Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 10 hours 10 minutes
The explosive growth of medical knowledge, imaging and technologies, access to medical care, and laboratory tests has led to a vast array of diverse information for medical practitioners to know and manage. As a result, practitioners may have difficulty efficiently navigating the enormous assortment of testing options thereby leading to medical testing overuse, misuse, and/or underuse...
Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection is among the most common bacterial infections worldwide with approximately one-half of the world’s population infected. Several invasive and noninvasive testing methods are available to detect H pylori infection. The American Gastroenterology Association and the American College of Gastroenterologists recommend either the urea breath or the stool antigen test as the preferred test for active H pylori infection.
Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is a novel biomarker of atherosclerosis and is often referred to by the trademark name “The PLAC Test.” Lp-PLA2 is an enzyme involved with atherosclerotic plaque formation and elevations in plasma Lp-PLA2 concentration and activity are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Lp-PLA2 activity is the preferred biomarker due to improved analytical and preanalytical stability compared with Lp-PLA2 concentration.
Accurate matching of patients with appropriate blood units is imperative for safe blood transfusion practice. One of the most frequent avoidable causes of blood transfusion-associated morbidity and mortality is acute hemolytic transfusion reaction caused by transfusion of blood to the wrong patient. In theory, a computerized bar code-based blood identification system should result in a reduction in transfusion errors. In this Mayo Medical Laboratories Communique, Dr...
Inherited cardiomyopathies are some of the most common genetic disorders and are a major cause of heart disease in all age groups, often with an onset in adolescence or early adult life. All of the inherited cardiomyopathies are genetically heterogeneous with multiple associated genes and several different mutations within each category...
Serum thyroglobulin concentrations are used to monitor patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, but may be misleading in the presence of antithyroglobulin autoantibodies and heterophile antibodies...
The porphyrias are a group of inborn errors of metabolism caused by enzymatic defects in the heme biosynthetic pathway. Depending upon the specific type of porphyria suspected, certain tests are more informative than other assays. Ordering a battery of tests does not enhance the quality of patient care. Rather, a stepwise diagnostic approach is the most effective means of ruling in or ruling out a specific porphyria.
In 2012, our region experienced its largest local pertussis outbreak in recent history. The outbreak included multiple circulating strains, all of which putatively lack expression of pertactin, a target of the acellular pertussis vaccine. Fewer patients who had pertussis had received whole-cell pertussis vaccine, and the time since the most recent dose of acellular pertussis vaccine was longer in those patients with pertussis than in those without...
Lupus anticoagulants are associated with thrombosis, recurrent fetal loss, neurological problems, and cutaneous manifestations. Accurate diagnosis is important considering the potential use of long-term anticoagulant therapy because of the high risk of recurrent thrombosis. Adherence to published laboratory testing guidelines and recommendations is important to the diagnostic specificity of lupus anticoagulant testing.
Bone and soft tissue tumors are a heterogeneous group of tumors with distinct lines of differentiation and biologic behavior. Molecular genetic methods are viewed as an important tool for diagnostic confirmation and therapeutic considerations in many bone and soft tissue tumors.