EQAS results of Malaria Parasites

A study assesses external quality assessment performance in detecting and identifying malaria parasites and examines malaria screening practices in laboratories in the United States.
Laboratories were most proficient at detecting and identifying P falciparum and substantially less proficient at identifying P malariae, P vivax, and P ovale.

Read abstract and indroducion from MedScape Today

Proficiency in Detection and Identification of Malaria Parasites: Abstract and Introduction

Three Green Laboratories

Maybe you have a far way to go when it comes to "going green." Or maybe your laboratory is pretty environmentally-conscious already, and you're looking to do more.
Representatives of the Practice Greenhealth award-winning laboratories are telling all about their green efforts.

Read full article from ADVANCE and go green


Green Advice on ADVANCE for Medical Laboratory Professionals

Online Courses

Body Fluid Differential Tutorial

Online course provides a thorough morphologic identification of over 40 cell types and disease states to recharge your memory. The course features over 100 crystal clear, perfectly stained body fluid images to illustrate both basic and advanced cellular morphology.

Also 69 other online courses, plus MediaLab's powerful, easy-to-use learning management system for tracking and documenting laboratory compliance training.

Read more

Body Fluid Differential Tutorial

Labquality Days 2011

Labquality Days Program

Labquality Days & Exhibition 2011 will be held on 10 – 11 February 2011 in the Congress Wing of the Helsinki Fair Centre.

Labquality Days website

Labquality Days registration

Printable version of program


Thursday 10th February, 2011

10:30 Celebrating Labquality - From 1970’s to the first decade of 2000
Ilkka Mononen and Mauri Keinänen, Finland

11:00 Future of External Quality Assurance Programmes for Medical Laboratories
Jean-Claude Libeer, Belgium

11:30 Current activities in EQALM
Piet Meijer , Netherlands

12:00 Progress in defining analytical goals in medical laboratories - ten years after Stockholm meeting

14:00 The cost of poor preanalytical quality (case study)
Astrid Petersmann, Germany

14:30 Extensive use of autoverification of clinical laboratory test results in HUSLAB
Janne Suvisaari, Finland

15:00 How can we improve the postanalytical quality
Sverre Sandberg, Norway

Friday 11th February, 2011

10:00 Current activities in EFCC
Wim Huisman, Netherlands

10:30 Using EQA for quality improvement - CLIA 88, JCAHO and CAP requirements and experience
Sharon Ehrmeyer, USA

11:00 Goals in monitoring air quality; European legislation, health aspect, interlaboratory comparisons

11:30 Goals in monitoring food quality; European legislation, health aspect, interlaboratory comparisons

12:00 Goals in monitoring drinking water quality; European legislation, health aspect, interlaboratory comparisons

14:00 Analytical goals in forensic testing - special cases in analytical testing and goals of test methods
Kimmo Himberg, Finland

14:30 Celebrating cross-border EQA co-operation in 25 years. Nordic, Baltic and Polish experience, lessons learnt and future expectations
Mauri Keinänen, Labquality, Finland

Labquality Days & Exhibition 2011 will be held on 10 – 11 February 2011 in the Congress Wing of the Helsinki Fair Centre.

Welcome to Helsinki

von Willebrand factor promotes leukocyte extravasation

von Willebrand factor (VWF) is an important player in hemostasis but has also been suggested to promote inflammatory processes.
A study demonstrates that VWF-associated platelets strongly support neutrophil extravasation at a step downstream of leukocyte docking to the vessel wall. This step could be related to leukocyte diapedesis facilitated by destabilization of the endothelial barrier.

Read full article


Blood -- von Willebrand factor promotes leukocyte extravasation

Good employee has bad attitude

One of people in our lab has developed a bad attitude. While her job skills are fine, people have complained that her behavior is unpredictable and often rude.

"One of peo­ple in our lab has de­vel­oped a bad at­ti­tude. While her job skills are fine, peo­ple have com­plained that her be­hav­ior is un­pre­dictable and often rude. I know she has some per­son­al prob­lems that may have led to her chron­ic neg­a­tiv­i­ty, but now no one wants to work with her any­more. How can I ef­fec­tive­ly ad­dress this in her next eval­u­a­tion?"

Read the question and answer from

One of people in our lab has developed a bad attitude. While her job skills are fine, people have complained that her behavior is unpredictable and often rude. I know she has some personal problems that may have led to her chronic negativity, but now no one wants to work with her anymore. How can I effectively address this in her next evaluation?

