Afinion enables free diabetes testing at Canons Pharmacy

Afinion enables free diabetes testing at Canons Pharmacy

Afinion is being used at Canons Pharmacy in Edgware to offer a free-of-charge enhanced HbA1c service to their customers with diabetes.

Being a compact, desktop analyser, Afinion is ideally suited to use in pharmacies. The instrument is extremely easy to operate – users simply follow the prompts on the colour touch screen, insert a cartridge, close the lid and wait just 3 minutes for the result. Sample preparation is minimal – a single drop of blood is collected in a special sampling device that is then inserted into a disposable, analyte-specific test cartridge.

High quality performance is guaranteed by specialist software that provides: instrument self-calibration, fail-safe mechanisms, data management and storage of the last 500 results.

About HbA1c

Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) is the parameter of choice for assessing long-term glycaemic (blood sugar) control in people with diabetes. Good glycaemic control is essential for the prevention of late macro-and microvascular complications and is one of the main clinical challenges in the management of diabetes.

The assay is performed using just 1.5 µl whole blood from a finger prick and takes only three minutes.

Based on the boronate affinity test principle, the Afinion HbA1c test uses Axis-Shield’s patented blue boronic acid conjugate XC-DAPOL-CPBA that binds specifically to cis-diols of glycated haemoglobin. Hb variants, such as HbAS, HbAC, HbAD, HbAE, HbF and HbAJ, which can falsely lower the measured HbA1c value, do not affect Afinion results.

For further information about how Afinion can be used to help improve diabetes management, please visit our diabetes section by clicking here.