“CISMaP Center at Khon Kaen University extending the results of research on kidney stone analysis to detect chronic kidney disease in patients quickly and accurately, making progress towards “Kidney Disease Screening Service”, with hopes to reduce the burden of screening for hospitals and to be able to identify patients with early-stage kidney disease more promptly.
Today, the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) technique or infrared optical analysis to check for compound or sample quality without damaging the samples, has been shown to be of help in Bio-Spectroscopy in many areas, from food to medical fields, with many advantages, including requiring fewer samples for analysis, no damage to sample cells, and providing quick and accurate analysis results.
Therefore, the collaboration network of diagnostic testing centers under the Innovation Hub (Collaboration Network of Diagnostics Development Centers, CNDC) project decided to provide funding to Khon Kaen University in establishing the Center for Innovation and Standard for Medical Technology and Physical Therapy, in order to support research on biological disease spectroscopy technology, as well as establishing an international standard testing center for certifying medical laboratory expertise in 2017.
“We want the CISMaP center to be both a diagnostic technology research center and a proficiency testing center for medical laboratories across the country. Therefore the objective, after the official opening of the center and laboratory in 2020, was for the center to obtain international standards certification, including ISO 17025, certifying the ability of a laboratory to perform tests and calibrations, as well as ISO 17043, necessary for becoming a laboratory auditor” Assoc. Prof. Patcharee Jearanaikun, Ph.D., director of CISMaP Center said.
That is how the “project to develop Standard Research Center to Support Research Network on Biological Spectroscopy Diagnostic Technology and an international medical laboratory proficiency testing center” with the support of the Program Management Unit for Competitiveness (PMUC) in 2020, with the goal to provide stone analysis services for people at risk of chronic renal failure
Chronic Kidney Disease Prevention in the Northeast
“Chronic kidney failure is a disease that has a high mortality rate in stage 5 patients and has a relatively high cost to treat. If detected in stages 1-3, there is a chance to slow down the deterioration of the kidneys. Kidney stones are one of the risk factors leading to chronic kidney disease. The use of Bio-Spectroscopy in the analysis of kidney stone samples from patients is one of the services provided by the center in conjunction with the Chronic Kidney Disease Prevention in the Northeast at Khon Kaen University. It only takes 5 minutes per sample to determine the composition of the stones, leading to appropriate treatment decisions, helping to prevent the risk of developing chronic kidney disease. And once the center obtains ISO 17025 certification, we will be able to open the center to provide kidney stone testing services with this technique at full capacity, which will help to reduce the burden for hospitals in screening patients, and will give patients with early-stage renal failure a chance to receive treatment earlier. (Currently in the process of applying for certification) ” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Patcharee said.
On the part of the operation to be a service provider for assessing the proficiency of medical laboratories, which requires ISO 17043 certification, CISMaP has cooperated with an importer of reagents and medical laboratory diagnostic equipment in testing the capabilities of 26 medical laboratories by submitting samples of “test materials”, which are QC materials for blood culture, developed by the center for each medical laboratory to use in bacteria analysis. The center uses the results of the analysis to assess the performance of those laboratories in bacteria screening by blood analysis.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Patcharee said that the development of blood kits for testing, which are stable at various temperatures and lighting conditions, as well as the optimization and standardization of rules and procedures of the unit, will play an integral part in applying for the ISO 17043 certification from the Department of Medical Sciences in late 2021 in order to become a certified medical laboratory auditor.
“With these international standards, in addition to gaining recognition for the CISMaP center in the academic field, helping to standardize research outputs, leading to more opportunity to expand commercially, it also enables this laboratory auditing unit to support the standardization of blood culture laboratories. This will be beneficial to the treatment process and to the patients ultimately.”
