TpP: IMPROVING THE DIAGNOSIS OF BLOOD CLOTS

Blood clots are implicated in a number of serious medical conditions from myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack, to strokes, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) and are the leading cause of death in the industrial world. In the effort to save the lives of people at risk from thrombosis (the formation of blood clots), the medical community is seeking both to improve the medicines used to treat blood clots and to improve the tests used to diagnose them.

The need for a more accurate and flexible diagnostic assay for thrombosis is clear: Physicians will have more reliable information on a patient's condition, available when they need it. Lives will be saved and health care costs will be markedly reduced. Using monoclonal antibodies generated by the company's proprietary Antigen-Free antibody technology, ABS specifically designed the Thrombus precursor Protein (TpP) test to satisfy those criteria.

The TpP test measures blood levels of soluble fibrin, which is the immediate precursor to a key component of blood clots. In clinical terms, this is important, since other cardiovascular diagnostic tests tend to measure blood markers that are either released as a result of the damage already done by a clot, or that appear too early to accurately determine whether a clot will actually form. TpP offers physicians the right information at the right time, and allows them to make the best possible treatment decision.