One of people in our lab has developed a bad attitude. While her job skills are fine, people have complained that her behavior is unpredictable and often rude. I know she has some personal problems that may have led to her chronic negativity, but now no one wants to work with her anymore. How can I effectively address this in her next evaluation?

One of people in our lab has developed a bad attitude. While her job skills are fine, people have complained that her behavior is unpredictable and often rude. I know she has some personal problems that may have led to her chronic negativity, but now no one wants to work with her anymore. How can I effectively address this in her next evaluation?

One of people in our lab has developed a bad attitude. While her job skills are fine, people have complained that her behavior is unpredictable and often rude.

One of people in our lab has developed a bad attitude. While her job skills are fine, people have complained that her behavior is unpredictable and often rude.

One of people in our lab has developed a bad attitude. While her job skills are fine, people have complained that her behavior is unpredictable and often rude.

Medical Laboratory Observer

Old blood linked to dangerous infections

Researchers have recommended an immediate ban on all blood products older than 35 days in Australia.
The older blood is not infected but because it starts to break down over time, older blood weakens the immune system and makes patients more vulnerable to hospital infections.
Researchers emphasised the findings should not be a reason for people to stop donating blood but, rather, an encouragement to do so more regularly.

Read full article from smh.com.au

Stale blood linked to dangerous infections

Absolute Lymphosyte and Neutrophil Counts Predict Bacteremia

A decrease in the absolute number of lymphocytes in a white blood cell (WBC) count is thought to be an indicator that the patient may have a bacterial infection in the blood.
Moreover, the ratio of neutrophil and lymphocyte counts (NLCR) has even higher value in predicting bacteremia.
This marker is simple, easily obtained and calculated, easy to integrate in daily practice and without extra costs.


Read full article from Labmedica

Specific Leukocyte Count Predicts Bacteremia

Better Salmonella Test Makes Food Safer

The most commonly used testing method for salmonella can take up to five days to produce results.
PCR-based testing methods for salmonella have been available for use by the food industry for years, but current methods often produce false-positive results because they do not differentiate between live and dead salmonella. Only live salmonella cells trigger salmonellosis.
New modification lets food scientists use the PCR test to capitalize on its speed, selectivity and sensitivity, but avoid false-positive tests by differentiating between dead and live cells.

Read more from Red Orbit Health News

Salmonella Test Makes Food Safer, Reduces Recalls - Health News - redOrbit

Does Autoimmunity Play a Role in COPD?

Spanish researchers report that elevated titers of circulating autoantibodies present in some patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suggest that it may have an autoimmune component.
The research team found that AT (anti tissue autoandibodies) titers increased significantly with increasing limitations in airflow and gas transfer. On multivariable analysis, AT-positivity doubled the risk of moderate-to-severe gas transfer impairment.
If further research corroborates their findings, the researcher suggested that immunomodulators may become a significant treatment option for these patients.

Read full article from Medscape Today

Does Autoimmunity Play a Role in COPD?

Rapid Test Influenza A/B/H1N1

Reagena POC INFLUENZA A/B/H1N1 is an easy-to-use dipstick rapid test for the differential and qualitative detection of Influenza virus type A, type B and A(H1N1) antigens directly from nasal / throat / nasopharyngeal swab or nasal/nasopharyngeal aspirate specimens. The result is available in 10-15 minutes and it is clearly represented by single purple color lines for H1N1, A and B type viruses.

Read more from

Reagena - Visible Difference

Urine Albumin as Cardiac Marker

Finally, it has been demonstrated that in terms of heart failure mortality risk, urinary albumin excretion is a better risk stratifier than traditional risk factors, such as cholesterol. A study shows that B-type natriuretic peptide and the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio emerged as the biomarkers most central to the prediction of heart failure risk.
This study adds to a growing literature that underscores the strength of the associations between abnormalities in urinary albumin excretion and cardiovascular events or death.

Read more from Medscape Today

For Their Hearts' Sake, Have Patients Urinate

European Network for Rare and Congenital Anaemias

Introducing ENERCA

ENERCA is an acronym for EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR RARE AND CONGENITAL ANAEMIAS. In this network, different experts are working together with the purpose of offering an improved public health service to professional medical practitioners and patients in every aspect of rare anaemias.
ENERCA allows us to share all the advances and experience in the field of rare anaemias, congenital and non congenital. The simple aim is to help those people who suffer from these diseases. In addition, ENERCA also intends to help the physicians to obtain detailed information on rare anaemias for improved clinical care according to the following principle: Help for the doctor is help for the patient.

