The Rapid Pathogen Screening, Inc. has been granted the approval of Health Canada for its RPS InflammaDry Detector. It is a ten minute, in office test that lets clinicians detect elevated levels of MMP-9 in tear fluid in patients who have Dry Eye disease. Now that RPS has the medical device license it will market the RPS InflammaDry Detector in Canada, following its recent release in Europe and Asia.
Dr. Robert Sambursky, president and chief medical officer of RPS said that receiving a Medical Device License from Health Canada for the RPS InflammaDry Detector is yet another exciting recent accomplishment for RPS.
Dry Eye was difficult to diagnose as the clinical signs of the disease are not always directly related to patient complaints. Also it was found that inflammation was often present in Dry Eye patients long before the appearance of clinical signs.
Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is an inflammatory marker that has constantly been shown to be elevated in the tears of patients with Dry Eye disease. Elevated levels of MMP-9 may be a more sensitive marker than clinical signs when diagnosing Dry Eye. The RPS InflammaDry Detector needs a small sample of human tears to detect elevated levels of MMP-9.
Providing clinicians with a rapid and accurate in-office screening test to detect hidden Dry Eye disease will help identify patients that may benefit from preoperative therapy to improve their ocular surface, leading to better surgical and medical patient outcomes said Dr. Robert Sambursky.