American Journal of Cardiology Describes the use of Progenika's LIPOchip in a Large-Scale Screening.

ZAMUDIO, Spain -- A study just published in the American Journal of Cardiology describes the use of Progenikaos LIPOchip in a large-scale screening of over 1,200 subjects showing clinical symptoms of Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH). The study led by Fernando Civeira, PhD, MD from the "Miguel Servet" Hospital in Zaragoza and Miguel Pocovi, PhD from the University of Zaragoza, was perfomed in order to identify patient populations most likely to benefit from genetic testing.

The study concluded that the best selection criteria for comprehensive genetic testing using LIPOchip, required knowledge only of the subjects age-adjusted LDL cholesterol level and history of tendon xanthoma.

LIPOchip is a DNAchip and represents the most comprehensive genetic screening tool available for FH detecting over 200 individual mutations causing the disease and in 2004 was the first microarray-based test to receive the CE mark. LIPOchip is now routinely used in the Spanish Health System and over 4,000 subjects have been tested to date.

Genetic testing for FH is the preferred diagnostic method because the results are unequivocal. The present study was performed in order to address the most effective way to select subjects most likely to benefit from genetic testing.

PROGENIKA, a pioneering company in the emerging field of personalised medicine, is dedicated to the design, development and manufacture of novel DNA genotyping microarrays for the diagnosis, prognosis and drug-response prediction of complex human diseases.

PROGENIKA has developed and clinically validated LIPOchip[R], a microarray for the diagnosis of Familial Hypercholesterolemia that was marketed in June 2004, as the first CE-marked DNA microarray for routine clinical diagnosis.