American Association for Clinical Chemistry
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How to deal with the human aspects of introducing new technology to the clinical lab?

2/19/2013 11:55 AM | Comments (0) Recommend (285)

By Christine Snozek, PhD, DABCC, FACB
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​Introducing any form of change is challenging:  humans are change-resistant by nature, and this is even more true for those individuals whose personalities are well-suited for the clinical laboratory with its stringent regulations and SOP-driven nature.  That being said, change is inevitable even ...(Read More)
Posted at 2/19/2013 11:55 AM | Tags: Instrumentation/Technology | Management/Medical Informatics
A preanalytical problem or something more!

2/5/2013 4:45 PM | Comments (1) Recommend (468)

By Sutirtha Chakraborty, MD & William Winter, MD, DABCC, FACB
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​Case: A member of the technical staff informed the author that he had encountered a problematic sample. The technician stated that on centrifuging the sample (that had been collected in a gel vacutainer tube), proper separation of the cells and the serum did not occur (Figure 1, left side). He was...(Read More)
Posted at 2/5/2013 4:45 PM | Tags: Case Study | Instrumentation/Technology
What’s a tandem mass spectrometer doing in microbiology!?

9/25/2012 9:29 AM | Comments (0) Recommend (696)

By Christopher Doern Ph.D
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Microbiology has traditionally been a laboratory discipline with prolonged result turn-around times because growing the organisms has always been necessary for identification.  The practice of identifying viruses has recently been revolutionized by the discovery of molecular techniques such as PCR ...(Read More)
Posted at 9/25/2012 9:29 AM | Tags: Clinical Translational Science/Proteomics | Instrumentation/Technology
Is There an M-spike in the Globulin Fraction of This Sample?

7/24/2012 11:17 AM | Comments (0) Recommend (738)

By William E. Winter, MD and Roger L. Bertholf, PhD
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On the electrophoresis service, you observe the following tracing. The urine protein concentration was 8 mg/dL (reference interval: =<10 mg/dL). What is your next action?           Answer: Look at the gel (see below, middle lane). The band-of-restricted mobility is not an M-spike but is...(Read More)
Posted at 7/24/2012 11:17 AM | Tags: Case Study | Instrumentation/Technology
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