Workflow and Maintenance Characteristics of Five Automated Laboratory Instruments for the Diagnosis of Sexually Transmitted Infections

DOI: 10.1128/JCM.03549-13

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FIG 1
Total hands-on time for each instrument for 96 and 192 tests. *, the 96-test workflow used walk-away mode, and the 192-test workflow used high-throughput mode. △, additional hands-on time was required for processing 192 samples relative to 96 samples.
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FIG 2
Times to results for 96 and 192 tests. *, the 96-test workflow used walk-away mode, and the 192-test workflow used high-throughput mode. For Panther, the time to the first result was 3 h 51 min 2 s, the time to the last result for 96 samples was 5 h 27 min 2 s, and the time to the last result for 192 samples was 7 h 41 s.
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FIG 3
Cumulative hands-on time for maintenance based on 96 tests per day, 20 working days per month.

TABLE 1

Description of automated platforms studied

Instrument	Manufacturer	Configuration	Specimen capacity	No. of controls per run
m2000 RealTime	Abbott Molecular	Batch system; separate units for specimen extraction (m2000sp) and detection (m2000rt)	93^{^a}	3
Viper XTR^{^b}	BD Diagnostic System	Batch system; single unit for specimen extraction and detection	92^{^c}	4
cobas 4800	Roche Molecular Diagnostics	Batch system; separate units for specimen extraction (x480) and detection (z480)	94^{^a}	2
Tigris	Hologic Gen-Probe	Batch system; single unit for specimen extraction and detection	178^{^c}	4
Panther	Hologic Gen-Probe	Nonbatch, random-access system; single unit for specimen extraction and detection	118	2

TABLE 2

Hands-on and automation times for processing 96 tests^{^a} on five automated instruments

Stage of assay processing	Time (h:min:s) for:
Stage of assay processing	m2000 RealTime	Viper XTR^{^b}	cobas 4800	Tigris	Panther
Preanalytical interaction	0:02:35	0:04:43	0:02:46	0:03:34	0:02:05
Reagent prepn and loading	0:08:51	0:12:07	0:05:10	0:04:45	0:04:49
Sample prepn and loading	0:09:36	0:08:08	0:15:58	0:08:51	0:06:56
In-process interaction	2 visits, 0:02:00	None	1 visit, 0:02:25	None	None
Postanalytical interaction	0:09:30	0:10:06	0:08:00	0:03:03	0:03:46
Daily maintenance	0:25:05	1:05:48	0:06:00	0:08:17	0:03:26
Total hands-on time	0:57:57	1:40:52	0:40:19	0:28:30	0:21:02
Automation	5:15:48	3:06:27	3:23:00	4:27:00	5:06:00