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January 2013

Anatomic Pathology Selected Abstracts, 1/13

January 2013—Relationship between PAX2-null secretory cell outgrowths in the oviduct and pelvic serous cancer: With the exception of germ-line mutations in ovarian cancer susceptibility genes, genetic predictors for women destined for ovarian serous cancer cannot be identified in advance of malignancy. The authors recently showed that benign secretory cell outgrowths (SCOUTs) in the oviduct increase in frequency with concurrent serous cancer and typically lack PAX2 expression (PAX2-null).

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Clinical Pathology Selected Abstracts, 1/13

January 2013—Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and Nobel laureates: Dietary flavonoids are associated with health benefits, including improved cognitive function and reduced risks associated with aging, such as the risk of dementia. Flavonoids, or the subclass flavanols, are present in green tea, red wine, cocoa, and some fruits. Evidence has also shown that flavanols are linked to lower blood pressure due to vasodilation in the peripheral vasculature and brain.

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Rx for optimizing rapid flu test performance

January 2013—With the arrival of another flu season—this one early and intense—rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) are once again occupying many laboratory directors’ minds. But although laboratories have found RIDTs useful for the last decade, evaluations of the test kits’ performance have been limited to manufacturers’ product inserts and a few small-scale studies. Like swing shift and day shift workers in the hospital, RIDTs have not been brought together for an assessment side by side.

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How anticoags work, and what that means for labs

January 2013—When to monitor and how? These questions were simpler when the list of anticoagulants patients were given was two or three deep—warfarin and unfractionated heparin, and maybe low-molecular-weight heparin. But the number of anticoagulants has grown and so has the complexity. Old and new—Michael Laposata, MD, PhD, covered the major anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs in a recent AACC webinar and again at the CAP ’12 annual meeting in September. Here, this month, is an edited transcript of what he said in the webinar about warfarin and heparin and briefly about the newer drugs. In the February issue: a close-up look at fondaparinux, bivalirudin, rivaroxaban, dabigatran, lepirudin, and argatroban.

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New push to strengthen interim self-inspections

January 2013—Unless you have a full-time custodial staff at home, you have the same small annoyances around the house that nearly everyone has. Perhaps it’s a patchy paint job in the upstairs hallway. A closet light that burned out long ago. A dishwasher that periodically leaks. All things that visitors might not know about, but you do. And all things you’ve likely learned to live with in lieu of fixing.

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Building the case for PGx testing

January 2013—Mammals have a striking range of gestation periods, from the 12 days and 31 days of the opossum and rabbit to the 266 days and 360 days of the human and whale. Laboratory tests, too, take shorter or longer amounts of time to be delivered into routine clinical practice, with pharmacogenomics beginning to look like the elephant—more than 600 days’ gestation—of laboratory testing. Our first major discussion of this topic was in 2005, and the clinical pathology world had been “expecting” its arrival for some time before that.

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Cytopathology and More | Endometrial cells in Pap tests—when are they significant?

January 2013—Use of the Papanicolaou test has significantly decreased the incidence of cervical carcinoma, especially cervical squamous cell carcinoma. For endometrial adenocarcinoma, which is the most common malignancy of the gynecologic tract there is no cost-effective screening test. The Bethesda system 2001 recommends reporting normal endometrial cells in women 40 years or older and any atypical endometrial cells under the atypical glandular cells category.

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Newsbytes, 1/13

January 2013—Obtaining buy-in for an information systems buy; 2012 Best in KLAS Awards: Siemens laboratory system a winner once again; Apollo and ClearData team up on cloud-based offering; Alternative meaningful use criterion for reporting laboratory results; HHS posts information on mobile device security

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