Chromatography Systems News Flash

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1 Number: Prepared By: Date: DHF Gary Burce September 20, 2005 Chromatography Systems News Flash Worldwide GC and LC Distribution PE TotalChrom vs. Varian Galaxie Recently, we were fortunate to have input from the Varian team in India on the PE TotalChrom software. The features of TotalChrom that are seen as significant advantages and significant disadvantages when selling the product are detailed below. We have added the corresponding Galaxie feature, although I am sure that all of you know what they are! Disadvantages of PerkinElmer TotalChrom (TC) software: 1. Even though the TC software is claimed to be 21 CFR compliant one can easily go in to Windows Explorer and can delete or copy any file i.e. raw file, result file, method file or sequence file and the audit trail system will never know it. There is no record of deletion or copying if these processes are done in the Windows Explorer programs. These files are stored as simple Windows based files in TC. Galaxie includes a Protect folder option that will preclude access to a folder except through the Galaxie system. 2. There is no simple log report available for user entry /user processes or user exit records. Galaxie has full user access loging. 3. If there is more than one user for the same workstation, the user has to re-logon to the software to have their name appear on the report. This sounds as if a user is WS specific? In Galaxie user access to WSs can be limited if required, but also would more normally be allowed to roam. 4. Injection volume of the sample has to be incorporated into the method file. For different injection volumes of the same sample, different methods have to be created. So the sequence has to be built with several different methods for different injection volumes. In Galaxie the volume of injection from an autosampler is defined in the sequence, so every injection could use a different volume if required without building another method. In case only one volume is needed, there is a default volume that is defined in the method and no need to modify each line of the sequence. In a validation environment this problem could be very significant, as it would mean that each method would have to be validated - a major workload! 5. The run time or the analysis time can t be changed during a run or data acquisition. In Galaxie the run time can be changed if the user has this right through the user profile. Furthermore, the user could have the right to just change the run time only of methods he is running or of other people methods. 6. During data acquisition you can t magnify a desired portion of a chromatogram by drawing a rubber band box. It has to be done by keying in the values manually. In Galaxie you can zoom a real time chromatogram both graphically and by keystrokes. Therefore a TotalChrom user can zoom as they have been doing, or the easier graphical approach.

2 7. During data acquisition there is no way that an analyst can know about the details of the injection by looking at the TC navigator window. The display details window has to be manually magnified and highlighted for knowing the details. The Systems Tab shows the real time display of the chromatogram(s) as well as instrument status. The Data Tab displays the sequence and sequence information. 8. Post processing options like subtraction or addition or subtraction of blank baseline file is never correct and is always a big problem with PE TC software. Peak processing is a strong point of Galaxie. A blank baseline file can be easily subtracted with any data file automatically. 9. Reporting is a big problem in TC software. There are two types of reporting. One is the default TC reporting and the other one is the TC publisher (Customized reporting) In Galaxie the report template is selected in the method, so all reports are Custom. There are, however, default templates. a) Changing X-Y scale in the report chromatogram - The scale of the chromatogram in the analysis report can t be changed easily. The desired scale has to be first fed in to the method file and the data has to be reprocessed with this new scale parameter and the data file has to be saved. The scale change is then reflected in the desired report. In a Galaxie report the scaling on the chromatogram is detailed in the template. You can have several different views on a chromatogram in the same report/template. Also, if you change the template itself or change the template associated with the data file, you will get a different report. You can specify that the workspace view will be the view that you report and then you can have whatever view you have zoomed to in the workspace. You will never have to reprocess the chromatogram because you are not really changing the data, just the view of the data. Therefore, changing the scale of the chromatogram on the report (or the written elements in the report) will not cause a change to the data file and therefore does not need a archive, reason and comment in a regulated environment. This is a huge time saving. b) Any change required in the report e.g.: extra column or system suitability parameters, amount, normalized amount, etc Any change in report is not possible by simple click of mouse. The changes have to be fed in to the method first and the data has to be reprocessed by batch reprocessing option. The changes are then reflected in the analysis report. It s a long and tedious process. In Galaxie, for one data file, you can change the report format by selecting the variable to print. This is in the method embedded in the data file. This automatically changes the report without having to reprocess. c) System suitability parameters can never be automated. There is an option for automation; but it never works. The data file has to be processed separately with a system suitability file to get suitability parameters in the report. In Galaxie System Suitability is part of the method and any number of tests can be fully automated. Also, because system suitability is integrated into a method, system suitability failures can be used to stop a sequence or change a calibration curve automatically. d) Peak annotations-the names of the components are never labeled above the peaks and are always labeled just below the peaks. If the component names are big they are never displayed completely and it is quite annoying for customers. The peak annotation in Galaxie is always above the peak, unless the peak is off scale, in which case it is at the top of the display. It can be orientated vertically, horizontally, or obliquely. The actual annotation can be decided by the user: RT, name, area, efficiency, resolution, Kurtosis factor, etc., or any combination of these.