Read more from ENERCA website

Enerca

E coli infection linked to kidney and heart problems

A study shows that people who contract gastroenteritis by drinking E-coli infested water are at a greater risk of developing high blood pressure, kidney problems and heart disease in later life.

The team used data from the Walkerton Health Study, the first study to evaluate long term health after an outbreak of gastroenteritis in Walkerton, Ontario, in May 2000 when a municipal water system became contaminated with E-coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter bacteria.

Read full article from Sify News

E coli infection linked to kidney, heart problems

Participant Performance of Toxoplasma Serology EQA scheme

Analysis of performance in the toxoplasma IgG and IgM schemes was made for the period 1994–2008 to look for trends in performance.
For the IgG scheme, a mean of 98% of participants obtained the correct result and for the IgM scheme, an average of 95% of participants obtained the correct result.
The most common problem was the failure of some enzyme immunoassay kits to detect specific toxoplasma IgM antibody.

Read full article from the Journal of Clinical Pathology.

External Quality Assessment Service for parasitology: toxoplasma serology scheme -- Manser et al. 63 (12): 1112

Two Laboratories Make the “Best Places to Work in Healthcare” List in USA

Two clinical pathology laboratories were recently given high rankings on Modern Healthcare Magazine’s annual “100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare.” It is the first time that more than one medical laboratory has earned this recognition in the same year.

Anatomic pathology testing company Clarient, Inc., was selected as the number three and Pathology Associate Medical Laboratories, LLC, (PAML), based in Spokane, Washington ranked number 28.

Read full article from Dark Daily

Two Laboratories Make the “Best Places to Work in Healthcare” List | Dark Daily

Is Your Laboratory Team Successful?

Why is teamwork such a critical issue? Perhaps it’s because we see the results of poor teamwork every day: ineffective communication, misunderstood goals, mistakes, misunderstandings, personality conflicts, finger pointing and so on.

What Makes a Team Successful?
How Leaders Build and Sustain Strong Teams?


Read more from LAB MANAGER

LAB MANAGER ACADEMY: Is Your Team Ready for the Play offs?

Parasitic Worm Consumes Female Reproductive Organs

A field study, carried out on Madagascar, shows that the parasite (schistosomiasis) also inflicts considerable damage to women's reproductive organs. The prevalence of schistosomiasis on the island is estimated as 2.5 million infected people.

"We know that 200 million people are already infected with the parasite. What we did not know before now was that over the years the parasite causes sores in the woman's reproductive organs, which makes it easier for infections such as HIV to take hold.”

Read full article from Labmedica

Labmedica - Parasitic Worm Consumes Female Reproductive Organs

Age-Related IgE Levels on the Rise in the United States

Age-related immunoglobulin (Ig)E levels have risen significantly in both males and females in the United States since the 1970s.
The finding might be the reason for the increase in allergic rhinitis, asthma, and allergies in general that are being seen today. Another reason for the finding could be differences in the methods used to determine IgE levels between the 2 studies.

Read full article from MedScape Today:

Age-Related IgE Levels on the Rise in the United States

Inappropriate Antimicrobial Use in Switzerland

Unnecessary or inappropriate use of antimicrobials is associated with the emergence of antimicrobial resistance, drug toxicity, increased morbidity and health care costs.
A study found that most frequent characteristics of inappropriate treatments included: No indication (17.5%); incorrect choice of antimicrobials (7.6%); incorrect application of drugs (9.3%); and divergence from institutional guidelines (8%).
Audits of individual patient care provide important data to identify local problems in antimicrobial prescription practice.

Read full article

PLoS ONE: Different Patterns of Inappropriate Antimicrobial Use in Surgical and Medical Units at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Switzerland: A Prevalence Survey

Researchers develop light technology to combat hospital infections

A pioneering lighting system that can kill hospital superbugs， including MRSA and C. difficile， has been developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.Professor Anderson said: "The technology kills pathogens but is harmless to patients and staff, which means for the first time, hospitals can continuously disinfect wards and isolation rooms.

