Sunday Survey - Bacterial Morphology

Sunday survey - Bacterial Morphology
Microbiology, bacteriology

This time 77 participated

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1. Which one is Staphylococcus aureus?
Correct answer: G 

2. Which one is Treponema Pallidum?
Correct answer: E

3. Which one is Streptococcus mutans?
Correct answer: C

4. Which one is Mycobacterium tuberculosis?
Correct answer: D

5. Which one is Corynebacterium diphtheriae?
Correct answer: H

6. Which one is Neisseria meningitidis?
Correct answer is: A

7. Which one is Streptococcus pneumoniae?
Corret answer: B

8. Which one is Bordetella pertussis?
Correct answer: F

Questions, answers and conclusions of the survey are my personal opinions based on used source materials.
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Learn more and strengthen your expertise
External quality assessment schemes (EQAS) for microbiology and bacteriology
Labquality, www.labquality.fi


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Previous surveys

• Preanalytics - Which labtests need fasting?
• Synovial crystals - Can you identify crystals in images A-D?
• Malaria - Can you find malaria from the images?
• Serum protein electrophoresis - Monoclonal or polyclonal gammopathy?
• Hepatitis serology - What is the most suitable clinical interpretation?
• What are the white blood cells in the pictures?
• Which one is a normal female karyotype?
• What is the most suitable ISO accreditation standard for medical (clinical) laboratories?
• What of the following things can cause hemolysis?
• If your blood group is A and your partners B, what are the possible blood groups of your children?
• Which one of the following microbes is most unlikely to cause meningitis?
• What is the correct order of sample tubes in multiple blood draw?
• What of the following Westgard rules have been violated?
• What white blood cell is in the picture? 

Malaria vaccine

Source: medicalxpress.com

Clinical trial of malaria vaccine begins in Africa

The vaccine, RTS,S, developed by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, is currently in phase III clinical trials and has previously reduced episodes of malaria in infants and young children by more than 50%. The Liverpool team, in collaboration with the University College of Medicine, Malawi, are working in Blantyre over the next three years to investigate how to maximise its effectiveness when delivered through the childhood immunisation programme.

Read more

Clinical trial of malaria vaccine begins in Africa


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External quality assessment programs for microbiology, parasitology and malaria tests
Labquality, www.labquality.fi

New EU medical device legislation

Source: European-hospital.com

New EU medical device legislation

The European Society of Cardiology is calling for a single, co-ordinated European system to oversee the evaluation and approval of medical devices. The call is being made in a paper published online in the European Heart Journal reporting on a conference held by the ESC in January 2011 looking to increase the input of medical experts in developing medical device policy.
As the European Union is currently engaging in the revision of the current regulation system of medical devices, he added, it was felt an “opportune time” for the cardiology community to share their expertise and views from the clinical and academic perspective.

Read full article

European-Hospital: New EU medical device legislation


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External quality assessment for laboratory instruments
Labquality, www.labquality.fi

Rheumatoid Factor or Anti-citrullinated protein antibody?

Source: MedScap Today


Time to Dump Rheumatoid Factor Levels for RA Diagnosis?

Anti-citrullinated protein antibody is a better tool for classifying rheumatoid arthritis than rheumatoid factor levels are and should replace RF levels when the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European Union League Against Rheumatism criteria for RA diagnosis are revised, a panel of European experts writes in the May issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

The study indicates that determination of RF level is subject to large variation; high RF level has limited additive prognostic value compared to ACP positivity. 

Read full article

Time to Dump Rheumatoid Factor Levels for RA Diagnosis?



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External quality assessment for clinical chemistry, RF and ACPA
Labquality, www.labquality.fi

Medical Journals Links

Source: medical-journals-links.com

At Medical Journals Links, visitors will find direct links to peer reviewed journals in all branches of biomedicine, i.e., to the study of the human body in health and disease.
Page offers a convenient, straightforward, free access compilation of website links to thousands of peer reviewed journals sorted into distinct biomedical disciplines such as biochemistry, cancer biology, dentistry, genetics, immunology, pediatrics, surgery and many more.


Open: medical-journals-links.com




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External quality assessment for medical laboratories
Labquality, www.labquality.fi

Bloodstream Pathogens

Source: AACC Clinical Laboratory News

Bloodstream pathogens
Every year in the U. S., 350,000 patients acquire bloodstream infections while in the hospital, resulting in more than 90,000 deaths and significant costs to the healthcare system. Rapidly detecting and identifying the infectious pathogens is therefore critical for favorable patient outcomes. However, blood culture, the gold standard for diagnosis of bloodstream infections, often takes several days.

