Myconostica, UK, a developer of diagnostic products and services for fungal infections, has unveiled details about its first diagnostic product that provides accurate results for two of the most common fungal diseases in less than half a day, enabling clinicians to make faster decisions and to potentially start treatment earlier than was possible before.
FXG: RESP (Asp +) is a multiplex, real-time PCR-based product that helps diagnose aspergillus and pneumocystis fungi, which are common causative agents of life-threatening respiratory infections.
A showcase at the Trends in Medical Mycology 2007 conference in Italy followed a successful clinical evaluation of the kit and the CE marking of the company’s fungal DNA extraction kit (MycXtra) to European member countries. Myconostica plans further performance evaluation studies to support the products.
More than 10 million people annually in Europe and North America are at risk for developing life-threatening respiratory fungal infections. Many diagnostic methods are slow and imprecise, relying mainly on culturing patient samples (>3 days), which may lead to a poor diagnosis and contribute to mortality.
The product is not FDA-approved.
