Recent Artery Conversations
I received a question from an outside hospital about the utility of troponin measurement in neonates (NICU patients mostly). I don't believe we have run this test on a neonate here in many years, if ever. The CALIPER databank lists a reference range of 0-90 ng/L for conventional troponin I in a 0-4-month-old population. Apparently, it is used for a subtype of very sick neonate with hypoxia. I am unsure as to whether this is established practice in certain areas or not - are others involved in labs that do this testing?
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Several years ago, I had numerous discussions with Binding Site because I was convinced based on several patients that patients with free light chain myeloma, the M-Spike concentration closely correlated numerically with the free light chain concentration (approaching 1:1). I was consistently assured that my cases were an epi-phenomenon and that there was no correlation. Has this changed? Is anybody aware of any studies that confirm/deny this correlation.
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I am the pathologist for several critical access hospitals. Several now have the SOFIA Ag test but the clinicians want us to back the negatives up with a PCR before they take people out of the ER and move them to the floor. This makes it almost impossible for us since our PCR's are done by a Quest or Labcorps. Some neighboring hospitals have a Depheid but the supplies are only being given to them for their own patients. I tell the physicians to retest only those negatives with symptoms. What is happening elsewhere?
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