LifeCell Expands Its Suite Of Diagnostic Offerings to

 LifeCell Expands Its Suite Of Diagnostic Offerings to
Promote Better Newborn Health Introduces Omega Score 

Introduces Omega Score, a first-of-its-kind critical diagnostic test in the country 

With an aim to provide the best possible healthcare to every child born in India, LifeCell, India’s leading diagnostic solutions provider, has introduced the first-of-its-kind diagnostic test called Omega Score. The OmegaScore-Prenatal and OmegaScore-Newborn test has been specially designed for Indian pregnant women as well as mothers respectively to determine the concentration of a critical omega-3 fatty acid, DHA, also known as docosahexaenoic acid. This fatty acid has been proven to be essential for the overall health and cognitive development of a child. DHA is particularly vital for the development of the brain and retina of the fetus during the third trimester till 18 months of the baby’s life. However, according to suggested reports, DHA  intake in Indian pregnant women in the third trimester is the lowest when compared to pregnant women in other developing countries. LifeCell’s Omega Score, thus, provides a convenient way to carry out an in-depth analysis to quantify DHA levels that give the baby the necessary health boost essential for their rapidly developing brain. 

 

Critical in vision and cognitive development, DHA accounts for 97% of omega-3 fatty acids found in the brain. Experts further underscore the importance of DHA in pregnancy as research has shown that DHA intake can prevent preterm birth, lowers the risk of preeclampsia, and also ensures a healthy birth weight. Interestingly, our body cannot manufacture DHA and it has to be obtained through a DHA-rich diet. DHA is primarily found in fatty fish such as tuna, salmon, and anchovies. Since a large population in India follows a vegetarian diet, Indian mothers and pregnant women have been found to be deficient in DHA. Moreover, DHA intake is the lowest in India compared to other developing countries, thus, highlighting the need for its supplementation during pregnancy and lactation.

 

Speaking on the new addition, Mr. Mayur Abhaya, MD, LifeCell International, said, “It is important that Indian women have access to quality healthcare because the health of the children today, determines the future health of our society. We at LifeCell, thus, consider it is a priority to provide every mother and baby with advanced, accessible, and affordable diagnostic services. LifeCell, therefore, has introduced this diagnostic service for pregnant women as well as mothers, highlighting the importance of DHA not only in fetal development but also in healthy brain and eye function in growing children. With the launch of Omega Score, we not only hope to raise awareness about the importance of DHA in maternal nutrition but also to encourage a proactive rather than reactive approach towards maintaining their own and their baby’s health. ”

 

Omega Score is a simple, yet convenient test that can be booked by visiting www.lifecell.in. OmegaScore-Prenatal is a self-collection blood test whereas OmegasScore-Newborn is a self-collection breast milk test to make the testing experience comfortable and uncomplicated for pregnant women as well as breastfeeding mothers. Once the test is booked, a specially designed collection kit with instructions is delivered to the doorstep. After self sample collection, the kit is collected and delivered back to LifeCell and the result is shared within 3 working days. With just one drop, women can now make the right decisions for providing the best nutrition to their growing babies.

 

LifeCell launches 'Transformational' Newborn Screening Program

LifeCell launches - 'Transformational' Newborn Screening Program "RightStart" - the world's first Integrated DNA testing for Newborn Screening to detect over 50 medical conditions

LifeCell International, India’s premier stem cell bank and mother & baby diagnostics company today announced the launch of “RightStart” - the world’s first Integrated DNA testing for Newborn Screening to detect over 50 medical conditions. This technology has been proven to be more accurate than current screening methods and has also been found to drastically reduce the false-positive reporting thereby avoiding unnecessary follow-up tests and anxiety of the parents.

In current process of newborn screening, a few drops of blood are obtained through heel prick from the baby’s heel, usually 48 hours after childbirth, and is analysed by profiling a specific set of metabolites present in the blood. If an abnormal metabolic profile is found further testing is recommended for confirmation.

