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WORLD’S CLINICAL LABORATORY NEWS LEADER ISSN 1068-1760
Vol. 35 No.1 • 2-3/2018
DAILY CLINICAL LAB NEWS
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Hepatitis C Screening Recommended During Pregnancy
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ew guidelines from the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM, Washington, DC, USA; www.smfm.org) recommend a thorough testing regime for pregnant women at high risk for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and a prescriptive set of recommendations on screening workups for the disease. The guidelines were reviewed and endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG, Washington, DC, USA; www.acog.org). The estimated prevalence of antenatal Hepatitis C (HCV) infection is
team of researchers have demonstrated that Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) can serve as a suitable biomarker to identify people with severe asthma who have greater activation of the interleukin-13 (IL-13) pathway and thereby benefit from IL-13-targeted treatments. Increased IL-13 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression and protein concentration in bronchial biopsies, sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with asthma, compared with healthy individuals, supports a role for IL-13 in the pathophysiology of some types of asthma.
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Microscope-Based Artificial Intelligence Identifies Bacteria
Simple Blood Test Predicts Aggressive Prostate Cancer
icroscopes enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) could help clinical microbiologists diagnose potentially deadly blood infections and improve patients’ odds of survival. Scientists have demonstrated that an automated AI-enhanced microscope system is “highly adept” at identifying images of bacteria quickly and accurately. The automated system could help alleviate the current lack of highly trained microbiologists, expected to worsen as 20% of technologists
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newly-developed blood test uses machine learning to identify men with aggressive prostate cancer 40% more accurately than current tests, thereby eliminating a great part of unnecessary biopsies, hospitalizations, and treatments.
Image: Courtesy of University of Alberta
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Automated Immunoassay Can Improve Asthma Treatment
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INSIDE
Next-Generation Hematology Analyzer Introduced irst in a series of advanced hematology instruments to be released, the Alinity hq analyzer addresses the productivity needs of high-volume laboratories. The Alinity hq analyzer (Abbott, Abbott Park, IL, USA; www.corelaboratory.abbott) for hematology is now CE Marked, and available in Europe and other countries
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Automated RNA Extraction from Plasma Analytically Validated novel automated method for extracting circulating RNA from plasma has been demonstrated and the method performed equivalently or better than the established manual method that is currently used. A team of scientists utilized a commercially-available laboratory developed test (LDT) for echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4-ALK) messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) fusion variants as a reference assay to assess the performance of an automated solution for RNA extraction that was developed and optimized by Norgen Biotek
Clinical News . . . . 5-26 IFCC News . . . . . . . . 27 Product News . . 10-26 Industry News . . . . .33 Events Calendar . . . 34 PUBLISHED IN COOPERATION WITH
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International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
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