3 e) The TC publisher customized reporting is very complicated. There is no drag and pull facility. The commands involved are very complicated and not user friendly. Galaxie Report editor is all drag and drop. - Getting more than two chromatograms in the TC publisher is very complicated process. You can only get one channel on a report in Galaxie but you can get any number of views of this. Alternatively, you can manually get any number of channels on a report through the Workspace. - HPLC Diode array detector parameters like lambda max, Peak purity are not available for reporting. All DAD parameters are available in the DAD report object. - The chromatogram scale for HPLC data is totally vague. The Y- axis value changes abruptly and is totally different from that of default data acquisition value. This is a long pending serious bug problem. PE doesn t have any solution for this. Galaxie does not do this. 10. TC data or methods are not stored in an Oracle database. This is a reference to Water Empower, which uses an Oracle database to store data. Galaxie does not need an Oracle or other database to have its data secure. Also, having an Oracle database for a small installation is very expensive and also requires significant IT support. Archiving data from a SQL database significantly increases the complexity of the operation, and the data cannot be read from the archived media, instead it first has to be re-imported into the database. However, it you want to use a SQL database to store data, Galaxie has Galaxie DB which can use either an Oracle database or a Microsoft SQL data base for storage of the entire data file. You can also select the metadata that can be used to search the database. All of the Galaxie functions can be performed on the data in the database. Advantages of PE TotalChrom (These are the advantages of TC that were found to be effective in selling the product.) 1) In TC data are stored in two formats simultaneously i.e. *.raw and *.rst format. Any changes made to a *.raw file is saved to your method file. Any changes made to a *.rst file is not saved in to your method file; but is saved for that particular result file. A single raw data can be processed in different ways to get different result (*.rst) files. Any subsequent changes done to your method file will not change your result files and they will be intact with their earlier processing parameters. This particular feature helps the analyst to recover their old result files with their original processing parameters (even when the method file is changed) Galaxie stores all information about the data in 1 file, the.data file. This file has the raw data, results and a copy of the method. Reprocessing can be done on this data file and the new results will be stored as a archive in the.data file. You can see the old results and the new results. You can revert to the old results if you want. The results and data are ALWAYS together. And you can see the complete method used to calculate the results. If you have modified a data file with new data handling parameters and you want to modify the master method that took the data, you can save the new data handling parameters into the old method. This will also be archived so that you can revert to the older data handling parameters. The rights and permissions in each individual s profile control all of this. The biggest disadvantage with the TC system is that the.raw and the.rst files can get separated and you will lose the audit trail. With Galaxie this cannot possibly happen. 2) Data files are never overwritten. If they are overwritten by mistake they will always have date and time stamp along with it.

4 The profile of a user defines whether they can either overwrite data files or not (not is the default). If no one has the right to overwrite data files, they will never be overwritten by mistake. 3) Peaks can be identified as individual types, named groups and timed groups. Galaxie can identify peaks individually, as named groups and timed groups. In addition, the user can choose to include or not include named peaks in timed groups. So, you can identify all of the peaks not identified in the chromatogram as a single group even if there are many named peaks between them. 4) Two choices are available for peak identification window Relative window (%) and absolute window (s) Galaxie has the option of peak identification by relative window, absolute window OR BOTH. The absolute time and % time are added together. This gives a non-linear effect to the window. At the start the absolute window has more effect, at the end the % has more effect. This more closely reflects likely changes. In addition, each peak has its own peak window settings. 5) On the fly integration. This is also recorded with time and date stamp. This is not possible in Galaxie. We could do it, but to do it is technically flawed. This was covered in Bits & Bytes # 4, an excerpt of which is reproduced below. Let s examine the issue. The user has a chromatogram and wants a result as soon as the peak(s) of interest has/have eluted, and that is before the end of the chromatogram. So, by some means, the user pops up a box that reports the size (area or height) and quantity of that peak. The question is, is the size correct? As we know, the size of the peak depends on where the baseline is drawn. It would be very easy to come up with several chromatograms where, from just looking at part of the chromatogram rather than the chromatogram as a whole, a different decision would be made as to where the baseline should be. So, we get a result on the fly, ring up QA and tell them they can make 10 tonnes, and 20 minutes later we call them again to say the component value has changed and they should now throw it away. Not a good scenario! The baselines for all peaks should always be defined once the whole chromatogram is available, and it is only then that the true size of any peak is known. So we should suggest that giving possible wrong information early is not a good idea. This approach is far easier and more acceptable to the customers than just a No we don t have it response. It shows the customer that we have thought about it and decided not to do it on a point of technical principal we don t want to give a wrong answer. Of course we can, on a 3800 (with the current driver), give an early result by having an acquisition time far shorter than the chromatograph run time. This, however, will have the same drawback. 6) The audit trail options can be forced on a particular user or it can be a user s choice. The administrator can decide this while configuring the system. In Galaxie this is defined in the administration by the profile. The choices are audit trail or no audit trail. If someone is covered by regulations, they cannot be allowed to choose to not use the audit trail features. 7) Audit trail and instrument access to different users can be defined to very minutest detail. Galaxie has over 130 individual rights and permissions so that a users interaction with the system can be completely customized. There are over 30 associated with a method alone. 8) Batch process option is very useful to process hundreds of files with a particular method in one go. While batch processing; you also have the option of overwriting or creating a different result file. Galaxie can process hundreds of files using the reprocessing list. All of the new results are stored in the original data file as previously described. In addition, a user can customize the reprocessing.

5 User selectable data files can have different method sections (e.g. integration or reports) skipped at the user s request. 9) PE TC recently incorporated "Review and Approve" of reports. Different users can have different rights for reviewing / approving or holding a report. For doing this users have to use their electronic signatures. Galaxie has exactly the same capability. Each user can have rights to sign as a specific level, (reviewer and author etc.) given by the profile with which they logged into the group and project. The administrator can set different levels of signature authority in the system, different levels for each person and can specify a hierarchy of levels for signatures.