Medical Laboratory Observer articles from December 2003

Medical Laboratory Observer archives from December 2003

Summer in the dead of winter.(From the Editor)(Health care industry)
December 1, 2003... In the blink of an eye, we are at the end of another year in an industry of juxtapositions, one that still offers an amazingly positive panorama despite all the existing perplexities: the development of labor-saving products and technology...

Statistical vs. clinical significant numbers.(Readers Respond)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... Iread with great interest the "Tips from clinical experts Q & A" in the April 2003 issue of MLO, page 39, "Comparing two analyzers," particularly the answer in testing the null hypothesis. The author states that the traditional cut-off value...

Multiple views misleading.(Readers Respond)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... In answering the question in the May 2003 MLO issue under "Management Q & A" on page 42, concerning blood draws without physician orders, an attempt is made to present multiple views from the management panelists. This could be misleading to...

Understated data value.(Readers Respond)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... MLO's June 2003 issue, page 44, regarding the usefulness of the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is understated. Mr. Dennis J. Ernst writes that, "Formal GTT are no longer generally recommended." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While the...

Bone disease linked to SARS cocktail.(News)(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome )(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Bone disease linked to SARS cocktail. In Hong Kong, the focus is on the controversial cocktail drugs--antiviral ribavirin and steroids--used in recent months to treat SARS patients. Some of those patients are now suffering from avascular...

SARS preparedness is key.(News)(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... SARS preparedness is key. The World Health Organization (WHO), along with an independent scientific advisory panel, recommended tightening diagnostic testing procedures for the SARS virus unless a cluster of cases develops and other infectious...

Flu detection chip underway.(News)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Flu detection chip underway. An electronic chip being developed will rapidly pinpoint whether a patient has flu, dengue fever, SARS or other respiratory illnesses. The government-run Genome Institute of Singapore says it hopes to launch the...

Smallpox prime bioterror weapon.(News)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Smallpox prime bioterror weapon. Officially, smallpox only exists in a CDC freezer in Atlanta and at a virology institute in Novosibirsk, Russia. Disease experts attending October's WHO conference in Geneva say they believe stocks may be hidden...

Call for rare tests.(Testing)
December 1, 2003... Call for rare tests. The 10th edition of AACC Press' Directory of Rare Analyses (DORA) 2004 will contain detailed listings of uncommon tests with the address and contact person for the laboratory performing the test. If your laboratory performs...

Specialized tests for hemostasis.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2003... CONTINUING EDUCATION To earn CEUs, see test on page 14. LEARNING OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this article the reader will be able to: 1. Review the basic concepts relating to hemostasis. 2. Describe the screening tests...

George E. Steares keeps an eye on: Olympus' Scientific Equipment Group.(Expert Opinion)(Interview)
December 1, 2003... Dottie Dunham: Olympus America's Scientific Equipment Group (SEG) is well recognized for its optical microscopes and microscope accessories, as well as a series of other components, cameras, image analysis software and other such products for...

Doing more with less in the lab.(Lab Management)
December 1, 2003... Like all businesses operating in today's volatile economic times, hospital laboratories are experiencing several new pressures and changes such as staff layoffs, facility consolidation and budget cutbacks. These stresses, combined with a...

Where the heroes are: a tribute to military MLTs.(Clinical Issues)(Medical Laboratory Technicians)
December 1, 2003... When medical personnel marched off to the Civil War, most had only a couple of years' worth of education. (Harvard Medical School did not even own a single stethoscope or microscope!) A working knowledge of what caused diseases was foreign to...

Percent of billing collected.(Percent of Billing Collected and Testing for Honesty)
December 1, 2003... Q What collection rate/percentage of billed charges should a laboratory hope to realize for patient samples when the laboratory bills the patient's insurance payer? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Alton Sturtevant points out, "There is no...

Testing for honesty.(Percent of Billing Collected and Testing for Honesty)
December 1, 2003... Q We discovered that we had several medical technologists omitting a maintenance-check step in the automated procedure for our routine chemistry tests. The step is part of the written daily procedure, and all techs were trained on the...

Stick to OSHA rules.(Liability and the Lab)(Occupational Safety & Health Administration (US government))
December 1, 2003... Q I have a question about following the OSHA rules concerning wearing gloves during venipuncture and other invasive procedures. I have seen in practice healthcare workers having difficulty feeling a vein and then poking their fingers through...

Giardia and Cyclospora PCR.(An Interesting Variety of Lab Queries Gets Expert Attention)
December 1, 2003... Q I am trying to detect Giardia lamblia and Cyclospora cayetanensis from stool samples extracted by Qiagen stool mini-kit, and used the Weiss and Relman PCR protocols, respectively. I have problems with the product amplification. I tried with...

Calibration verification.(An Interesting Variety of Lab Queries Gets Expert Attention)
December 1, 2003... Q The College of American Pathologists (CAP) requires calibration verification and linearity checks for accreditation. The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) states calibration verification is only required for "modified" moderately...

D-dimer, FDP and D-dimer quantitation.(An Interesting Variety of Lab Queries Gets Expert Attention)
December 1, 2003... Q We offer D-dimer and FDP manual tests in the DIC panel in our laboratory. Is it beneficial to offer both tests? Could we replace the manual tests with an automated D-dimer quantitation? Are there any other conditions where the FDP might...

