NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Jan 15, 2014) - Daxor Corporation, (NYSE MKT: DXR)
The 43rd annual meeting of the Society of Critical Care Medicine concluded on January 13th in San Francisco. At the meeting, a presentation was made by Drs. Carsten Bandt, Jessica Rivera, et al. of the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL and the University of California, Davis, CA UF, Gainesville, FL. in Critical Care Medicine (Volume 41, Number 12) concerning the use of blood samples as small as one ml. to obtain a blood volume measurement.
The standard blood sample size for adults is between four to five ml and five to six samples are required for a blood volume measurement. This amount is slightly more than one ounce of blood and is an insignificant loss of blood for an adult. For small children and infants, this sample size if repeat measurements were needed, could result in significant blood loss.
The accurate measurement of blood loss both during surgery and in critically ill patients is very difficult to obtain. There are thousands of adults treated in intensive care units who die every year because their physicians are using so-called surrogate or substitute tests. This results in incorrect guesses of a patient's blood volume status. If fluids or blood transfusions are improperly withheld from patients who have extremely low blood volume (hypovolemia), the result can be irreversible organ damage or even death. At the present time the BVA-100 blood volume analyzer is not used for blood volume measurement in infants or small children.
The purpose of the research study was to determine if samples as small as one ml. (or 1/5th the usual sample size) could result in accurate measurement of blood loss in small pigs who weighed approximately 20 pounds. The pig's blood volume was measured using both a standard sample size and a micro sample size. The pigs then were then given a dose of a bacterial toxin which simulated the type of situation seen in septic patients in an intensive care unit. Septic patients experience multiple derangements including damage to the capillary vessels of the blood system.
Such patients may experience a capillary leak syndrome which results in an acute shrinkage of their blood volume and a collapse of the circulatory system. The timely and accurate restoration of circulation is essential if the patient is to survive and not suffer irreversible organ damage such as the loss of kidney function. In the experiments conducted by the physicians a total of 29 pairs of blood volume measurements were made.
The studies showed that the blood volume analyzer was capable of providing an accurate measurement with a 97.6% concordance between the samples utilizing the usual adult size and the micro samples. This high degree of concordance is strong evidence that the blood volume analyzer can provide accurate measurements in situations where a microscopic dose might be sufficient. Utilizing such a low dose would require modification of the injectate and standards provided for blood volume measurement.
The company has received previous requests from pediatric surgeons to consider the development of a system which could use micro samples. This complex study performed by Drs. Bandt, Rivera, et al. is the first clear proof that it is feasible to develop a system using micro samples. Such a system would be particularly important in pediatric surgery on children weighing between 10 and 20 pounds. The Company will consider performing another study to determine if an even smaller sample size would be feasible.
Daxor Corporation is an investment company with medical instrumentation and biotechnology operations which manufactures the BVA-100, the only FDA approved semi-automated blood volume analyzer.