Read full article from Science Daily

Researchers develop light technology to combat hospital infections

High Prevalence Of Intestinal Parasites In Nigeria

A prospective study was carried out to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasite and its epidemiological risk factors among patients in admissions in Accident and Emergency Unit of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital a Tertiary Health Institution in Anambra State Nigeria between June 2008 and May.
Out of a total of 492 subjects examined, 190 (38.62%) were infected with one or more of the intestinal parasites.

Read full article from The Internet Journal of Parasitic Diseases

The OutHigh Prevalence Of Intestinal Parasites In A Nigerian Tertiary Health Institution

Bacterial Meningitis in Children

Bacterial meningitis is an emergent disease that is characterized by a high mortality rate and is associated with neurological complications, even when treated early. The aim of a study was to analyze how the outcome of bacterial meningitis in children is influenced by the identity and antibiotic susceptibility of the causative pathogens.
Conclusions: Although the incidence of neurological complications in culture-proven cases of bacterial meningitis was high, the antimicrobial resistance of causative pathogens was very low in children.

Read full article from The Internet Journal of Infectious Diseases

The Outcome Of Bacterial Meningitis In Children Related To Causative Pathogens And Their Susceptibility To Antibiotics

Serum Free Circulating DNA Distinguishes Benign from Malignant Prostate Disease

Tumor cell death releases cellular DNA into the bloodstream and this free, circulating DNA (fcDNA) can be measured.
Circulating DNA distinguishes benign from malignant prostate disease and fcDNA may be useful in decreasing the number of patients undergoing prostate biopsy during CaP screening.

Read full article from Medical News Today


Serum Free Circulating DNA Is A Useful Biomarker To Distinguish Benign Versus Malignant Prostate Disease

New way of predicting dominant seasonal flu strain

Science Daily: Rice University scientists have found a way to predict rapidly whether a new strain of the influenza virus should be included in the annual seasonal flu vaccine. While it sometimes takes new flu strains up to three years to become dominant worldwide, the new method can predict whether they will become dominant as little as two weeks after the sequence first appears in the GenBank database, the National Institutes of Health's collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.

Read full article from Science Daily:

New way of predicting dominant seasonal flu strain

Low Levels of Troponin T

The new test measures troponin T, a marker for the biological process of cell death that leads to heart failure. Current cardiac troponin T blood tests do not detect troponin in seemingly healthy people.
The new test detects troponin levels that are 10 times lower than previous tests. The researchers found the marker in two-thirds of people without symptoms age 65 or older whose blood samples were collected and stored for up to 18 years as part of a long-term cardiovascular research project.

Read full article

New blood test may help predict heart failure in apparently healthy older adults

Labquality Days 2011 Programme

Labquality Days 2011 will be held on 10 – 11 February 2011 in the Congress Wing of the Helsinki Fair Centre.

There will be 80 lectures in wide-ranging, high quality scientific program and wide exhibition that consists all the major Finnish and some international clinical-biochemistry and laboratory-medicine companies.

Download printable programme

Labquality Days 2011 Programme

www.labqualitydays.fi

Accuracy of Blood Glucose Meters at High Altitude

"The purpose of this study was to investigate whether modern GDH or GOX based BGMs are reliable under simulated and true high altitude conditions."
Blood glucose meters (BMG) were tested at simulated altitudes in a hypobaric chamber and a selection of BGMs were used during the ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro (5895 m).
At true high altitude one GDH based BGM had best precision and accuracy. Two GDH based BGMs did not meet set performance criteria.
Most BGMs are generally overestimating true glucose concentration at high altitude.

Read full article

PLoS ONE: Accuracy of Handheld Blood Glucose Meters at High Altitude

Social Networking Can Help Clinical Labs Recruit More and Better Professionals

Everyone in the clinical laboratory testing industry knows that there is sometimes an acute shortage of biomedical laboratory scientists. But laboratory professionals may be astonished to learn that their recruiting programs consistently fail to hire adequate numbers of professionals because they nearly always advertise and recruit in the wrong places.

Learn how to get your lab front and center in the social networking sites visited most often by medical laboratory professionals ready to change labs and looking for the best employment offerings.

Social Networking Can Help Clinical Labs Recruit More and Better Medical Technologists | Dark Daily

Five Common Mistakes in Lab Labeling

Labeling may seem like a simple task, but when you think about it, your lab labels are an integral part of the success of your lab. They house critical data, and without them, your samples would be unreliable and simply irrelevant. Those labels are your source of identification, and—if implemented correctly—they are the foundation of your internal sample management process.
What are the most common mistakes?

