Published in American journal of clinical pathology
Despite multiple trials demonstrating that procalcitonin (PCT) is an effective tool for antibiotic stewardship, inconsistent application in real-world settings continues to fuel controversy regarding its clinical utility. We sought to determine rates of concordance between PCT results and antibiotic prescribing in hospitalized patients. We performe...
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
To summarize the epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) secondary to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection or vaccination. We conducted a systematic review using standardized keyword search to identify all reports of SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination and AIHA ...
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
To determine optimal temperature profiles for 2 uniquely designed courier lockboxes (steel vs polymer) by standardizing daily ice (-20ºC) and cold (4-8ºC) pack placement. Paired courier lockboxes were placed outside in direct sunlight. Ambient outdoor and lockbox temperatures were monitored during 2 4-day cycles, and temperature mean and range were...
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
Patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection may develop end-stage lung disease requiring lung transplantation. We report the clinical course, pulmonary pathology with radiographic correlation, and outcomes after lung transplantation in three patients who developed chronic respiratory failure due to postacute...
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
Our institution was subject to a multi-institutional, systemwide cyberattack that led to a complete shutdown of multiple major patient care, operational, and communication systems for more than 25 days. The electronic health record computer system was taken offline, as was the hospital email and authentication systems, internet access, and the labo...
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
Emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant strains can be associated with increased transmissibility, more severe disease, and reduced effectiveness of treatments. To improve the availability of regional variant surveillance, we describe a variant genotyping system that is rapid, accurate, adaptable, and able to d...
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
Biomarker expression evaluation for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is an essential prognostic and predictive parameter for breast cancer and critical for guiding hormonal and neoadjuvant therapy. This study compared quantitative image analysis (QIA) with pathologists' scoring...
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
In vitro hemolysis generates a spurious increase in potassium. Roche Diagnostics recently revised its recommended guidelines for potassium reporting on cobas analyzers. By dramatically reducing the allowable degree of hemolysis, these guidelines would increase specimen rejection rates. We attempted to balance the desire to avoid inaccurate results ...
Published in American journal of clinical pathology
We aimed to evaluate the effects of hemoglobin (Hb) variants prevalent in China on HbA1c measurements and to identify them during HbA1c measurements. We evaluated a cation-exchange high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method (Bio-Rad D-100), a capillary electrophoresis (CE) method (Capillarys 3 TERA), an immunoassay (Cobas c501), and a bor...
