Two sides of the coin
Too much unhealthy food, too little exercise – the risk factors for the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and Type 2 diabetes are not only similar but also form a life-threatening alliance.
Germany to limit test strips prescriptions
Since the German Federal Ministry of Health did not oppose the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) decision to eliminate reimbursement for urine and blood sugar test strips for Type 2 diabetics not dependent on insulin from the services provided by statutory medical insurers, from this October test strips will only be prescribed in exceptional cases.
Concerted efforts to combat prosthetic joint infections
Bacteria are highly flexible when it comes to choosing a vehicle to enter a human body. During orthopaedic surgery, they may well settle on a prosthetic joint and cause immediate or delayed infections.
Diabesity surgery
Morbid obesity is a chronic, lifelong, multifactorial, constitutional disease with negative medical, psychological, physical, social and economic side-effects. Obesity-related secondary diseases are Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension or sleep apnoea. Report: Holger Zorn
Lab medicine is on the move, but where exactly is it going?
Facing the fundamental changes that laboratory medicine is undergoing, in early June Roche Diagnostics Deutschland GmbH invited 50 high-profile speakers to a six-day symposium to discuss current research, economic and diagnostic issues in lab medicine with a professional audience. Report: Karoline Laarmann
At war with nosocomial infections: Software that looks hard to beat
The clinical informatics firm ICNet International Ltd, which develops case management and surveillance software, has produced a software package using the SSI (Surgical Site infection surveillance) Monitor to combine information about patient movements in a hospital with data held by the laboratory and theatre systems -- and to alert staff if a patient is either infected or at risk of contracting…
Laboratory challenges in disasters and world tragedies
This May, IFCC WorldLab Berlin with its manifold scientific programme gives clinical lab physicians the opportunity to see over the rim of the tea cup of their working field. Within the congress theme ‘Healing the world’ comes an exciting lecture on laboratory work in third world countries and disaster areas.
The IFCC WorldLab and EuromedLab Congress
‘Three years is a long time in the world of research. The amount of information on offer quickly grows quite enormously,’ says Professor Rudolf Tauber, joint head of this year’s WorldLab congress with Professor Harald Renz. Thus, one organisational challenge was to channel current trends and developments and present participants with an informative, comprehensive overview. How was this…
AACC publishes program for 2011 annual meeting
2011 The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) has published the program for its 2011 Annual Meeting being held July 23 – 28 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA. This year the Annual Meeting features almost 300 individual educational events in a variety of formats. Hot topics for 2011 include cancer, obesity, diabetes, and healthcare reform.
A novel prostate disease marker and index show increased clinical accuracy
The role of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer detection continued to command attention at during the annual congress of the European Association of Urology (EAU) in March.
Four automated immunosuppressant drug tests on one integrated system
Following CE mark registration to sell a fully-automated Mycophenolic acid (MPAT) test for use on the Dimension integrated chemistry systems*, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics has become the first to offer the consolidation of four fully-automated immunosuppressant drug (ISD) tests -- Mycophenolic acid, Cyclosporine, Tacrolimus and Sirolimus – used to monitor organ transplant patients.
From friend to foe
It’s a war against a perceived enemy that is not – autoimmune disease like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus or multiple sclerosis, occur when the immune system attacks normal tissue components. Characteristic of those disease patterns are autoantibodies in the blood, which the immune system produces to attack its own organism.
Article • Artificial insemination
France: The country’s first ‘saviour sibling’ is a ‘double-hope baby’
The birth, in France, of its first baby to be conceived by artificial insemination on top of the selection of an embryo based on its blood, has sent new flames into the hot parliamentary debate over the reform of bioethics law.
Charter promotes rights of people with diabetes
The International Diabetes Federation* (IDF) today launched the first ever Charter setting out the fundamental rights of more than 300 million people living with diabetes.
Partnership delivers improvements in pathology services
Southampton University Hospitals’ Department of Laboratory Medicine has recently transformed the way it delivers its pathology service, becoming one of the largest automation installations in the National Health Service to operate under a managed service contract. This has contributed significantly to the development of a strengthened and expanded pathology network across Southern England.
From dream to reality - pre-analytical quality improvement
1-2 April 2011 – time for lab and clinical staff to be in Parma, Italy, at the 1st European Conference on Pre-analytical Phase. Organised by the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC), the meeting will meeting present a range of events to launch a platform for continuous knowledge and idea exchanges regarding pre-analytical aspects of lab medicine.
Obesity from the lab point of view
Over the last 25 years overweight and obesity have become a global epidemic. According to WHO figures, at least 400 million adults are obese worldwide. Part of this phenomenon relates to lifestyle changes - lack of exercise, wrong eating habits - whereas genetic factors also play a role (according to twin studies, the determination of obesity is 70% nature and 30% nurture).
Keeping everything under control in the ICU
During intensive care, hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance are widespread in diabetics as well as non-diabetics. However, whether the normalisation of blood glucose levels with insulin therapy improves the prognosis of such patients is still debated. Karoline Laarmann reports
England: Foot and limb losses must be cut
Much of the newly revealed variation in amputation rates in England is due to many diabetics not receiving nine key care processes, including checks on weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, urine and, in particular, consistent foot care checks.
Blood glucose monitoring in the ICU
Although there is still disagreement as to ‘how’, when it comes to the question of whether the glucose level affects the prognosis for intensive care patients, the answer is a definite ‘yes’. ‘
The 31st ISICEM
Jean-Louis Vincent, Chairman of the Dept of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, welcomes visitors to this year’s International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine.
15th birthday for Lab Automation 2011
Focused exclusively on the rapidly growing field of laboratory automation, Lab Automation 2011will discuss and demonstrate the latest scientific and technological advances in this field. Presented by the Laboratory Automation Section (LAS) of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), the event is expected to attract more than 4,000 scientists, academics and business leaders.
Bayer Healthcare’s 7th European Diabetes Nursing Symposium
In November, European diabetologists converged on Leverkusen, Germany, to discuss current practices in diabetic management of Type 1 and Type 2 in adults, as well as new technologies, procedures and the need for patients’ education.
POCT brings values
Bedside testing of parameters has been introduced in clinical practice much earlier than laboratory testing: In past centuries, not only were temperature or pulse rate taken at the point of care (POC), but also qualitative blood or urine analysis were performed right next to a patient’s bed
Advancing POC diagnostics
Improvements in microfluidics and detection technologies are beginning to expand the range of point-of-care diagnostics beyond simple blood chemistry tests to sophisticated immuno-assays and molecular diagnostics. Though yet to see much adoption in European hospitals, these point-of-care (POC) diagnostics are coming into use in the USA, initially in emergency rooms and ICUs where fast results are…
