Care Test to Screen Children for Lead Poisoning at American

　　CHELMSFORD, Mass., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- ESA Biosciences, Inc., a Magellan Biosciences company and leader in products to screen for lead poisoning in children, will feature LeadCare? II -- the world''s only CLIA-waived point-of-care blood-lead-testing system -- in booth 548 at the American Academy of Pediatrics national conference, October 27-30, in San Francisco, California. The LeadCare II system delivers quantitative blood-lead results, equivalent to those reported by reference laboratories, with only two drops of blood in just three minutes.

"Recent news about the dangers of lead-contaminated toys, bibs, backpacks, make-up, and other items imported from China and elsewhere are spurring unprecedented interest in blood-lead testing," said Robb Morse, manager of ESA''s blood-lead products. "Parents are demanding and pediatricians are ordering blood-lead tests for children formerly thought to be outside the ''traditional'' risk profile. While recent legislative efforts to eliminate lead contamination in toys are critical, the primary sources of lead that poison more than 300,000 American children each year remains housing with deteriorating lead paint, contaminated soil, old lead pipes, and vinyl window blinds. Lead poisoning is the number one environmental threat to children, but it is a preventable and treatable disease. Early identification of elevated lead levels is key to mitigating its potentially devastating effects, so regular blood-lead screening for children under age six is vital to ensure their health and safety."

LeadCare II makes pediatric lead testing easy. Far simpler to administer than traditional blood-lead tests, the LeadCare II device requires only a finger-stick sample, can be combined with other routine waived blood tests, and saves administrative time spent on paper work, tracking, and follow-up. Further, since LeadCare II qualifies for reimbursement as a quantitative blood-lead test and the cost per test is typically about half of the cost of sending a lead test to an outside laboratory, it frees valuable resources to enable individual physicians and lead-poisoning-prevention programs to screen more at-risk children.

According to Mr. Morse, the point-of-care system is improving health outcomes: "Lead poisoning is often called the silent epidemic because, too often, it has few recognizable symptoms. We are gratified by many success stories -- children with severely high lead levels identified with the LeadCare system during routine screenings -- and immediately taken for follow-up and treatment."

Because of its CLIA waiver, the LeadCare II system can be used in more than 115,000 point-of-care locations nationwide, according to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates. These locations can include all physicians'' offices, as well as community health centers, WIC centers (Women, Infant, and Children program) and mobile clinics, health fairs, or home visits -- giving healthcare providers a valuable new tool to better reach those children and adults most at risk for lead poisoning. ESA developed LeadCare II with partial funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In order for a test to be granted a CLIA (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) waiver, it must pass rigorous federal standards for simplicity, accuracy, and ease of use so that any healthcare professional can perform the test without special training or advanced certification. LeadCare II removes all the complications formerly associated with blood-lead testing -- waiting days for expensive lab results, or spending precious time trying to contact patients for critical follow-up care.

For more information on the LeadCare II system, please visit , call 1 (800) 305-0197, or e-mail LeadCareinfo@esainc.com. For important toy recall information and links to lead-poisoning resources, visit

About ESA

ESA Biosciences, Inc. enables answers to pressing applications challenges by applying its expertise in specialty detection and electrochemistry, combined with components, kits, and reagents, for analytical laboratories, commercial diagnostics laboratories, and the clinical point-of-care setting. ESA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Magellan Biosciences, Inc.

About Magellan Biosciences

Magellan serves the worldwide clinical-diagnostics market with rapid point-of-care analyzers and automated systems for hospital-based labs and near-patient testing. Scientists use the company''s discovery systems and sensors for cutting-edge research to develop a new understanding of health and illness -- from disease pathology to biomarker identification. Magellan designs all its systems, sensors, and consumables to deliver better, more-reliable results. And better results help drive improved health outcomes: earlier, more-accurate diagnoses; breakthroughs that can lead to novel treatments, new cures -- innovations to enhance life. A privately held company, Magellan serves customers through wholly owned subsidiaries: ESA Biosciences, Dynex Technologies, and TREK Diagnostic Systems. For more information, visit

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Source: Magellan Biosciences