Lab Best Practice | UC Davis Health

Vitamin D: Its Physiology, Testing and Relationship with COVID-19

The discovery and importance of vitamin D was first revealed in 1919 when Sir Edward Mellanby successfully reproduced a nutritional disease known as rickets by feeding dogs oatmeal and keeping these dogs from...

Our Experience with Touch Preparations of Lung Core Needle Biopsies

The touch preparation (TP) technique is a tissue preparation method in which a fresh tissue will exfoliate cells on a glass slide after touching that slide. It is usually performed on core needle biopsies (CNB) ....

Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in Patient Care: A Closer Look at Wound Infections

Health care providers around the world face the growing challenge of rising rates of resistance of bacterial pathogens to antibiotics. This is particularly pronounced in the management of wound infections ....

Cancer Care

Introduction to Molecular Pathways & Routine DNA MMR Deficiency Testing in Colorectal Adenocarcinoma

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death in both men and women in the United States [1]. The vast majority of colorectal cancers are adenocarcinomas, which are malignancies arising from the

Coronavirus

Debunking Common Misconceptions of COVID-19 Related Testing and Transfusion Practices

The 2019 novel coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in a constant and massive surge of information. Over 100,000 scientific articles related to COVID-19 were published in 2020 alone.

Flow Cytometric Immunophenotypic Analysis of Hematolymphoid Neoplasms

Flow cytometry (FCM) by immunophenotypic analysis has a prominent role in the diagnosis and classification of hematolymphoid neoplasms, and in monitoring response to therapy. There have been tremendous advances for

Reconstituted Whole Blood Transfusion Exchange in Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia

The blood bank occasionally will receive requests for a transfusion exchange in a neonate with hyperbilirubinemia. Neonates with hyperbilirubinemia may necessitate hospital admissions with approximately 5-10% of all

Infectious Diseases

Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 Specimen Types: Nasal Swabs, Nasopharyngeal Swabs and Beyond

The nasopharyngeal (NP) swab serves as the primary specimen type for respiratory molecular pathogen detection. During the novel coronavirus infectious disease (COVID) pandemic of 2019, the NP swab became the

Coronavirus

Role of Quantitative Serology Testing for COVID-19

The current pandemic has led to considerable interest in COVID-19 related laboratory testing. The widespread distribution of the various vaccines, the emerging genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 circulating around the

An Overview of Prosthetic Joint Infection (PJI) Definition and Diagnosis

The numbers of primary total hip and knee arthroplasties have been increasing over time, with 332,000 total hip and 719,000 total knee arthroplasties performed in 2010 in the United States.

Infectious Diseases

Hepatitis B Serologic Testing Methods

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) was first discovered in 1965. Briefly, HBV is a DNA virus from the Hepadnaviridae family which is spread via contaminated body fluids. After exposure, the virus enters hepatocytes and .....

Plasma Exchange with Albumin Replacement for Alzheimer’s Disease

The guidelines on the use of therapeutic Apheresis in clinical practice published in JCP 2019 has showed strong consideration for the addition of a new fact sheet on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on the ....

Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA)

FNA is a simple, safe, and Cost-effective procedure for patient with a mass. FNA is a biopsy procedure and should be considered in the same light as a surgical biopsy.

Race and eGFR: Addressing Health Disparities in Chronic Kidney Disease

Starting on May 4, 2021, UC Davis Health will calculate estimated glomerular filtration (eGFR) rate without a parameter for race. African Americans are at high risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Infectious Diseases

Acid Fast Bacilli (AFB) Smear and Culture Testing

It is a foundational principle for any laboratory test procedure that the value of the test heavily relies on using specimens that have been properly collected, labelled, handled or stored prior to....

The Importance of Trephine Biopsy and Aspirate in Bone Marrow Analysis

The morphologic analysis of bone marrow specimen is an essential part of comprehensive evaluation in the diagnosis of hematologic and certain non-hematologic disorders.

Coronavirus

The SARS-CoV-2 Variant and its Impact on Diagnostic Testing

The new SARS-CoV-2 mutant (VOC 202012/01) has become the dominant variant in the United Kingdom (UK) with the first known case in the United States identified on December 29, 2020.

Red blood cell antigen phenotyping and genotyping

The main purpose of testing prior to transfusion is to provide the most compatible blood to the patient in order to minimize the risk of hemolytic transfusion reactions.

CAP Inspections and the importance of informatics…

The College of American Pathology (CAP) systematically reviews and accredits laboratories across the U.S. to ensure these laboratories meet certain safety and patient care criteria.

Rapid Combined Flu A/B and SARS-CoV-2 RNA Polymerase Chain Reaction Testing for Emergency and Ambulatory Care Settings

The primary means for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection is by reverse transcriptase (RT) real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

GI biopsies with lymphoid aggregates: What does this mean?

Because the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a site of continuous challenge by foreign antigens, it contains a well-developed immune system component.

Introduction to Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and the Clinical Laboratory's Role

Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is the practice of measuring drug concentrations in order to tailor dosages and maintain therapeutic levels in a patient’s bloodstream.

Coronavirus

Challenges and Implications of False Negative COVID-19 Testing

As communities across the U.S. struggle to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have focused on the lack of widespread testing as a major roadblock to reopening the country.

Infectious Diseases

Specimen Collection Practices for Microbiologic Culture

The culturing of microorganisms remains the mainstay of laboratory testing for infectious disease, even in an age of rapid and more cost-effective molecular testing.

Vitreous fluid for primary intraocular lymphoma

Primary intraocular lymphomas (PIOLs) are a subset of primary central nervous system lymphoma arise from retina, vitreous, or optic nerve-with or without central nervous system (CNS) involvement.

Staining Methods in Frozen Section: Best Lab Practices

Tissue staining during a frozen section is one of the most important steps in obtaining an accurate pathologic diagnosis.

Blood Disorders

Optimal Utilization of Thromboelastrography (TEG)

Thromboelastography (TEG) was first described by Dr. Hartert in Germany almost 60 years ago. However, it came to clinical practice almost 25 years following its discovery.

Blood Disorders

A Brief Introduction to Clinical Application of Liquid Biopsy

What is liquid biopsy? It's a test done on circulating tumor cells or shed fragments of tumor DNA from a sample of blood to determine the genomics or molecular portrait of a tumor.

Cancer Care

Assessment of HER2 status in Gastroesophageal Adenocarcinoma (GEA)

Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) is a proto-oncogene that encodes a tyrosine kinase receptor belonging to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family.

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