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.
‘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…
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.
Eppendorf AG celebrates success in a leading global design competition which attracted 4,433 entries from 1,700 companies in over 60 nations. Centrifuge 5424 R, a premium 24-place microcentrifuge, has been honoured for design excellence in the life science and medicine category of ‘red dot award: product design 2011’.
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.
Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in males in developed countries and the sixth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. One reason for the increase in diagnosis is the widespread uptake of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, capable of detecting slow growing cancers that might otherwise go undetected.
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.
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.
In the first month of 2011, the Centre for Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics at the Paracelsus Private Medical University in Salzburg, Austria, officially opened its doors. Why have pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics so increasingly important in medical research? We asked the head of the new research centre, Professor Markus Paulmichl.
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.
Although paediatric laboratory medicine and clinical chemistry is a well and long established scientific field, it is still a challenging one with its own special problems, as Dr Massimiliano Cantinotti, Paediatric Cardiologist Consultant at Fondazione G Monasterio, National Research Institute, Massa, Italy, well knows.
The smaller the child, the more defenceless it is against viral and bacterial attacks. That is why infection accompanied by the symptom of a high temperature is the most common illness in children. So, when a child has a runny nose and fever an infection is clear. The more elemental question is: Should it be treated with antibiotics?
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.
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.
USA - Over the past couple of decades, due to acquisitions California-based Beckman Coulter Inc has became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of in vitro diagnostics analysers and automation for clinical pathology laboratories. Now, in a US$6.8 billion transaction, including debt and cash acquired, the company itself been acquired by the Danaher Corporation of Washington, D.C.
The earlier cancers can be detected, the better the chances of a cure. Researchers are now working to develop a new diagnostics platform with which the illness can be diagnosed in its early stages, even during a visit to the general practitioner: protein biomarkers in exhaled air divulge the presence of pathological cells in the lung.
The trend towards personalised medicine implies the development of targeted cancer therapy. Tissue based examinations by pathologists play a key role in this trend. However, the relevance is still underestimated as pathologist Professor Manfred Dietel noted in his lecture at the European Forum on Oncology 2010 in Berlin, which explained what pathology already actually renders to targeted cancer…
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…
The world consists of molecules – so do we. With the progression of measurement tools such as microscopes, centrifuges, or spectrometers, mankind is becoming better and better in identifying the substances from which our world is made. Today, with the technical developments in mass spectrometry, biomolecules can be weighted with the highest precision and accuracy ever known, placing it among…
For some time, German pathology has only been in the background of the medical disciplines. However, during the last ten years the profession stepped up to the fore. In the face of molecular medicine developments, the German Association of Pathologists redefined its members position with revived self-confidence.
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
Different tests bring different results, and results of the same types of test vary from laboratory to laboratory. "In the case of test procedures for autoimmune diseases there are incredible discrepancies," confirmed Professor Manfred Herold, head of the Laboratory for Rheumatism at the University Clinic for Internal Medicine One, Innsbruck. The reason: "There are no standards for…
With its initial launch at the start of 2010, the Xplorer® electronic pipette has already been awarded 3 design prizes in its first year on the market. Immediately following its market launch in March 2010, the Xplorer won the "red dot: best of the best" award in the product design 2010 category (Life science and medicine division).
Students and teaching staff expressed difficulty in defining professionalism in pharmacy clearly and succintly. For most it seems to more an implicit than explicit concept, ie "you know it when you see it" according to a study undertaken in UK schools of pharmacy.
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the engine that drives tumour growth. They can not only reproduce themselves but also differentiate to form all the specialised cells found within a tumour. While chemotherapy and radiotherapy non-specifically target all rapidly dividing cells, there is increasing evidence that CSCs are more resistant to these treatments. Report: Karoline Laarmann
