DPC beanie zebras are bringing happiness to children’s wards all over Ireland. Galloping to new grazing lands including Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, County Louth, these cuddly, green-striped zebras are brightening sad faces with smiles and laughter. Pictured (right to left) are Mrs. Paula Sharkey, Ward Sister; Ms. Eva Acton, DPC Regional Manager, Ireland; Mrs. Catriona Crowley, Fund Raising; Mr. Pauric Reilly, Department of Biochemistry; visiting parents and children of the ward.

DPC activity has been widespread throughout Ireland in recent months. June 2001 witnessed a DPC landmark with Ireland’s first twin placement of an IMMULITE^® 2000 system in the Midwestern Regional Hospital of Limerick. The laboratory selected its new addition to enhance the workflow of the Immunoassay Section in their Clinical Chemistry Department, replacing the three pieces of immunoassay equipment previously used by the site. The Immunoassay Section provides a regional service for endocrine, tumor marker and therapeutic drug assays for the Midwestern Health Board. The systems were interfaced with the Laboratory Information System and are now live. With the help of instrument and assay SOPs, the laboratory hopes to further its efforts to obtain CPA accreditation.

This facility is a regional testing site for two other hospitals and its workload is predicted to grow by 15 percent annually. “This landmark contract has very significant financial and quality-of-service benefits for the Board,” states Dr. Ned Barrett, Principal Clinical Biochemist. There are seven Regional Health boards in southern Ireland outside of Dublin.

In January of 2001, DPC and its distributor in Ireland organized a scientific meeting held in the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, during which Professor Laurence Cole, Ph.D., Division of Women’s Health Research at the University of New Mexico, gave a presentation on HCG.

Dr. Cole has demonstrated that only DPC’s IMMULITE^® and IMMULITE 2000 HCG assays detect all of the HCG breakdown products, including nicked or cleaved HCG forms and the glycosylated variants. Assays for “total” HCG, which detect intact and nicked HCG and the free b subunit, provide the most useful clinical information.

DPC products are distributed in Ireland by Cruinn Diagnostics. Eight IMMULITE 2000 systems are currently at home in southern Ireland.