The confirmatory test would need an additional sample to be taken once again from the child.  Since most routine screening labs do not have DNA testing capabilities, the child is referred to specialized labs leading to further delays in diagnosis & treatment apart from causing further agony for the parents. The DNA based test, is considered a gold standard and is most reliable for confirmation as it does not get impacted by interferences such as medications, nutrition, temperature, or preterm status.  

LifeCell’s “RightStart” Newborn screening, which adopts an integrated DNA testing approach, does not require an additional sample since a portion of the sample collected initially can be used. 

Also no additional costs would need to be incurred by the parents. “RightStart” provides more accurate results and also saves time & effort enabling a speedy diagnosis to initiate treatment. More importantly, the parents are alerted to the risk only if the DNA tests are positive thereby reducing parental anxiety.

Ishaan Khanna, CEO of Diagnostic & BioBank Divisions, LifeCell International said “As a leader we always bring the first and best to the country and “RightStart” is another milestone achievement. For the first time over 50 conditions can be tested with ‘RightStart’s integrated DNA testing in the country with a faster throughput and higher accuracy of test results”. 

Citing an example of a condition called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) it was observed that less than 10% of alarms raised with current screening technologies are finally confirmed as being truly being affected by the condition with DNA testing. Hence with DNA testing the predictive power increases to 100%¹, thereby eliminating any false alarms.        

Commenting on the launch of RightStart Dr S. Giridhar, Executive Board Member, Tamilnadu National Neonatology Forum, said “Launch of RightStart is a welcome initiative by LifeCell. False positive reports in newborn screening has always been a major challenge for us causing unwanted concerns & handling the parental concerns. I’m happy RightStart will be a solution to reduce such false alarms thereby reducing parental anxiety and also will enable in better accuracy of results with integrated DNA testing”

With LifeCell launching the new RightStart Newborn Screening program the laboratory facility at Chennai has been upgraded with complete capabilities to perform these specialized DNA testing in-house.

LifeCell anticipates substantial increase in adoption of the RightStart Newborn Screening and  is collaborating with PerkinElmer, a global market leader in  newborn screening.  LifeCell will use PerkinElmer’s fully automated and high throughput analyser - the Genetic Screening Processor® (GSP) instrument, a first by a commercial lab in India.

Also as another first-in-India, LifeCell will incorporate PerkinElmer’s next generation NeoBase™ 2 non-derivatized MS MS kit, which can screen for all the common amino acid, organic acid and fatty acid oxidation, as well as purine and peroxisomal metabolic disorders – more than any other commercial kit available in the market today.      

Further LifeCell had tied up with Dr Mary Seeterlin, who has a decade of experience in newborn screening program at the Department of Public Health in Michigan, and is the co-author of several guidelines and publications on the subject, as a consultant to the program.

“LifeCell’s mission is to improve outcomes for newborns in India, giving them the best start at birth. Towards that goal we’ve made a major step forward by bringing in the world’s best partners, equipment, consumables, advisors, and testing programs. This centre-for-excellence will help bring together the power of metabolomics and genomics platforms to provide holistic approach towards screening of rare disorders” said Mayur Abhaya, Managing Director, LifeCell International.

India is the world’s largest birthing country with over 25 million births a year, and is unfortunately having the highest number of infant mortality ratio too. A large number of these deaths can be prevented by screening newborns at birth for a variety of inborn genetic and metabolic disorders, even before the symptoms start showing up so that they can be managed at an early stage to reduce or even eliminate the burden of disease”.

Globally millions of babies are screened through nationwide programs in over 60 countries every year. However, in India the adoption of newborn screening has been weak largely due to low awareness and also due to lack of reliability of the test results.

Reference: 1. https://www.aphl.org/conferences/proceedings/Documents/2016/NBS-Genetic-Testing-Symposium/28Green.pdf