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Launch Digital Edition

Webinars and Sponsored Roundtables — Register Now

Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 1:00-2:00 PM ET
Hear an expert discuss how to integrate Kappa and Lambda in situ hybridization testing into your standard hematopathology workflow to accurately assess B-cell and plasma cell clonality. You will also gain the skills to recognize testing pitfalls in challenging reactive versus neoplastic proliferations and apply ancillary tools to resolve complex cases.

Webinar presenter Xiaojun Wu, MD, PhD, Assistant professor, Director of Hematopathology Section at NCR of Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Pathology, SOM at Johns Hopkins University

Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY

Register Now

Tuesday, July 21, 2026, 11:00-11:30 AM CT

Learning Objectives:
  • Explain how transparency and manufacturer partnerships improve quality, consistency, and decision-making confidence in specimen management.
  • Evaluate blood collection tubes beyond cost and commodity assumptions, incorporating clinical impact and risk into decision-making.
  • Assess the potential risk points when using a blood collection device that has not been cleared for a specific purpose.

Roundtable presenters Nick Fingland, PhD, PMP, Senior Director, R&D Operations and Science, BD, and Chris Farnsworth, PhD, D(ABCC), Section Head of Clinical Chemistry, Professor of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine.

Moderated by: Bob McGonnagle, Publisher, CAP TODAY

Register Now

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Interactive Product Guides

Q&A column

Q&A column

September 2024
Q. When performing body fluid cell counts, we report total nucleated cells and RBCs. What cell categories should we report on the corresponding differential? Can we group together monocytes, macrophages, and mesothelial cells since it is difficult to distinguish reactive mesothelial cells from monocytes and macrophages? If so, what category name should be applied? Should we report mesothelial cells as a comment or include them in the differential? Read answer.
Q. Are nonlaboratory personnel who perform point-of-care testing required to be tested for visual color discrimination? Or is it sufficient that personnel pass a functional assessment during their competency evaluation to evaluate their ability to provide an accurate result on tests that require interpreting colors? Read answer.

Q&A column

August 2024
Q. I have been tasked with doing a quality assurance review comparing automated differential results to the manual differential done on the same patient. Do you have recommendations regarding acceptable analytical criteria? Read answer.
Q. Can activated clotting time results handwritten by a perfusionist be sent to the laboratory to be entered into the laboratory information system? Read answer.

Q&A column

July 2024
Q. Insulin assays traditionally have been used to work up hypoglycemia, but we are noticing more and more requests for insulin and C-peptide testing. Is there a reason for this shift? Read answer.
Q. How should a lot-to-lot formalin comparison be done? Read answer.

Q&A column

June 2024
Q. What are the requirements for correcting an automated white blood cell (WBC) count for the presence of megakaryocytes? Is there a formula for correcting it for megakaryocytes, as there is for the presence of nucleated red blood cells (nRBCs)? Read answer.
Q. Are there guidelines on how often a patient should be monitored for a blood transfusion reaction? Should reactions be monitored as frequently as vital signs? Read answer.

Q&A column

May 2024
Q. I know that CLIA is changing and more tests/analytes will become CMS regulated, along with other changes. Can you provide some background and an overview of the changes and when they will become effective? Read answer.

Q&A column

April 2024
Q. Ordering clinicians are requesting that our laboratory flag abnormally high absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) on peritoneal fluids. We cannot find sources for reference ranges, but there is literature that states that a polymorphonuclear cell count greater than 250/μL is a reliable discriminatory test for bacterial peritonitis. We would like to use this as our reference and flag results with an ANC greater than 250 cells/μL as abnormally high. Is this acceptable? Read answer.

Q. How do you code fallopian tubes submitted for sterilization with a finding of a paratubal cyst? Read answer.

Q&A column

March 2024
Q. Is it a requirement that routine bacteriology cultures (for example, urine, sputum) be plated in a biological safety cabinet in your typical hospital biosafety level 2 laboratory? Is it safe to read these cultures on an open bench? Read answer.

Q. What source should a laboratory use for reference intervals for analytes? Read answer.

Q&A column

Feburary 2024
Q. In a case of suspected drug-related death, how specific can an autopsy be in identifying the drug(s) that might have caused the person’s death and the amount of drugs present? For example, can a toxicology report say a person’s death was caused by a fake oxycodone pill containing fentanyl? Read answer.

Q. A nephrology patient who has been treated with vitamin D2 for several years contacted our laboratory to find out why their 25-hydroxyvitamin D level of 60 ng/mL is now considered elevated when before it was within the normal range. How can we explain this? Read answer.

Q&A column

January 2024
Q. Can a person who has a bachelor of science degree in health care administration sign off on competency assessments? Read answer.

Q. Our laboratory uses a total protein assay from Beckman Coulter that has an analytical measurement range of 3–12 g/dL for serum determinations. The assay sensitivity states 1 g/dL of total protein. Can we loop sensitivity into our AMR and make our reporting range 1–12 g/dL? Will this make our assay a laboratory-developed test? Quite often our clinicians need assays reported to 1 g/dL, since they need to calculate the ratio of total protein serum to body fluid as per Light’s criteria. If we report to 1 g/dL, we have to loop sensitivity into our AMR. Read answer.

Q&A column

December 2023
Q. When using a sodium citrate blue-top tube due to platelet clumping, should the sample be kept warm, and does it have to be run within a certain time frame? Read answer.

Q. Does the CAP require instrument-to-instrument comparability studies at least twice a year for waived point-of-care testing instruments, such as glucose meters, or nonwaived instruments, such as critical care analyzers? Are we required to perform a linearity study twice a year on all waived and nonwaived POC testing instruments? Read answer.

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