LBT Innovations presents APAS study results

LBT Innovations (ASX:LBT) has published the details of its extensive study into the accuracy of its Automated Plate Assessment System (APAS).

Results from the study were released in a poster presentation at the Australian Society for Microbiology annual meeting in Melbourne this week.

The poster confirms the headline result that, comparing the screening of hundreds of clinical samples by APAS with screening by a team of expert microbiologists, APAS agreed with the experts’ findings without missing a single potential pathogen.

The study involved the evaluation of 526 urine specimens from two separate laboratories. APAS agreed with the experts’ findings for 512 of these samples, or 97% of cases.

The differences were seen where APAS overestimated colony counts in the no-growth and the lowest-growth subsets of samples, and not in samples where potential pathogens were identified.

The presentation concludes that using APAS to screen urine cultures produced results with an overall diagnostic sensitivity of 97% and specificity of 95%.

Announcing the results, LBT Innovations said the study indicates that APAS can be used to free microbiology technicians from the time-consuming work of sorting through agar plates, giving them more time to identify the right treatments for their patients.

LBT’s joint venture with Hettich AG, Clever Culture Systems, is currently in talks with potential global distribution partners for the system. APAS is due to enter clinical trials in Australia and the US later this year ahead of planned regulatory submissions in the markets.

LBT Innovations (ASX:LBT) shares were trading unchanged at $0.145 as of around 12.30 pm on Tuesday.