MCL

Chromium and cobalt blood tests are used to monitor exposure to these elements. Both of these elements are naturally occurring and widely distributed in the environment. Previously, serum samples were collected and used to monitor patients with metal-on-metal implants, but serum can easily be contaminated during the harvesting and separation of the serum from the cellular blood components causing incorrect results. By using the new EDTA anticoagulated whole-blood test, which is collected in a trace element tube instead of using serum, the risk of contamination is significantly reduced.

Gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) have revolutionized MRIs by increasing the clinical utility and detection sensitivity of these exams. GBCAs also contain gadolinium, a rare earth metal with unique chemical properties. This article discusses the recent discovery that small amounts of gadolinium remain in human brain tissue following intravenous administration of GBCAs.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Brad Karon, M.D., Ph.D., describes how pseudohyperkalemia has many causes, from collection techniques, processing, and even transport. This presentation focuses on the various preanalytic and analytic causes of pseudohyperkalemia and what you as a phlebotomist can do to prevent it.

Many patients may have flare-ups of their disease, or they may stop responding to treatment. In these situations, the clinician may choose to increase the dose administered or recommend more frequent injections. One cause of decreased response to treatment is the appearance of anti-drug antibodies or “immunogenicity.”

This "Phlebotomy" webinar will provide an update of litigation trends affecting phlebotomists.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Elitza Theel, Ph.D., will discuss diagnostic testing options for patients with suspected neuroinvasive Lyme disease or Lyme neuroborreliosis.

While online retailers experiment with drones as a way to swiftly deliver consumer purchases, laboratory medicine physicians and scientists have a lifesaving goal: using drones to rapidly deliver laboratory specimens.

High-sensitivity troponin T is a new assay recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This assay is most often used to evaluate patients with possible acute ischemic heart disease, but it also has a variety of uses in the more chronic setting.

For people with encephalitis, rapid treatment of their acute brain inflammation is critical for avoiding devastating physical and cognitive deficits. But appropriate treatment requires identifying the culprit causing the symptoms.

Mike Baisch, Principal Systems Engineer at Mayo Clinic, discusses staffing to workload in phlebotomy areas with a focus on "on-site operational needs," which is defined as "staff effort that does not deal directly with patients or their samples, or with the indirect tasks needed to support those patient-care efforts."

A breakthrough in pathology, achieved more than a century ago (allegedly on a frozen window ledge in Rochester, Minnesota) has evolved into an innovative aspect of care at Mayo Clinic. Mayo is one of the only medical centers in the United States to routinely use a tissue-freezing process that provides analysis of tissue samples while the patient is still in the operating room.

Mike Baisch, Principal Systems Engineer at Mayo Clinic, discusses staffing to workload in phlebotomy areas with a focus on indirect effort, which includes tasks performed that don’t involve the patient or a patient’s sample.

There have been concerns in the U.S. recently about the possible harmful side effects from absorbing gadolinium-based contrast agents into the body during some MRI exams. To address some of the anxiety and concerns over this issue, Paul Jannetto, Ph.D., DABCC, FAACC, and Joshua Bornhorst, Ph.D., DABCC, FAACC, Co-Directors of the Mayo Clinic Metals Laboratory and leading experts in this field, have compiled the following list of the most up-to-date information.