Hot Topic

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” John Mills, Ph.D., explains the central role of tissue immunofluorescence in the identification of neural antibodies and discusses the benefits of an integrated laboratory approach to the development and validation of novel antibody biomarkers.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Paul Jannetto, Ph.D., discusses the high-resolution targeted opioid screening test from Mayo Clinic Laboratories, which offers sensitivity and specificity for use in the monitoring and management of patients who are prescribed opioid pain-relieving medication.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Brad Karon, M.D., Ph.D., will discuss recent information on the advantages and disadvantages of using butterfly needles for blood collection.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Sounak Gupta, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., discusses selecting tissues and other tissue considerations for molecular testing. He also reviews tissue metrics and requirements, which differ based on test platforms. It is important to keep in mind that the details of tissue metrics change over time as they continue to evolve with technology.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Elitza Theel, Ph.D., talks about Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ serologic and molecular testing for the identification of infection with dengue virus. Dengue virus poses a significant public health threat worldwide. Rapid and accurate identification of the infection enables directed monitoring of patients who may be at increased risk of developing hemorrhagic fever of dengue shock syndrome.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Elitza Theel, Ph.D., will discuss the over utilization of IgM serologic testing for herpes simplex virus and the recommendation by multiple agencies, including the CDC and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, to avoid using this test for clinical decision making purposes. As a result of these recommendations and data generated at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Theel will summarize why HSV IgM testing will no longer be offered through Mayo Clinic Laboratories.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Divyanshu Dubey, M.B.B.S., discusses how patients with encephalopathy and/or epilepsy of unknown etiology may have an autoimmune or paraneoplastic cause.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Jessie Swanson and Michelle Soland from the Component Laboratory will discuss the process improvement that helped decrease the standard cryoprecipitate dosage and the positive impact it has on patients.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Elitza Theel, Ph.D., will discuss the detection of (1→3)-β-D-glucan (BDG) in serum as a biomarker for the presence of invasive fungal infections.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Curtis Hanson, M.D., will discuss the use of laboratory-based prognostic markers in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). He will also highlight the importance of molecular analyses for IGHV and TP53 sequencing in these patients.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Robin Patel, M.D., discusses the FilmArray meningitis/encephalitis (ME) panel, describing the panel, her experience with it, and an algorithm for its use.

Antibodies to aquaporin-4 and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) are recently described biomarkers seen in a subset of atypical optic neuritis which have revolutionized our understanding of the condition. In this “Hot Topic,” my colleague, Dr. John Chen, will review these advances and how they impact the clinical care of our patients with optic neuritis.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Rajiv Pruthi, M.B.B.S., will discuss different types of hemophilia along with their pathologic basis. He will also cover various types of factor assays such as one stage and chromogenic factor assays for diagnosis and their role in management of hemophilia.