pathtalk.org is a weblog about pathology and laboratory medicine.

Posts tagged lab test

Testing-testing: You want fries with that INR?

This is a superficial post on point-of-care (POC) testing touching on general background info. This topic and especially “Lab On A Chip (LOC)” has been addressed several times by Dr. Friedman in LabSoftNews (see links tab to the right). Over a dinner of delicious home-cooked food, my mother, in a perpetual exercise to understand the [...]

Testing-testing: do we give verbiage a bad name?

Like many people, I dislike the word “verbiage” , but just testing the waters for catchy blog titles. Directly influenced by my PGY year (4) I have been interested in report construction and the use of language to convey diagnostic findings, diagnostic uncertainty, and the interpretation of newer tests such as new molecular tests which [...]

Testing-testing: Two SNPs for $200

The ASCP daily newsletter dated 10/12/07 had a short paragraph about home kit DNA diagnostics. Risk assessment for tailored treatment plans is a marketing strategy supporting the use of DIY (do-it-yourself) DNA swabs fishing for SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) deemed as high risk in some common diseases such as atrial fibrillation. The current prevalence of [...]

Testing–testing: CRP–hs or unleaded?

C-Reactive Protein CRP is a lab test which can used to monitor inflammation. It is a non-organ specific acute phase response protein (acute phase response = pathophysiologic changes which accompany inflammation). It can be used in a variety of clinical settings when an inflammatory process is a concern. CRP levels can rise in acute infection, [...]