Pictus P780

The P780 is Diatron's flagship clinical chemistry system and the largest member of the Pictus family — a fully automated, random-access floor-standing analyser built to deliver high throughput without the operating cost that usually comes with it.

Throughput and capacity

• Up to 600 photometric tests/hour, plus up to 230 ISE tests/hour with the optional ISE unit.
• Initial rack quantity of 5 × 19 samples, with continuous loading up to 99 racks — a capacity of 1,800 samples per day.
• 72 cooled reagent positions at 8 ± 2 °C on a dual concentric tray, plus cooled positions for selected calibrators and controls.

Designed for uninterrupted work

• Nonstop operation, with continuous loading of both reagents and samples, to improve turnaround time.
• Real STAT and method priority, automatic sample re-run, and automatic pre- and post-dilution from 1:2 to 1:120.
• Optional auto filling and draining module for extended walkaway.
• Wake-up and stand-by modes.

Low operating cost

• 160 re-usable long-life plastic cuvettes with a 6 mm light path.
• Water consumption under 6 litres/hour.
• Built-in touchscreen panel PC keeps the footprint down — no separate workstation.

All Pictus family members share the same reagents, consumables, methods, controls and calibrators, so a laboratory running other Pictus analysers can add the P780 without changing what it stocks.

The P780 combines proven Pictus technology with a redesigned reaction and reagent platform, aimed at maximising productivity without loosening accuracy.

Reaction system

• Two pipetting arms serving both sample and reagent, with reaction pre-heater, probe collision sensor, reaction mixer and clot detector.
• Stirring after every reagent dispense; probes washed internally and externally.
• 160 re-usable plastic cuvettes, 6 mm light path, with a six-step washing station.
• Reaction volume 180–650 µl, reaction time 0 to 25 minutes at 37 °C ± 0.1 °C.

Reagents

• Dual concentric reagent tray with a cooling compartment: 72 positions at 8 ± 2 °C.
• Reagent bottles of 25, 45 and 70 ml.
• On-board barcode recognition for both samples and reagents.

Optics

• UV quartz halogen light source; photometric range −0.1 to 3.6 A.
• Up to 13 measuring wavelengths; 12 standard: 340, 380, 405, 450, 490, 505, 550, 590, 620, 650, 700 and 750 nm.
• Single or double-wavelength simultaneous reading.

Optional ISE unit

• Medica ISE module measuring Na+, K+, Cl− and optionally Li+.
• Independent pipetting arm, so ISE runs without taking throughput from the photometric channel.

Methods and quality control

• Method types: point end point, point end point fixed time, kinetics (conservative and adaptive), calculated.
• Open channels: 5 research and 95 quality-assured programmable open channels.
• Automatic calibration and curve fit — linear, multilinear, polynomial, sigmoidal, Logit4, Logit5 and spline; single and unlimited multipoint.
• QC: Levey-Jennings, Twin QC, Westgard multi-rules and Rili-BAK.

The P780 ships with an all-new software platform, built to keep advanced capability from costing usability. It runs on the built-in Windows-based touchscreen panel PC, with cybersecurity functionality included.

• Comprehensive dashboard, intuitive to operate.
• Real-time worklist with time to completion for every sample.
• Three processing modes and method priority.
• QC results gating and delta check.
• Reflex testing and test profile definitions.
• Cuvette triple check.
• 2D barcodes for autoloading calibrator and control values.
• Automatic backup procedure.
• User-customised result printouts.

Connectivity — bi-directional LIS interface over RS-232C using ASTM, and HL7. An optional handheld barcode reader and an ambient temperature monitor are also available.