Personal protective equipment.(An Interesting Variety of Lab Queries Gets Expert Attention)
December 1, 2003... Q Lab workers have been wearing personal protective equipment or PPE (e.g., gowns, gloves, face shields) for years. Have these safety measures reduced laboratory-acquired infections? Is it necessary to wear gloves in the microbiology lab? ...

Lab safety enhanced.(Product Focus)(Sediplast ESR System, SEG-SAFE segment processor, H-Pette Dispenser)
December 1, 2003... Improvements in lab safety have come from increased overall safety, government regulations and the development of personal protection devices. Today's high-tech clinical labs contain hazardous chemicals, complex electronic instruments and a...

Healthcare worker safety gets boost from University of Virginia, industry.(Product Focus)(Federal Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act)
December 1, 2003... Though the safety of healthcare workers is now widely discussed, it is also a relatively new discussion. Indeed, healthcare worker safety has emerged as a significant initiative because healthcare workers themselves--as well as the...

Hands free.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... Available in two syles, new Scienceware 50mL conical tube holders allow for efficient sample support, pipetting and other critical tasks while leaving both hands free. The "grip" style tube holder securely holds the tube in the base and moves...

Ready-to-use for frozen cultures.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... The CryoVials offer a simple, safe and convenient way to store organisms at ultra-low temperatures for extended periods of time. Ready-to-use media allows for both the growth and long-term preservation of the organism. The advanced "honey-comb"...

New microalbuminuria assay.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... Recently cleared by the FDA, the Microalbumin Plus assay is the first test to be developed to measure protein albumin, a marker for kidney and cardiovascular disease. With no false negatives, the as-say uses a direct method, providing a...

Plastic blood gas capillary tubes.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... Compliant with federal and state safety requirements, new 100% plastic blood gas capillary tubes come in three sizes--115 [micro]L, 150 [micro]L and 230 [micro]L--and are coated with either sodium or balanced heparin to allow for the accurate...

Diagnostic specimen transport.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... The STP 320 is a low-cost, lightweight, insulated packaging system for the shipment of refrigerated diagnostic specimens. Compliant with new federal regulations, the system comprises a leak-proof primary container to hold specimens, a certified...

Predicting CHD risk.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... Developed as an aid in predicting the risk for coronary heart disease, in conjunction with clinical evaluation and patient risk assessment, the PLAC test measures the level of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 in human blood, which is an...

Fine-tuning tolerances.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... A free lab report entitled "Setting Tolerances for Pipette Performance"--from a specialist in high-performance analytical systems--offers guidelines for setting up appropriate tolerance limits for precision and accuracy and discusses how to...

Enhanced decision-making power.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... The release of Harvest LIS version 5.5 continues to improve its decision-making power, simplifying workflow and reducing errors. Building on the comprehensive feature set of previous versions, this latest version adds advanced levels of process...

Five-part WBC differential.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... New Cell-Chex is now assayed for five-part white blood cell (WBC) differential counts obtained using Cytospin smears. It monitors total cell counts performed manually using a hemocytometer and validates quantitation of red and white blood cells...

Colorimetric plasminogen.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... An Actichrome Plasminogen chromogenic assay procedure is available for the quantitative determination of plasminogen in human plasma. The test's principle is based on a unique complex that is formed between plasminogen and an excess...

Extensively revised and updated.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... A newly revised edition of the Andrology Trainer incorporates specific revisions of the Andrology Trainer Second Edition with the new Semen Analysis Video Training Reference and its AQC quality control products. The book guides the reader...

Wide-range CRP assay.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... Consolidating two clinically useful assays into one, the CRP Ultra WR detects and measures C-reactive protein (CRP) in serum. The immunoassay test measures elevated levels of CRP (0.05mg/L - 160mg/L), outside the normal range, and aids in the...

Time saver.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... The Lyphochek Hemoglobin A1c Linearity Set saves lab time and aggravation and is intended for the verification of linearity throughout the reportable range of hemoglobin A1c assays. This human whole blood-based product comes with four...

Colorectal cancer screening.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... Designed to improve patient compliance, the fecal occult blood test Hemoccult II SENSA elite offers enhanced sensitivity and improved readability than its predecessor Hemoccult SENSA. The simplified test card provides easier diet and patient...

Urine assay quantitation.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... The Urine Homocysteine Control is intended as a means of monitoring human urine assay methods to validate quantitation of patient samples. The product is supplied as a ready-to-use liquid, requiring no reconstitution and is prepared from human...

POC essential test menu.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... The new Stat Profile pHOx Plus C analyzer incorporates an 11-test, point-of-care menu, including both ionized calcium and chloride. Providing a comprehensive picture of lung function and oxygen status, the analyzer measures oxygen saturation...

Load-and-go convenience.(Industry Update)
December 1, 2003... Using proven CHEMSTRIP Test Strips, a new urinalysis system, the URISYS 2400 Analyzer, offers innovative features to meet the intrinsic needs of urinalysis laboratories. This fully automated system was designed to provide accuracy, reliable...

Laboratorians affect important change.(Washington Report)(Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003)
December 1, 2003... Although Congress continues its attempts to resolve the many provisions of the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003 (S.1), the copayment provision for clinical laboratory services in the Senate version of the Medicare...