Hot Topic

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Brad Karon, M.D., Ph.D., will provide you with an overview of the potential differences in potassium levels that may occur when testing capillary blood versus a venous sample.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Gessi Pino, a genetic counselor in the Biochemical Genetics Lab at Mayo Clinic, and Kimiyo Raymond, M.D., a clinical consultant in the laboratory and an expert in Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG), discuss glycosylation and its importance in human biology, highlight laboratory testing, and offer strategies to screen and diagnose CDGs.

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,” Anja Roden, M.D., will discuss the role of PD-L1 interaction in the immune system, challenges with PD-L1 testing, and current PD-L1 testing in Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC).

In this month's "Hot Topic," Dragan Jevremovic, M.D., Ph.D., reviews the current state of testing for diagnosis, therapy, and stratification of patients with multiple myeloma.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Audrey Schuetz, M.D., highlights the updated laboratory detection guidelines for Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile and their interpretation in light of clinical disease.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Anja Roden, M.D., discusses mesothelial proliferations, their challenges, and which ancillary testing might help to overcome some of those challenges.

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,” Elitza Theel, Ph.D., discusses the role of serologic testing as it relates to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., will provide an overview of coronaviruses associated with severe respiratory illness, review the two main laboratory tests, and discuss the factors that influence the sensitivity of PCR for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in patients with COVID-19.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Rondell Graham, M.B.B.S., provides an overview of a PRKACA FISH test that assists in differentiating fibrolamellar carcinoma from other subtypes of primary liver cancer.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Robin Patel, M.D., will discuss the diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection in an era of antimicrobial resistance.