These are the replies I received recently when I enquired about possible
replacements for the Cobas Mira (as opposed to the Bio). Thanks to all who
responded. I have fuller details of the respondents if you need them. Hope
this is helpful.
Compliments of the season to all.
Regards, Ken

Ken Robertson
Senior Scientist I/C (External Research)
Laboratory Management Unit
Royal Perth Hospital
Perth, Western Australia.
Phone (08) 9224 2968    Fax:  (08) 9224 3466

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In the UK the Mira was abandoned by Roche a couple of years ago but it is
still being sold and fully supported by another company AMX diagnostics. We
only do a couple of routine tests(conjugated bilirubin and ammonia) on our
Mira but we expect to use it for research projects and clinical trial work
for several more years. Perhaps AMX or another company will carry on with
the same deal in Australia.
Mike (UK)
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You don't say what you are going to use it for, but we just got a Kone 60i
for stats, v good and are about to get a Kone 30 for out DOA. We've used a
Kone Ultra for 10 years for DOA and the reagent volume and openness have
been fine. Just commissioned 2 x Bayer 1650's but these may be OTT. I also
have commissioned in the last month a Dade-Behring Dimension which is fine
but not as open as you might like.
Hope this helps. Ian (UK)
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It is not clear whether this is the main instrument in a small lab or an
ancillary instrument in a large lab, but we are extremely happy with our
current main instruments:
Three years ago we acquired 2 Olympus AU 600s on each of 3 sites (current
model = AU 640) and are absolutely delighted with them.  Their design and
performance is excellent (including the ISEs) and the staff took to them
very happily.  Their throughput is about 800 tests per hour.  There is a
slower (and presumably cheaper) model, the AU 400.  This is still a floor-
standing instrument, so it's a lot bulkier than a Mira.  These are "open"
instruments, although naturally Olympus prefer to do a deal involving
reagents.  Raw absorbance data is available.
In this country, BioStat (in Stockport, near Manchester) market a Mira-sized
instrument called the Sapphire, but I don't have any experience of it.
I hope this is helpful to you, John (UK
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We have a more acute problem in that we wish to replace a Cobas bio (Roche
are no longer supplying the cuvettes). I have placed messages on MEDLAB-L
and the ACB. My last message was titled - "wake up world". I have not
receive a single useful answer to my 3 messages..
Roche NZ response is to offer a Cobas Mira which can be supported.
In our local Journal the "Personal LAB" analyser was advertised - I will let
you know if this is suitable. Please keep in touch.
Trevor (New Zealand)
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=I would recommend a refurbished Hitachi 911 or a new Hitachi 912. The
software modifications made to the Hitachi 912 are slightly better than the
older Hitachi 911 but the price is dearer. A refurbished Hitachi 911 will
allow you some flexibility to place other suppliers reagents onto the
instrument. Good luck in your instrumentation hunt.
Bill (Canada)
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If you get many replies to yourself rather than to the mailbase, I'd be
interested in a summary of the suggestions or conclusions. A lot of us are
about to encounter this problem, in our case with the Cobas Fara (perhaps
the best clinical chemistry analyser ever?).

Our current strategy is to buy up stocks of spare parts and use another
source for consumables .....................<snip>

We have vaguely thought about using a Roche 917 if we move our
high-throughput tests to a Modular ..................... <snip>
John (Australia)
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We too are looking at replacing our Cobas Mira's (3 within our group
service) and i would be interested in your replies.
Options we have considered are the Integra 400 and the Vitros (the smaller
one). If there are others that will do the job I would be interested to here
of these.
We are a small lab servicing about 30-50 biochem patients per day.
David (Australia)
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We replaced our Cobas Bio (one of the best instruments invented) with a
Hitachi 912. It runs very reliably and precisely, but is a little more
thirsty. The minimum total reaction volume must be 250uL, but this can
include a diluent.
Greg (Australia)
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