July 2023—When Butler Health System in early 2020 installed the Beckman Coulter DxA 5000 automation line, its hospitals were among the first in the country to do so. At the same time, Butler went live with the DxH 900 hematology analyzer.
Read More »Faster diagnosis? Chlorinated lipids in sepsis
October 2019—Chlorinated lipids have been shown to be new potential biomarkers for sepsis, and continuing research into their role could lead to faster diagnosis, said David A. Ford, PhD, of Saint Louis University School of Medicine, at this year’s AACC annual meeting. Dr. Ford, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, discovered chlorinated lipids in 2002, and at the AACC meeting he shared recent research on the association between chlorinated lipids and lung injury and death in sepsis patients.
Read More »Using predictive analytics to gauge sepsis risk
October 2019—How well can analytics predict the risk for sepsis? T. Scott Isbell, PhD, DABCC, director of clinical chemistry and point-of-care testing, SSM Health, Saint Louis University Hospital, at this year’s AACC annual meeting shared his hospital’s experi-ence with Epic’s sepsis predictive tool. Launched in 2017, the tool uses predictive analytics to produce a sepsis score for ad-mitted patients based on regular scans of key data elements in the electronic health record.
Read More »Microbiology’s shifting role in war on sepsis
August 2018—If you were casting about for the severest test of a laboratory’s capabilities, day in and day out, sepsis admissions at a pediatric hospital might fit the bill. At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and at other hospitals, waging war on sepsis requires battles on multiple fronts and clinical pathways that rely on an agile and highly equipped microbiology laboratory. Three main categories of patients ensure there is no shortage of sepsis cases at CHOP, says Erin H. Graf, PhD, D(ABMM), director of the infectious disease diagnostics laboratory.
Read More »Procalcitonin passes automation hurdle
December 2016—Matt Damon in Interstellar. Julia Roberts in The Player. Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein. When movie stars appear in uncredited parts, it’s usually for a cameo, not a leading role. But in diagnostics, an uncredited or off-label use of an assay might be its main use—possibly even its most clinically important use.
Read More »Sooner, smarter—new strategies against sepsis
July 2013—When it comes to fighting sepsis, the ingenuity of the laboratory is indispensable.
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