Five Common Mistakes in Lab Labeling

Incidence of hematologic malignancies in Europe

European hematologic malignancies have estimated from 66 371 lymphoid malignancies and 21 796 myeloid malignancies registered in 2000-2002 by 44 European cancer registries, grouped into 5 regions by HEMACARE project.

HAEMACARE classified hematologic malignancies into groupings consistent with the latest World Health Organization classification and useful for epidemiologic and public health purposes.

Find the age-standardized incidence rates of hematologic malignancies from:


Blood -- Incidence of hematologic malignancies in Europe by morphologic subtype: resu...

No More Phlebotomy?

A new technique lets biomedical scientists screen drops of dried blood.
A new method of screening miniscule amounts of dried blood for chemicals could allow researchers to get all the information they need from small amounts of blood. The researchers' first goal is to produce a drug-dosing guide for infants. But the list of potential applications is far longer. Infection specialists could use the technique to diagnose HIV or tuberculosis, for instance, while sports officials could use it to monitor athletes for banned substances.

Read full article


Twilight of the Blood Draws? - Technology Review

Five D-Dimer Point-of-Care Tests

Five D-dimer tests were evaluated at the University Medical Center Utrecht. The scientists analyzed data of 577 prospectively identified consecutive primary care patients suspected to have deep venous thrombosis.

All D-dimer tests showed negative predictive values higher than 98%. Sensitivity was high for all POC tests, with a range of 0.91 to 0.99.

Read full article from Labmedica

Labmedica - Point-of-Care D-Dimer Tests Exclude Deep Vein Thrombosis

Inadecuate data security

HealthLeader says that for 65 hospitals in US mostly in the 100- to 600-bed range, 71% of respondents say they have inadequate resources to prevent and quickly detect patient data loss.
"A lot of organizations are frustrated at the limited number of resources" protecting patient privacy.



Read full article

Data Security Inadequate at 71% of Hospitals

Error Management in Clinical Laboratory

To Err is Human, published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1999, changed hospital culture. Each year, it reported, medical errors cause 44,000-98,000 deaths in American hospitals, akin to a jet airliner crashing every day with no survivors.

Your laboratory can be a hospital leader in defining, catching and neutralizing errors.
Many errors are caused by poor decisions. An immediate approach to catching them is to identify critical decisions in laboratory processes.
Designing systems to catch errors and measure their impact creates a more robust, sustainable quality program.
Your success can be shared with other departments, resulting in better patient care.


Read more

To Delay is Deadly on ADVANCE for Medical Laboratory Professionals

EQA Scheme for Residues of Detergents

Labquality has created a new kind of EQA scheme (proficiency test) for residues of detergents and disinfectants. The scheme is planned to detect residues of detergents and disinfectans in rinsing water and on surfaces using test which is based on light emission of bacteria Vibrio fischeri. Scheme is suitable for laboratories, diagnostic industry, medical service units and all kind of health care units.

Participants will get two tubes and two swab sticks for sampling. First swab stick is for control sampling and another for test sampling. The survey is very easy to perform. Just sampling and returning the sample tubes with sampling information form. All the samples will be analysed at the same time by Labquality. Participants will get the evaluation reports including expert comments. This new scheme gives an effective tool for laboratories and medical service departments to measure the effectiveness of the rinsing systems where the residues are unwanted.

Scheme is available six times in 2011. The delivery months are January, March, May, July, September and November. Participants are allowed to select the months freely.

Please contact Labquality for more information.

info@labquality.fi

www.labquality.fi

Lean in Healthcare Environment

What constitutes “waste,” in healthcare or laboratory after all? Must it be a rejected product or part, or can it also be unnecessary time, steps, or effort? Can linked health care processes “flow” in the same manner as assembling an automobile or fabricating a semiconductor?

Michael Noble is writing in his blog "I don’t know the answers, but it’s fascinating to hear the experts duke it out. Their points are enlightening and well taken, and provide great food for thought. So what do you think?"

Read this excellent blog article and let your thoughts flow

Making Medical Lab Quality Relevant: QD - LEAN, HEALTH CARE, AND QUALITY

Olympus cellSens 1.4 software

Olympus cellSens software just realized a new version. The latest version, cellSens version 1.4, will control all the automated functions and components for the company's recently introduced BX3 series motorized microscopes.
The software controls both manual-encoded and motorized components for the two new Olympus microscope systems. cellSens has been designed to be fully compatible with the Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit) operating system.

cellSens Software is easily customized digital imaging software for capture, display, and analysis of biological images.

