Abbott receives CE Mark for heart failure assay

Abbott has announced that its new test for the assessment of chronic heart failure patients has received European regulatory approval.

The Architect Galectin-3 assay has been granted CE Mark accreditation and was developed in partnership with BG Medicine to run on Abbott's Architect immunochemistry platform.

It functions by detecting amounts of a protein called galectin-3, high levels of which have been associated with worse outcomes among chronic heart failure patients, including re-hospitalisation and death.

As such, it could prove to be a vital tool in helping doctors to reach different decisions about treatment for individual patients.

Brian Blaser, executive vice-president for diagnostics products at Abbott, said: "The new Architect Galectin-3 test is a helpful tool to aid physicians in their care of these critically ill patients."

Earlier this month, the company was granted US regulatory approval for its CE-Marked Architect AFP test, which is used in the detection of serious birth defects and the progression of testicular cancer.