FEATURE ARTICLES

The recently launched Congress programme clearly demonstrates the vital importance of the symbiotic relationship that exists between the commercial sector and the profession it supports. Attendance, however, offers so much more, and now is the most cost-effective time to book and pay.

As hospital admissions increase due to severe cases of influenza infection, so does the demand for isolation facilities. With the ever present threat of healthcare-associated infections, Michelle Holland explores the importance of the rapid diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection as an aid to patient prioritisation and appropriate resource allocation.

The Sebia Capillarys instrument is an automated capillary electrophoresis (CE) system for serum protein analysis, and is now a popular platform for the routine analysis of serum proteins in the investigation of myeloma. Clinical interpretation of protein electrophoresis requires experience of pattern recognition and can be subjective.

A new cobas point-of-care blood gas analyser was previewed at the UK Roche Symposium last year. Destined to find application across the hospital setting, the cobas b 123 is compact, configurable and flexible in use. Diagnostic tests or associated pre-analytical steps are being performed increasing outside the confines of the medical laboratory on a point-of-care (POC) basis. In the hospital setting, such procedures include blood gas testing in theatre and intensive care units. Modern POC blood gas analysers also provide the facility to test for other critical care parameters, such as electrolytes and glucose, as the system introduced in this article demonstrates.

A new 10-minute nasal swab test for influenza has been introduced by Washington, Tyne & Wear-based diagnostics company CDx. It claims to allow A & E departments to triage incoming patients showing signs of influenza and allocate resources appropriately to treat each patient more effectively.

In a regular feature, Pathology in Practice will speak with leading personalities from the diagnostic industry to gain their views and opinions on current topical issues facing the profession. In the spotlight in this issue is Peter Nest, who is no stranger to the diagnostics industry, having been employed within it since 1987 following a 10-year career as a biomedical scientist at the Royal East Sussex Hospital in Hastings. Peter eventually left the NHS to commence work as a sales engineer for Clandon Scientific, following which he enjoyed a spell in sales at Roche, before forming a small company called Apex Diagnostics, selling Biotrol chemistry reagents to the UK market. Later he became a product manager for Alpha Laboratories, and then their UK sales manager (diagnostics), before joining IBG Immucor in 2003 as sales and marketing manager. Peter took up his present post as UK general manager for IBG Immucor in September 2009.

Recently Selly Oak Hospital added serology testing to its automated Roche serum work area platform running in the blood science laboratory. The result is an improved service to the trust’s transplantation programme. Increasingly over the past decade or so the boundaries between the distinct pathology disciplines has become blurred. Furthermore, the advantages of a more holistic, centralised approach to the provision of, for example clinical chemistry, haematology and immunology has seen the evolution of blood sciences as a 21st-century pathology specialty. An excellent exemplar of this service consolidation is reported in this article.

Routine first trimester Down’s syndrome screening supports an earlier decision-making process. Now, precise, specific and reliable results are available with the Roche Elescys PAPP-A and free ßhCG screening assays.

Oxoid and Remel are the specialty microbiology brands of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Within these brand ranges are some of the fastest identification tests available to clinical microbiologists today.

The Biomedical Science Congress is now less than 10 months away. More than just a scientific meeting, this complete experience clearly demonstrates the vital importance of the symbiotic relationship between the commercial sector and the profession it supports.

Biomedical scientist Barry Hill explains the value of point-of-care diagnostic testing schemes in primary care and explains how recently introduced web-based resources can enable users to take greater advantage of their local pathology services.

Addenbrooke’s Hospital recently evaluated an innovative antinuclear antibody screening test from Phadia. The assay offers Lean working, increased flexibility and fewer false-positive results, as Graham Wood explains.

Building on the success of last year’s Siemens Academy meeting, the 2010 three-day gathering of over 200 managers and biomedical scientists from the UK and Ireland took place in Manchester. Achieving efficiencies and productivity in times of change was the theme.

Personalised healthcare, the tailored treatment of a patient based on genetic make-up, is moving away from the research laboratory into mainstream medicine. Here, Jane Theaker, Jennifer Lewis and Marc Egelhofer look at progress so far.

Eighteen months on from the acquisition of Olympus by Beckman Coulter, Pathology in Practice spoke to marketing manager Leanne Annereau, a senior manager who came from Olympus to the newly expanded company.

The field of cytogenetics has undergone significant change over the past few years. The rapid development of microarrays has meant that traditional techniques are now taking a subsidiary role in the detection of chromosomal abnormalities to array comparative genome hybridisation for constitutional disorders.

Outbreaks of so-called winter vomiting disease, caused by norovirus, have a significant impact on health services at a time when they are least able to bear the strain. Now, rapid diagnostics from R-Biopharm Rhône have come to the rescue.

Requesting tests from pathology departments based at Barnsley and Rotherham District General Hospitals, South Yorkshire, has been revolutionised by new order-communications software. Sunquest's Integrated Clinical Environment (ICE) system eliminates delays when booking in samples, optimises workflow and improves information gathering on patient samples.

Micropix is an independent microscope and associated accessories vendor. As such, it has expertise in the hardware it sells, as a professional microscope system can be customised in hundreds of ways. However, there are some basic principles of microscopy that can be applied across a range of applications, and this article aims to give an insight into how to maximise the performance of your current microscope equipment and what to look for when purchasing new systems. It will also explore what Micropix considers to be the two most significant innovations in microscopy over the past few years, and these are light-emitting diode (LED) illumination and the digital microscope camera.

A Roche Managed Laboratory Service is predicted to save Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust at least £2.5million over next seven years, and provide half a million people with enhanced pathology services.