Thought leadership
New diagnostic tests specifically for conditions that predominantly or only affect women, such as autoimmune diseases and gynecological cancers, are empowering female patients and their physicians to make informed decisions.
JoAnne Michael’s symptoms started with dizziness and forgetfulness before down spiraling into severe confusion, crying jags, and brain seizures. ER doctors at her local hospital initially thought she was on drugs. JoAnne, terrified, wondered if she was dying. Luckily, she had a guardian angel by her side: her mother, a retired nurse practitioner, who took her to Mayo Clinic, where the clinical experience and expertise of neurologist Andrew McKeon, M.B., B.Ch., M.D., helped give her a diagnosis and hope for a journey back to health.
Mayo Clinic Laboratories has developed a cutting-edge suite of Alzheimer's disease testing. The newest assays use blood samples, avoiding the need for lumbar punctures to obtain cerebrospinal fluid. The testing suite exemplifies Mayo Clinic Laboratories' innovative business approach. As a platform company, Mayo Clinic is creating a diagnostics ecosystem to meet a wide range of testing needs and help physicians order the right tests for their patients.
Alicia Algeciras-Schimnich, Ph.D., discusses Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ new noninvasive plasma biomarker assay for Alzheimer’s disease, an accessible, highly accurate testing option for individuals age 50 and above who are experiencing mild cognitive impairment or early dementia. Positive test results can confirm amyloid beta pathology and facilitate access to disease-modifying therapies.
Mayo Clinic launched an automated system called RENEW — reanalysis of negative whole-exome/genome data — in 2022 that tracks newly published discoveries of disease-causing genetic variants. Every three months, the system automatically uploads these new scientific findings from around the world, which are then compared to the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine’s database of unsolved patient sequencing results. This comparison helps to identify potentially significant developments that could lead to a new diagnosis for a patient with a rare genetic disorder.
Joe Mondloch and his wife Sue have existed in a grey area of uncertainty due to the unpredictable autoimmune neurological illness Joe has lived with for the last seven years. Rare, incurable, and debilitating, the newly classified disorder can be hard to manage. But thanks to information and direction provided by a rare disease advocacy group, the Mondlochs sought care at Mayo Clinic and received much more than answers.
Almost four years ago, Mayo Clinic launched the Digital Pathology Program, a major pathology initiative. Phase 2 of this multi-phase rollout has recently been completed, which involved the implementation of cutting-edge digital equipment and software, and converting glass slides of patient samples into digital images. The conversion enables pathologists and laboratory technologists to view, store, retrieve, and share medical images more universally, without waiting for glass slides to be retrieved and delivered. This has significantly improved patient care because pathologists can now discuss cases with clinicians and surgeons in real time.
For patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) — the most common leukemia in adults — advanced testing can not only provide valuable information about their disease state, but peace of mind in the face of a progressive, incurable illness. Oftentimes, however, complex molecular and genetic tests to identify biomarker cues about disease trajectory and treatment intolerance are not performed, putting patients at risk for unmet expectations and unsatisfactory outcomes.