Ambry Genetics Launches Clinically Valuable New Approach to Cardiovascular Genetic Testing

January 06, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ambry Genetics
1 Enterprise
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

Aliso Viejo, CA – January 6, 2015 – Ambry Genetics (“Ambry”) announces the launch of powerful cardiovascular genetic testing panels for inherited cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias. These feature an intuitive, tiered approach to testing for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, long QT syndrome, and Brugada syndrome. Sudden death may be the first and only symptom of some of these disorders. Genetic testing can be life-saving and directly impacts medical care when confirming a diagnosis and/or identifying at-risk individuals. These new panels feature Ambry’s superior next generation sequencing, deletion/duplication analysis, comprehensive coverage, and turnaround times as low as 3-4 weeks.

“We are very pleased to offer updated testing for these inherited cardiac conditions that impact so many people, young and old,” said Brigette Tippin Davis, PhD, FACMG, Laboratory Technical Director at Ambry. She added, “Our new tests are some of the most robust on the market and based on the latest discoveries in cardiac gene involvement. Tiered panels offer clinicians cost-effective, timely options that focus on specific phenotypes – all with the goal of giving families a rapid and meaningful diagnosis.”

As with all of Ambry’s tests, cardiovascular genetic test reports will provide in-depth interpretation. An extensive literature review and assessment of all databases are performed when interpreting a gene mutation or variant of unknown significance (VUS).

Ambry Cardiology Product Manager and Genetic Counselor Melissa Dempsey, MS, CGC, offered, “Variants of unknown significance are a major concern with cardiovascular genetic testing. Our tiered approach allows clinicians to order smaller, targeted panels as needed. This greatly reduces the number of uncertainties families may receive. We hope this makes cardiovascular genetic testing more accessible to families worldwide.”

Ambry’s new testing includes an 84-gene comprehensive cardiovascular genetics panel (CardioNext), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy panels (HCMFirst and HCMNext), inherited arrhythmia panels (RhythmFirst and RhythmNext), and a comprehensive inherited cardiomyopathy panel (CMNext). Multi-gene panels targeted to specific inherited cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias are also available. For details, visit /hereditary-cardiovascular-testing.

Ambry President and Chief Commercial Officer, James Dunlop, stated, “We are committed to cardiovascular genetics here at Ambry, and are proud to launch panels that are even more valuable to clinicians and families than ones we offered before.”

These new test offerings join Ambry’s already extensive genetic testing menu for inherited cardiovascular disorders, such as aortic aneurysms/dissections, Marfan syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, familial hypercholesterolemia, hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia, and transthyretin amyloidosis. Many of these directly affect the medical care of families found to be at risk for inherited cardiovascular conditions with very serious health consequences.