ULTRAMIC® Advanced Ceramic Heater AND EZ-ZONE® RM Controller Improve Speed of Cancer Screening
Application
An immunohistochemistry (IHC) machine required a low profile heater with a non-contaminating construction, fast temperature ramp rate and quick recovery time to enable the machine to generate lab results in one hour.
Problem
Developing innovative technology solutions that enhance diagnostic capabilities of anatomic pathology laboratories provides clinicians with rapid, reliable, actionable diagnostic information and advanced patient care.
An IHC machine used to diagnose cells from cancer biopsy screenings typically requires several days for results when traditional lab equipment is used. The customer required a solution to enable their IHC machine to analyze cells from cancer biopsy screenings in one hour. Using traditional lab equipment, test results are not available for several days following a biopsy.
Receiving lab results while the patient is still in surgery enables the doctor to decide almost immediately if additional biopsies are required, eliminating the need for an additional surgery and associated costs. There is also a great relief for the patient to get results as soon as possible.
Solution
Watlow’s ULTRAMIC® advanced ceramic heater and EZ-ZONE® RM controller are used with the IHC machine to radiantly heat biopsy tissue and reagnts sandwiched between glass slides. Using Finite Element Analysis (FEA), a customized resistor circuit pattern was developed to optimize temperature uniformity across the sample. The heater’s integrated thermocouple works with the EZ-ZONE RM controller to accurately control the surface temperature and prevent an over temperature condition.