CHL's service manager for Specialist Labs, Dylan Davies, said the new mass spectrometer is faster, more efficient and more sensitive. Photo: Supplied
A world-first mass spectrometer will improve testing services for people throughout Aotearoa.
The Agilent Infinity III 6475 mass spectrometer was installed in Canterbury Health Laboratories (CHL) in Christchurch in December.
A mass spectrometer determined the mass of molecules in a sample. In healthcare applications it could be used to measure tiny amounts of chemicals in blood samples.
It was the first unit of its type to be installed anywhere in the world, though several others were close to being operational in other countries.
CHL's service manager for Specialist Labs, Dylan Davies, said the new mass spectrometer was faster, more efficient and more sensitive.
It was similar to the unit it was replacing but better in every way, Davies said.
CHL was a Crown-owned pathology service provider, and a teaching laboratory.
The Agilent unit would be used to measure drug levels in blood samples, primarily immunosuppressants used post-transplant, antibiotics and anti depressants.
Canterbury Health Laboratories clinical director Richard King said it helped clinicians know they were treating patients with the right dose of medication to be most effective.
"Clinicians are very reliant on that information, particularly with the immunosuppressants, to dose the patients appropriately to stop them having a rejection. So getting those result reliably back to the clinicians and getting them faster is always important."
The device would get a good workout in Christchurch, where it was expected to analyse about 40,000 samples per year and would operate 22 hours a day, six days a week.
The new device would be about 25 percent faster than the old one, enabling them to process more samples each week, Davies said.
The previous device, which was 11 years old, had processed almost 1.5 million samples.
Canterbury Health Laboratories was a referral service which processed samples from around the country, and used several mass spectrometers for different purposes.
The old mass spectrometer would be put to good use at the University of Canterbury, where students would learn how to use and dismantle it, Davies said.
Mass spectrometers were increasing in use, so having students familiar with them would be useful for everyone, he said.
