MCL

After a long wait, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finally approved the Elecsys Troponin T Gen 5 STAT blood test. Recently, the Beckman hscTnI assay was also approved. These high-sensitivity troponin assays will benefit emergency departments across the country because the results will allow for earlier and faster recognition of acute myocardial infarction, which interrupts the blood supply to an area of the heart.

Due to the Christmas holiday (recognized on Tuesday, Dec. 25) and the New Year's holiday (recognized on Tuesday, Jan. 1), Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ specimen pickup and delivery schedules will be altered. To ensure that your specimen vitality and turnaround times are not affected, plan ahead and note that no pickups or deliveries will be made on Dec. 25 or Jan. 1 by Mayo couriers, FedEx, or UPS.

In November 2018, Mayo Clinic Laboratories announced five new tests along with numerous reference value changes, obsolete tests, and algorithm changes.

Our Mayo Clinic colleagues are in San Diego for the 60th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exhibition. Follow this blog for live updates from #ASH18 as we attend the conference, mingle with colleagues at booth #2927, and have a little fun.

In October 2018, Mayo Medical Laboratories announced one new test along with numerous reference value changes, obsolete tests, and algorithm changes.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States (recognized on Thursday, Nov. 22), the Mayo Clinic Laboratories specimen pickup and delivery schedule will be altered. To ensure that your specimen vitality and turnaround time are not affected, plan ahead and note that no pickups or deliveries will be made on November 22 by our couriers or FedEx.

Mayo Medical Laboratories, the global reference laboratory of Mayo Clinic, has changed its name to Mayo Clinic Laboratories.

Effective November 9, 2018, our business name will change from Mayo Collaborative Services, LLC, doing business as (d/b/a) Mayo Medical Laboratories to Mayo Collaborative Services, LLC, d/b/a Mayo Clinic Laboratories. The change to Mayo Clinic Laboratories will more accurately reflect the benefit we are able to bring to our clients every day.

Necrotizing autoimmune myopathy (NAM) is a serious but rare muscle disease strongly associated with autoantibodies to either the protein signal recognition particle (SRP) or the enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR). NAM typically manifests with subacute proximal limb muscle weakness and persistently elevated serum creatine kinase (CK) concentrations, but slower onsets can occur and complicate diagnosis.

Now in its second year of a five-year initiative to better understand and detect arboviruses in Belize, the IMPACTS (Integrated Mayo Clinic Program for Arbovirus Community health education Training and Surveillance) project has expanded its focus to include tick-borne infections in addition to mosquito-borne diseases, like Zika and dengue. IMPACTS is a four-tiered project that is a joint effort with Mayo Clinic, the University of Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health, and the Belize Ministry of Health.

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.

In September 2018, Mayo Medical Laboratories announced two new tests along with numerous reference value changes, obsolete tests, and algorithm changes.

WuXi Diagnostics, a joint venture between WuXi AppTec Group and Mayo Clinic, recently received the 2018 MedTech Insight Award for the Best Alliance.