Blood Culture
To test for bloodstream infections, clinical microbiology laboratories typically inoculate liquid growth media with a blood sample from the patient, and an automated blood culture instrument monitors the culture for bacterial growth.

PNA FISH Method
The PNA FISH method has many advantages for identifying pathogens in positive blood cultures. Most importantly, it provides microbial species confirmation in as little as 90 minutes, whereas traditional methods used to definitively identify and differentiate between species take from 1–5 days after identifying a positive blood culture.


Read full article:
May 2011 Clinical Laboratory News: Bloodstream Pathogens



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External quality assessment (EQA) services for microbiology and bacteriology
Labquality, www.labquality.fi

Ten tips for successful blood sample collection

Source: Medical laboratory observer

Phlebotomy tips: 10 sure-fire formulas for success

Tips for new phlebotomists

• There is no such thing as “too professional.” 
• Know your job and what constitutes excellence.
• There is no such thing as being “too dependable.” 
• It pays to be certified. 
• Commit to continuing education.  

Tips for managers 

• An ounce of orientation is worth a pound of remediation.  
• Show appreciation. 
• Respect is a two-way street.
• Surprises are for birthday parties. 
  Commit to continuing education. 

Read full article from:
MLQ Lab management 


_______________________________________________________
External quality assessment EQA for laboratory medicine and POCT
Labquality, www.labquality.fi

Breathalyzers for Clinical Laboratories

Source: Clinical Laboratory News, May2011

What Clinical Niche Will Breath Tests Fill?

The notion of breath as a bellwether of disease dates to Hippocrates, who commented on fetor oris and fetor hepaticus in a discourse on breath aroma and disease. The modern science of breath testing took off in the early 1970s when Nobel Prize recipient Linus Pauling demonstrated that more than 250 volatile organic compounds were present in exhaled breath. That milestone focused considerable research on quantifying and understanding the role of various endogenous and exogenous gasses in the breath, which primarily is comprised of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and inert gasses.

“This is the frontier of medical testing. Clearly, blood, urine, and radiography tests in some cases will be displaced, and in others, complemented by breath testing, because there are so many advantages of breath testing that are not true for other tests,” said Raed Dweik, MD"
“We have chemists and physicists working on these great sensors but they don’t have a great concept of how they would work in practice, and at the same time, physicians and other practitioners are looking for tests and devices to help them better monitor patients,” he observed. “They haven’t been collaborating too much, but if we get them together upfront we’ll see some real progress. And that’s starting to happen.”

Topics of this article

The Sampling Challenge
Why Test Breath?
Tests in Use
On the Horizon   
The Long Term Outlook


Read more from:
 
May 2011 Clinical Laboratory News: Beyond Breathalyzers   
 


_______________________________________________________
External quality assessment EQA for laboratory medicine and POCT
Labquality, www.labquality.fi

Which labtests need fasting? - May Day Survey

Sunday survey result summary
Preanalytics - Fast blood samples


This time 75 participated.

1. What of the following blood tests require fasting? 
Correct answer: Glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, vitamin A, folate and iron.

2. If a patient (client) has a routine health check and he comes to the blood tests without fasting, what is your procedure?
There is no correct answer to this question, but you should not take fast samples without fasting. There can be a remarkable error.

3. Why fasting is needed for laboratory tests? 
The correct answers are: Reference values, lipids can disturb optical methods, standardized condition and food can falsely raise analytes.

Questions, answers and conclusions of the survey are my personal opinions based on used source materials.
___________________________________________________________________
Learn more and strengthen your expertise
External quality assessment schemes (EQAS) for laboratory medicine and POCT
Labquality, www.labquality.fi


___________________________________________________________________


Previous surveys

• Synovial crystals - Can you identify crystals in images A-D?
• Malaria - Can you find malaria from the images?
• Serum protein electrophoresis - Monoclonal or polyclonal gammopathy?
• Hepatitis serology - What is the most suitable clinical interpretation?
• What are the white blood cells in the pictures?
• Which one is a normal female karyotype?
• What is the most suitable ISO accreditation standard for medical (clinical) laboratories?
• What of the following things can cause hemolysis?
• If your blood group is A and your partners B, what are the possible blood groups of your children?
• Which one of the following microbes is most unlikely to cause meningitis?
• What is the correct order of sample tubes in multiple blood draw?
• What of the following Westgard rules have been violated?
• What white blood cell is in the picture?