicians because of the variable features and – until now – the lack of specific diagnostic tests. Physicians have to determine which patient requires medical attention and depending on the test results, reliably exclude or predict the development of the disease in the short-term and confidently focus on those women at high risk of preeclampsia.

Roche Diagnostic’s Elecsys® preeclampsia test predicts the absence of preeclampsia for one week and the development of preeclampsia within the subsequent four weeks. The test result enables healthcare professionals to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations by reliably ruling out preeclampsia for one week and to improve outcome for mother and child by ruling in preeclampsia allowing optimized prenatal care.

References

1. http://www.who.int/genomics/gender/en/index6.html.

2. https://www.aacrfoundation.org/Pages/cervical-cancer-awareness-month.aspx