Hot Topic

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,” Julia Lehman, M.D., will explain important changes that are taking place in Mayo Clinic’s Immunodermatology Laboratory to continue offering the highest quality testing for the interpretation of the bullous pemphigoid 180 and 230 and desmoglein 1 and 3 assay results.

In this month’s “Hot Topic,” Paul Jannetto, Ph.D., will highlight Mayo Clinic’s new targeted benzodiazepine assay and discuss the advantages and limitations of various urine-screening assays as well as quantitative confirmatory testing to determine compliance to benzodiazepine therapy.

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,” Paul Jannetto, Ph.D. discusses the proper procedures for collecting and processing kidney stones in order to provide accurate, cost-effective analysis of patients’ kidney stones in a timely manner.

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.