Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics has announced the launch of a portable coagulation analyzer, the Xprecia Stride Coagulation Analyzer. It delivers fast and reliable Prothrombin time testing (PT/INR) for point-of-care monitoring and management of oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT) with warfarin.

The winner of the internationally respected Red Dot Award: Product Design for 2015, the analyzer includes a number of innovations and features. It weighs just 300g, and can be held at any angle and brought directly to the patient's finger for efficient and comfortable blood sample application.

"The Xprecia Stride Coagulation Analyzer is among the most radical, user-friendly redesigns of a point-of-care coagulation analyzer since they became widely available more than 20 years ago," said Dr David Stein, CEO, Siemens Diagnostics Point of Care Business Unit. He added, "Our analyzer is designed to be safer, more efficient and more ergonomically friendly than the products available today. The Xprecia Stride Analyzer uses simple icons and animation in a color display more commonly found in smartphones than medical instruments. Receiving the Red Dot award validates this unique product design and reinforces our efforts to bring a highly usable, lab-accurate coagulation analyzer to the point of care."

To help increase workflow efficiency and usability, an integrated bar-code scanner simplifies data capture for accurate calibration of new lot numbers prior to testing.

The Xprecia Stride analyzer uses fresh capillary (finger stick) whole blood and results are expressed in PT seconds or as a PT/INR (international normalized ratio). It utilizes the same Dade Innovin reagent used by Siemens central lab analyzers to minimize any potential for variability. Studies have shown the performance to be equivalent to a reference laboratory hemostasis system, with results available within minutes.

Other features include easy data transfer to a computer; color display and animated step-by-step instructions to help guide the user during testing. When taken together, all of these innovations become more important as the use of point-of-care PT/INR testing becomes critical to a growing number of procedures and treatments that utilize anticoagulation therapy.