EPO Testing Scheduled to Begin on September 2
TARRYTOWN, N.Y., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the announcement by the
International Olympic Committee regarding implementation of blood doping
testing at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Bayer Diagnostics
installed two brand new, state of the art ADVIA(R) 120 Hematology Systems this
week at the Australian Sports Drug Testing Laboratory. These systems will be
used as part of the new test protocol being implemented at the 2000 Olympic
Games in Sydney, Australia, to detect the use of erythropoietin (EPO) by
competing athletes. Testing begins in Sydney on September 2, 2000 and
consists of a newly developed protocol that uses a combination of blood and
urine tests to assess EPO use.
The Bayer ADVIA 120 Hematology System, the system on which the blood
testing portion of this innovative procedure was developed and validated, will
be used by the testing center in Sydney to assess abnormally high levels of
erythropoiesis (making of new red blood cells) in connection with the random
EPO testing in urine. Laboratories worldwide use the Bayer system to analyze
blood samples to provide information to health care professionals on
conditions such as cancer and anemia. Researchers at the Australian Institute
for Sport, in collaboration with sport medicine experts from several other
countries, tailored the output from the ADVIA 120 to develop the blood testing
parameters for this unique application.
"The ADVIA 120 Hematology System is designed to assist laboratories in
providing information to allow physicians to better manage their patients,"
according to David Okrongly, Ph.D., Vice President of Hematology and Cellular
Analysis for Bayer Diagnostics. "We are very pleased to see that the
information our product is capable of providing can also be used to help
protect the health of Olympic athletes. By conducting this new testing
protocol, we hope athletes will be discouraged from using EPO."
Blood Doping
Blood doping originally involved blood transfusions, but is now associated
with the use of a drug called recombinant (synthetic) erythropoietin or
r-HuEPO, to boost the production of red blood cells, increasing the amount of
oxygen delivered to exercising muscles. Where races are won by fractions of a
second, blood doping can offer minutes of advantage. This dangerous practice
can lead to heart problems or stroke.
Bayer Diagnostics
With more than 7,500 employees worldwide and 1999 sales of close to
$1.8 billion, Bayer Diagnostics (http://www.bayerdiag.com), based in Tarrytown, New
York, is one of the largest diagnostic businesses in the world. The
organization supports customers in 100 countries through an extensive
portfolio of central laboratory, self-testing, nucleic acid and near patient
testing systems and services for use in the assessment and management of
health, including the areas of cardiovascular disease, oncology, virology,
women's health and diabetes. Bayer Diagnostics is a division of Bayer
Corporation, and a member of the worldwide Bayer Group, a $29 billion
international life sciences, polymers and specialty chemicals group based in
Leverkusen, Germany. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Bayer Corporation is a
research-based company with major businesses in health care, life sciences and
chemicals.
Note: Photos of the system are available for downloading at:
http://208.55.185.158/advia/advia.html
SOURCE Bayer Diagnostics
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Related links:
http://www.bayerdiag.com
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CONTACT:
Matthew Kratz of Bayer Diagnostics,
914-524-2541
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