Issue

Engineered bacteriophages managed to save the life of a lung transplant patient with cystic fibrosis (CF) who developed an antibiotic-resistant mycobacterium infection and had less than a 1% chance of survival. This case represents a breakthrough in utilizing phage therapy to clear disease, yet, given its spotty history in other…

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has become the leading cause of death in pregnant and postpartum women. In a new practice bulletin, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) stresses the importance of testing cardiac status in pregnant or postpartum women who exhibit any signs of CVD, including chest pain, shortness…

Neurogenetics, cancer, precision medicine, and extreme molecular diagnostics headline this year’s plenary sessions at the 71st AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in Anaheim, California. Larry J. Kricka, DPhil, FAACC, FRCPath, who organized this year’s lectures for the Annual Meeting Organizing Committee (AMOC), believes these topics will resonate…

Current protocols for renal function testing have been known to misclassify certain patients, leading to inappropriate drug dosing, increased complications and poor patient outcomes. An AACC webinar on June 18 supported by Abbott will chronicle one hospital’s successful journey in reducing bias through co-reporting of creatinine- and of cystatin C-based…

Clinical labs have long asserted that cuts imposed by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) are too steep and detrimental—and fail to accurately represent the wide spectrum of labs operating in the U.S. To comply with the statute, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) revised the clinical…

Variability exists among genotyping assays that measure the cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9), an enzyme that offers important insights on drug metabolism. To guide labs in designing and validating these assays and improve standardization across labs, the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) Pharmacogenomics (PGx) Working Group has recommended a minimum list…

Point-of-care tests (POCT) offer rapid results to patients and real-time clinical decisionmaking at the bedside. However, certain issues relating to cost, accuracy, maintenance, and governance responsibilities pose roadblocks to implementing these technologies. To help expedite and streamline POCT adoption, a team of British researchers developed the Point-of-Care Key Evidence Tool…