Clinical Chemistry Podcast

Low HDL Cholesterol and High Risk of Autoimmune Disease: Two Population-Based Cohort Studies Including 117341 Individuals 17.06.2019 7:10 ↓

High-density lipoprotein or HDL is one of the most important of the lipoproteins in most species and there is evidence that points towards a role of HDL in normal immune function.  A paper appearing in the May 2019 issue of Clinical Chemistry tested the hypothesis that concentrations of HLD cholesterol are associated with risk of autoimmune disease. That study from the Copenhagen General Populatio...

What the Protecting Access to Medicare Act Means for Clinical Laboratories 05.06.2019 17:53 ↓

In 2014, the U.S. Congress passed the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) which required CMS, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to revise the clinical laboratory fee schedule to reflect private sector payment rates.  Many in the laboratory community believed that the cuts are too deep and have urged CMS to recalculate fees to more accurately reflect the spectrum of laboratories th...

A Message to Medical School Promotion Committees: Proper Credit for Peer-Reviewed Online Educational Materials 03.06.2019 11:18 ↓

The standard course for academic promotion has primarily been based on the number and quality of peer-reviewed papers published and the number of peer-reviewed grants received.  Other academic activities such as teaching, book editing, mentoring, and service to scientific organizations have also been considered.  But this process often falls short for those whose interests are in biomedical educat...

Generation of Highly Biomimetic Quality Control Materials for Noninvasive Prenatal Testing Based on Enzymatic Digestion of Matched Mother–Child Cell Lines 03.06.2019 11:02 ↓

Non-invasive prenatal testing based on cell-free DNA is now a widely used technique. However, quality control materials that have properties identical to clinical samples and that are applicable to a wide range of procedures are not available to support assay development, internal or external quality control, and proficiency testing. The June 2019 issue of Clinical Chemistry includes a study descr...

Increased Clinical Sensitivity and Specificity of Plasma Protein N-Glycan Profiling for Diagnosing Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation by Use of Flow Injection–Electrospray Ionization–Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry 09.05.2019 8:46 ↓

Inborn errors of metabolism are rare diseases in which a single gene defect causes a clinically significant block in a metabolic pathway resulting either in an accumulation of substrate behind the block or a lack or deficiency of the product.  Profiling metabolites in the pathway could allow for accurate and timely identification of patients who have these diseases and help physicians to devise ef...

Privacy in Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing 02.05.2019 9:02 ↓

For about the past 15 years, the public has become aware that genetic testing can provide medical diagnosis and inform specific medical therapies.  In addition to being used for medical purposes, genetics has also become a popular recreational tool for genealogy and general wellness.  The number of customers for direct-to-consumer genetic testing has now grown to greater than 12 million and contin...

Parameters for Validating a Hospital Pneumatic Tube System 02.05.2019 11:38 ↓

Hospital pneumatic tube systems provide rapid transportation of patient samples to the laboratory.  However, it is known that the physical movement through a pneumatic tube system can agitate blood samples and sometimes cause cells to break open and leak intracellular components.  As a result, multiple laboratory results are susceptible to error. The May 2019 issue of Clinical Chemistry published...