Tag Archives: Mass spectrometry

November 2023—In the 2023 edition of the CAP accreditation program checklists is new guidance on analytical measurement range verification and new and revised requirements for mass spectrometry.

June 2023—A bad-news, good-news, bad-news, good-news bass line thrums through the ongoing story of Candida auris as it continues to spread in the United States. Initially identified in Japan, in 2009, in an ear specimen—hence the auris—the yeast was first reported in the United States in 2016. Like certain other pathogens, C. auris’ domestic presence appeared to be linked to travel-related cases, then quickly spread, first to the metropolitan regions of Chicago and New York City and now to more than half the states. That’s worrisome. Yet the spread hasn’t been unbridled. Early fears that it would sweep indiscriminately through all patient populations have not been realized. “It’s not as virulent as albicans,” says Sixto M. Leal Jr., MD, PhD, director of the clinical microbiology laboratory and of the fungal reference laboratory, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and a member of the CAP Microbiology Committee. “It’s about as virulent as Candida glabrata. It’s not too much of a significant threat if you’re healthy.”

October 2022—It might be possible to tot up, using only the number of toes on an ordinary foot, how many labs are feeling full of vim and vigor these days, open to concepts like creative destruction and get those creative juices flowing and have fun with it—slogans once easily uttered but now tiring to enact. Nevertheless, Margie Morgan, PhD, D(ABMM), would like her colleagues to at least consider the possibility of inspiration in the microbiology laboratory. In particular, Dr. Morgan, medical director of microbiology and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, has some thoughts about using a new automated system to facilitate rapid microbial identification from positive blood cultures. The Arc system, from Accelerate Diagnostics, is composed of the Arc module and blood culture kit and concentrates organisms recovered in positive blood cultures for direct testing on MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Dr. Morgan and colleagues have been using the system since February.

March 2021—Fresh from its Dec. 27, 2020 FDA clearance, the Bruker MALDI Sepsityper Kit US IVD promises to provide microbiology laboratories with a universal, rapid sepsis identification solution. With the Bruker MALDI Biotyper platform’s reference library covering 491 organisms, the Sepsityper’s ability to identify pathogens directly from positive blood cultures in suspected bacterial or fungal sepsis cases delivers an “order of magnitude increase” in the number of microorganisms that can be identified through PCR detection, said Wolfgang Pusch, Bruker Daltonics executive vice president of microbiology and diagnostics, in a company statement.

March 2019—The family of Mycobacteriaceae includes the genus Mycobacterium, which includes more than 190 species. These organisms have an unusual cell wall. Those of us who work in mycobacteria laboratories know that the cell wall has a high lipid content that makes these organisms acid fast. Thus they’re acid-fast bacteria.

February 2019—Mass spectrometry has been proved to be an essential and powerful platform for clinical diagnostics. The value it adds to health care has increased steadily in the past decade.

October 2018—It happened for next-generation sequencing. It was an important step for in vivo microscopy. And now it’s taking place with imaging mass spectrometry. The milestone: development and adoption of a set of specialized checklist requirements for laboratories that want CAP accreditation. Imaging mass spectrometry, an adjunct methodology to help pathologists analyze areas of interest in tissue specimens, is, at this point, used in a small number of research laboratories in the U.S., says CAP Checklists Committee member Christopher M. Lehman, MD, clinical professor of pathology, University of Utah College of Medicine, and medical director of the University of Utah Hospital Laboratory.

February 2018—The modern analytical technologies of mass spectrometry continue to garner prominence and broader utility in clinical diagnostics. This was showcased at the 7th Annual American Association for Clinical Chemistry Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Separation Sciences for Laboratory Medicine, held last fall in Philadelphia. Representatives of academia, industry, and regulatory bodies came together to share information about the technology and best practices, the aim of which is to strengthen clinical diagnostics for the betterment of patient care. In opening remarks, then CAP president Richard Friedberg, MD, PhD, shared his hopes for the future of mass spectrometry in anatomic pathology.

June 2017—Mass spectrometry has been gaining acceptance for routine assays in clinical laboratories. The 6th Annual AACC Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Separation Sciences for Laboratory Medicine, held in fall 2016, spotlighted best practices in the use of mass spectrometry testing for patient-centered care.

November 2016—Behold the humble API strip, made of plastic, with multiple miniature test chambers, interpreted with the aid of a color chart, and long a mainstay of microbiology laboratories.

October 2016—When MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry enters the microbiology lab, it’s a little like watching Sir John Falstaff settle his considerable girth onstage. Things happen. Characters fret and flee, scheme, opine, panic, and, in the case of Prince Hal, ascend to greatness. (And, if we’re honest, some just get drunk.) Both, in brief, are an upending presence.

September 2016—This fall, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, is taking the mass spec leap. A plucky PR person might be tempted to refer to it as MassSpec LEAP!™ but Stacy Melanson, MD, PhD, doesn’t have time for such nonsense. As the associate director of clinical laboratories and co-director of chemistry, Dr. Melanson has more important matters to attend to. She and her colleagues are shifting from using a screening immunoassay for pain management drug testing to up-front definitive testing by LC tandem mass spectrometry.

May 2015—In the business world, the term “disruptive innovation” is hot. In product launches, business plans, and job resumes, it’s become a standard part of the pitch. Like the flux capacitor in the fictional DeLorean time machine, disruptive innovations vault a field past traditional barriers and obstacles, outstripping rival technologies.

February 2015—Melissa Jones, MT(ASCP), doesn’t mince words—not when it comes to MALDI-TOF MS. “It’s going to revolutionize the way you do microbiology in your laboratory, and you’re absolutely going to love it,” said Jones, who is a microbiology specialist for clinical microbiology and immunology at McLendon Clinical Laboratories at University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill.

August 2013—At CAP ’11, then president-elect Stanley Robboy, MD, sat at a table in a conference room. He didn’t know those seated with him but he and they started to chat. The conversation turned to Dr. Robboy’s goals for his upcoming presidential term, and a member from Saudi Arabia, Amal Saadallah, MD, PhD, proposed that newborn screening requirements be created for accreditation.

January 2013—When James Musser, MD, PhD, and colleagues at Houston’s The Methodist Hospital submitted a study for publication this fall (to “one of the prestigious weeklies based in a northeastern part of the country,” says Dr. Musser), they were prepared to answer questions from reviewers.