Read full article

Olympus Introduces cellSens^® Version 1.4 Software, Optimized for Motorizing Microscope Components

European Hematology Association Congresses

16th Congress of EHA

Date: June 9-12, 2011

Location: London, United Kingdom

Venue: ExCeL London


17th Congress of EHA

Date: June 14-17, 2012

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands*

Venue: RAI Congress Centre


18th Congress of EHA

Date: June 13-16, 2013

Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Venue: Geneva Palexpo


19th Congress of EHA

Date: June 12-15, 2014

Location: Milano, Italy

Venue: International Convention Center

E H A | European Hematology Association

Quality Management in POCT

CLSI, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute has published a new document, "Quality Management: Approaches to Reducing Errors at the Point of Care; Approved Guideline." The document describes a core infrastructure for a standardized error tracking system targeted to reduce risk and increase quality of point-of-care testing (POCT), while accumulating standardized data for benchmarking use.

Read more


CLSI : home

Test Your Knowledge of Thalassaemia

Second article of Healthcare Republic Haematology is about Thalassemia.
Thalassaemia comprises a heterogeneous group of inherited anaemias due to defective haemoglobin (Hb) production. Thalassaemia is caused when expression of alpha or beta globin genes of Hb are impaired

Read more and test your knowledge in the end of the article.

Haematology - Thalassaemia | Healthcare Republic

Infrared Illuminator for Challenging Phlebotomy

Professor Ruud Verdaasdonk of UMC developed the infrared illuminator that will make the finding of veins or arteries much easier for drawing blood.
The VascuLuminator is particularly suited for use in people with dark skin. Children with chronic diseases can also benefit, because they regularly undergo many procedures and the drawing of blood is often unsuccessful.

Read full article from

Labmedica - Infrared Illuminator Aids in Phlebotomy

Pulmonary Pathology Image Gallery

Digital Pathology Blog introduces Dr. Rosen's Flickr Collection of Pulmonary Pathology Images.
Dr. Rosen continues to post images to Flickr where you can now find his collection of more than 700 pulmonary pathology images.
The images are available for teaching and other non-commercial purposes.

Read more from:

Digital Pathology Blog: Dr. Rosen's Flickr Collection of Pulmonary Pathology Images

The International Normalized Ratio, INR

"PT and INR are critical tests for patients on warfarin therapy. Although these tests rank among the most commonly performed laboratory tests, their biological basis and limitations are often poorly understood. While use of the INR has resulted in better agreement between labs, in reality, INR results from the same specimen performed on different analyzers with different thromboplastin reagents still are not the same."

This excellent article in Clinical Laboratory News, November 2010 points that we as laboratory professionals, need to work to educate clinicians about the limitations of PT and INR in order to optimize proper use and interpretation of the results. Increased efforts to standardize reagent and instrument performance will help laboratories report consistent INR values on patient samples and improve the value of the test.

Read full article

November 2010 Clinical Laboratory News: The International Normalized Ratio

Labquality Days 2011

Labquality Days & Exhibition 2011 will be held on 10 – 11 February 2011 in the Congress Wing of the Helsinki Fair Centre.

There will be 80 lectures in wide-ranging, high quality scientific program and wide exhibition that consists all the major Finnish and some international clinical-biochemistry and laboratory-medicine companies.

In 2011 Labquality will celebrate its 40th anniversary of starting operations, and this is reflected in plans for these Labquality Days and the programme. The congress languages will be Finnish and English.

Registration is open
Final scientific programme will be published in the end of this week.

Welcome to Labquality Days

www.labqualitydays.fi

Conversion Factors of SI Units for Clinical Data

Système International (SI) Conversion Factors for Selected Laboratory Components

Conventional units of measure are preferred in the table, with Système International (SI) units expressed secondarily (in parentheses). To convert values from conventional units to SI units, multiply by the conversion factor.


This table is worth to bookmark

JAMA - table of conversion factors

Human immune system assassin's tricks visualized for the first time

Scientists from the UK and Australia have seen the human immune system's assassin, a protein called perforin, in action for the first time. The UK team is based at Birkbeck College where they used powerful electron microscopes to study the mechanism that perforin uses to punch holes in rogue cells.

Read full article

Science News: Human Immune System Assassin's Tricks Visualized for the First Time