German molecular diagnostics company Curetis has developed its fourth Unyvero IAI Cartridge for the diagnosis of severe intra-abdominal infections.

The panel of the Intra-Abdominal Infection (IAI) cartridge consists of molecular markers which can detect 74 bacteria, 13 fungi, 3 toxins and 22 resistance markers.

It can detect Clostridium difficile, Clostridium perfringens, Aeromonas spp., as well as difficult-to-cultivate strains such as Prevotella spp. and comprises important antibiotic resistance markers such as Colistin resistance marker mcr-1, Fosfomycin resistance marker fosA3 and Nitroimidazol resistance markers nimA and nimB.

"With now four highly multiplexed Unyvero Application Cartridges available on the Unyvero System, we have made it a truly versatile platform."

The IAI Cartridge has been developed to support clinicians for the fast and reliable diagnosis of various severe conditions, including peritonitis, acute abdomen and acute pancreatitis.

Curetis CEO Dr Oliver Schacht said: “With now four highly multiplexed Unyvero Application Cartridges available on the Unyvero System, we have made it a truly versatile platform.

“The IAI panel is a unique and highly differentiated syndromic testing panel and will be followed by new panels in the areas of urinary tract infections, cardiology-related infections, sepsis host response and expanded panels in respiratory diseases in the coming years.”

The newly developed Unyvero IAI Cartridge will constitute Curetis’ Unyvero System, a special operating software which consists of the Unyvero L4 Lysator, the Unyvero A50 Analyzer and the Unyvero C8 Cockpit.

The addition of the Unyvero IAI Cartridge will enable processing of a wide range of clinical samples such as tissue, positively flagged blood cultures, ascites and gastric juice.

The cartridge will undergo further routine clinical testing in hospitals in Europe in the first quarter of 2017 to support the final clinical CE performance evaluation.