Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Nov 2005
Performance of the revised Bethesda guidelines for identification of colorectal carcinomas with a high level of microsatellite instability.
Criteria for microsatellite instability (MSI) testing to rule out hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer were recently revised and include parameters such as age and specific histologic features that can be identified by the pathologist, triggering reflex MSI testing. ⋯ By selecting for age and histologic features, we detected MSI-H tumors in approximately one quarter of colorectal cancer cases meeting the revised Bethesda guidelines and identified 17 MSI-H cases, whereas only 8 would have been recognized by the prior guidelines. These data indicate that reflex testing requested by pathologists based on the revised Bethesda guidelines increases the detection of MSI-H and potential hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer cases.
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Oct 2005
Trends in blood culture contamination: a College of American Pathologists Q-Tracks study of 356 institutions.
Blood culture contamination extends hospital stays and increases the cost of care. ⋯ Institutions that use decentralized patient-centered personnel rather than dedicated phlebotomy teams to collect blood cultures experience significantly higher contamination rates. Long-term monitoring of contamination is associated with sustained improvement in performance.
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Oct 2005
Biography Historical ArticleSurgical pathology in the era of the Civil War: the remarkable life and accomplishments of Joseph Janvier Woodward, MD.
Joseph Janvier Woodward was an assistant surgeon in the US Army during the Civil War, coauthored the definitive works on the mortality and morbidity of that war, attended at the autopsy of President Lincoln, and attended President Garfield after he was shot. He revolutionized the field of photomicroscopy and was one of the first pathologists to use aniline dyes as tissue stains. Yet despite the occasional biographical sketch every few decades, he is largely unknown today. Herein, we review his contributions to surgical pathology and medicine and present modern-day photomicrographs of 140-year-old slides from Woodward's original collection.
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Aug 2005
Multicenter StudyNorth American pretransfusion testing practices, 2001-2004: results from the College of American Pathologists Interlaboratory Comparison Program survey data, 2001-2004.
Pretransfusion testing of whole blood and red blood cell recipients is regulated by the federal government under the authority of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988. Regulated tests include determination of ABO group, Rh D type, antibody detection, antibody identification, and crossmatching. A wide variety of methods and reagents are available for these regulated tests. During 2001-2004, the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Interlaboratory Comparison Program (Proficiency Testing) J-Survey collected data from more than 4000 laboratories regarding their pretransfusion testing practices. Those data are presented in this report. ⋯ Most North American laboratories currently favor tube methods when performing ABO grouping, Rh typing, antibody screening, and crossmatching. However, there has been a significant increase in the use of gel-based methods in recent years, especially for antibody detection and crossmatching. Data collection and data analysis of CAP Interlaboratory Comparison Program Survey results allow for assessment of laboratory proficiency and provide insights into current North American practice trends in pretransfusion compatibility testing.