Archive for category: E-News

E-News

Role of neutrophil extracellular traps in COVID-19 and other disease processes

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One of the conundrums presented by COVID-19 is that it is not uncommon for patients to present with remarkably low oxygen saturation levels but with very little breathlessness. Additionally, it has been noted that there is an additional risk of stroke in COVID-19 patients (and COVID-19-recovered patients) and that they seem to have what is being referred to as ‘sticky blood’. A recent paper by Professor Yost (Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah School of Medicine, UT, USA) and colleagues ‘Neutrophil extracellular traps contribute to immunothrombosis in COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome’ discusses the role that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) can play in the development of these symptoms and prothrombotic disease outcomes. CLI was very fortunate to catch up with Professor Yost to learn more about NETs and their effects in COVID-19 and other conditions.

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Progress and challenges in the monitoring of hemolysis and clot formation in patients with extracorporeal life support

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by Dr Madeleen Bosma
Despite intensive anticoagulation therapy and improved mechanical characteristics of the current systems, hemolysis and clot formation are frequent complications in extracorporeal life support (ECLS/ECMO), which is the standard rescue treatment in patients with severely impaired cardiac and/or pulmonary function. The laboratory aspects of monitoring of hemolysis and hypercoagulation in this patient group are discussed in this short review.

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Status of COVID-19 rapid point-of-care immunoassay testing

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by Dr Andrew Lane
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and its global proliferation has spurred unprecedented efforts by academia and the in vitro diagnostics industry to develop rapid tests that can be used for point-of-care (POC) testing. At the time of writing, over 200 rapid test kits are under development or have already been commercialized for use. Yet, owing to relaxation of regulatory standards and the unprecedented pace at which tests have been developed, many have not been adequately assessed. In this article, Dr Andy Lane explains the role of POC diagnostics for COVID-19 and the improvements needed for their widespread use, including the importance of high-quality reagents.

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Autoantibodies in myositis: An upgrade for comprehensive serological testing

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by Dr Jacqueline Gosink
The autoimmunogenic myositides (idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, IIM) constitute a group of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases that are characterized by chronic inflammation of muscles. Unfortunately, the general misdiagnosis rate is high resulting in a delay to diagnosis of several years. Moreover, a significant proportion of patients with IIM suffer from a generalized feeling of severe illness due to the damage caused by both the disease and its treatment. Autoantibodies are useful biomarkers to differentiate clinically indistinguishable subforms of IIM. Despite the low prevalences and isolated occurrence of many autoantibodies in IIM, they constitute the basis for serological diagnostics. The diagnostic information is maximized by employing comprehensive multiparametric assays covering both myositis-specific and myositis-associated autoantibodies.

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Insight into mass spectrometry in clinical science and diagnostics

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by Pauline Griffeuille and Dr Sylvain Dulaurent
Mass spectrometry (MS) can be combined with a number of chromatographic separation and ionization methods, which results in powerful technologies for both qualitative and quantitative molecular analysis. CLI caught up with Dr Bhattacharyya (Thermo Fisher’s Senior Manager for Clinical Research and Toxicology) to find out more about the past, present and potential future uses of MS in clinical science and diagnostics.

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Diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections

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Expert opinions from Dr Ewan Chirnside
The diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs) is currently a balance between starting empirical treatment immediately or waiting a minimum of 48|hours to begin treatment based on the results of pathogen identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing, which provides better antibiotic stewardship but prolongs patient suffering. As part of this issue’s focus on Urine Analysis, Dr Ewan Chirnside (Director of Research Collaborations and co-founder of ODx Innovations, Inverness, UK) shares his knowledge of UTI diagnostics.

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Urine biomarkers for lupus nephritis: the road ahead

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by Dr Samar Soliman and Prof. Chandra Mohan
Lupus nephritis is diagnosed with a renal biopsy. Unfortunately, a biopsy is invasive and cannot be serially repeated. Researchers are finding that proteins in the urine may have the potential to predict the ongoing pathology within the kidneys. Studies show that such urine biomarkers may have the potential to predict current and future disease outcome in this disease. Given that there may be many hundreds to thousands of proteins in the urine, how does one identify the most predictive of these candidates? Here we discuss three very different technologies that have contributed to this effort over the past year.

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Kynurenine pathway and Parkinson’s disease

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by Dr Jia-he Bai, Prof. Yong-peng Yu and Dr Ya-li Zheng
The diagnosis of early-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD) is still a worldwide clinical problem: it is necessary to identify a biomarker to aid the diagnosis of early-stage PD. This article discusses the current worldwide research progress of kynurenine and PD, in order to provide new directions and ideas for clinical and scientific research.

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PESI-MS/MS method for testing oral fluid samples for suspected driving under the influence of drugs

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by Pauline Griffeuille and Dr Sylvain Dulaurent
People driving under the influence of drugs do not only risk their own health but also endanger other road users. The results of the roadside tests performed by the police have to be double-checked in a laboratory, which is currently time consuming and costly. Here, a new testing method is described which provides results in a time- and cost-saving way using oral fluid samples.

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Monocyte distribution width: new biomarker for sepsis diagnosis

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by Dr Elena Sukhacheva
Early diagnosis and fast treatment of sepsis is crucial for obtaining the best outcome possible for the patient. However, diagnosis is not easy clinically and the complexity of the condition means that there is not an obvious individual biomarker for it. However, research in recent years has shown that monocyte distribution width is an easily measured parameter that is able to discriminate sepsis from non-sepsis, particularly when combined with the patient’s white blood count.

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