Daxor Corporation Announces Publication of Research Article Which Reports That the Blood Volume Analyzer (BVA-100) Can Distinguish True Anemia From Hemodilution in Critically Ill Patients

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - April 05, 2011) -

Daxor Corporation (NYSE Amex: DXR), a medical instrumentation and biotechnology company, today announced the publication of a research article entitled “Blood Volume Analysis Can Distinguish True Anemia from Hemodilution in Critically Ill Patients” in the Journal of Trauma (2011; 70:646-651). Hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death in patients who have experienced trauma from critical injuries or surgery. The peripheral hematocrit is a standard test used to estimate patients’ volume status. Physicians often rely upon the peripheral hematocrit as a surrogate measure of blood volume status to monitor ongoing blood loss in critically ill patients. However, several studies have shown that the peripheral hematocrit does not accurately predict the true red cell volume.

This research study used Daxor’s Blood Volume Analyzer (BVA-100) to precisely measure the volume status of 36 critically injured or postoperative surgical patients over the course of a three-day period. The investigators found that the volume status of severely injured patients could not be predicted based on the amount of fluid administered during resuscitation. Importantly, this study also showed that the peripheral hematocrit is not an accurate predictor of red blood cell volume status. Although the peripheral hematocrit was able to accurately predict the red cell volume in patients with a normal blood volume, it lost its predictive accuracy in patients with volume derangements. In this resuscitated group of severely injured patients, 72.6% of patients showed volume derangements. Thus, the peripheral hematocrit could not be generally relied upon as an indicator of patients’ red cell volume. In fact, reliance on the peripheral hematocrit resulted in overdiagnosis of anemia in 23.8% of all patients, and 46.7% of patients with expanded blood volumes. Such results could lead to unnecessary interventions in the form of transfusions. Similarly, the peripheral hematocrit underdiagnosed anemia in 6.3% of patients who had low blood volume. These patients would be undertransfused, and may suffer complications as a result. These findings may therefore have important implications for the proper diagnosis and management of critically ill patients. The information available from direct blood volume measurement can help physicians to tailor their fluid management plans so as to avoid inappropriate and possibly harmful interventions.

The Principal Investigator for this research study is Martin A. Schreiber, MD from the Oregon Health & Science University. Additional investigators involved in this study include Philbert Van, MD, Gordon Riha, MD, S. David Cho, MD, Samantha Underwood, MS, Gregory Hamilton, BS, Ross Anderson, BS, and L. Bruce Ham, MD. These findings had been previously reported in preliminary form as an oral presentation at the 40th annual Western Trauma Meeting in March 2010. The published research article can be viewed on Daxor’s website at www.daxor.com/pdfs/van_blood_trauma_2011.pdf.

Daxor Corporation manufactures and markets the BVA-100, a semi-automated Blood Volume Analyzer. The BVA-100 is used in conjunction with Volumex, Daxor’s single use diagnostic kit. For more information regarding Daxor Corporation’s Blood Volume Analyzer BVA-100, visit Daxor’s website www.Daxor.com.