Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Nov 2017
Comparative StudyProgrammed Death Ligand-1 (PD-L1) Expression in Either Tumor Cells or Tumor-Infiltrating Immune Cells Correlates With Solid and High-Grade Lung Adenocarcinomas.
- Programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is heterogeneous and known to be underestimated on small biopsies. Correlation of PD-L1 expression with clinicopathologic features may provide additional useful information. To our knowledge, the clinicopathologic features of NSCLC have not been reported for subsets defined by PD-L1 expression in either tumor cells or tumor-infiltrating immune cells. ⋯ - Lung adenocarcinoma subsets defined by PD-L1 expression in either tumor cells or tumor-infiltrating immune cells correlated with high histologic grade, solid subtype, and high smoking pack-years.
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Jul 2017
ReviewTransbronchial Cryobiopsy in Diffuse Lung Disease: Update for the Pathologist.
- Transbronchial cryobiopsy has recently been proposed as an alternative to surgical biopsy in the diagnosis of diffuse lung disease. ⋯ - Cryobiopsies are considerably larger than forceps biopsies and allow pattern recognition approaching that of a surgical lung biopsy in many cases. Artifacts associated with cryobiopsy are minimal. In comparison with surgical lung biopsies, the diagnosis rate with cryobiopsies is lower, in the neighborhood of 80%, versus higher than 90% for surgical lung biopsies. Cryobiopsy is proposed as an alternative to surgical lung biopsy and a technique that may appreciably decrease the number of patients who require surgical lung biopsy for diagnosis. This is important because the mortality from cryobiopsy is very small (0.1% to date) compared with surgical lung biopsy (1.7% for elective procedures and considerably higher for nonelective procedures).
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Jul 2017
Interstitial Pneumonia With Autoimmune Features: Value of Histopathology.
- Patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia may display evidence of autoimmunity without meeting criteria for a defined connective tissue disease. A recent European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society statement proposed research criteria for interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF), which includes findings from the clinical, serologic, and morphologic domains. ⋯ - Using a methodological approach to identifying IPAF pathology, we demonstrate a significant increase in the number of patients meeting IPAF criteria because of focused pathologic review and highlight the prognostic value of the IPAF pathologic findings.
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Jun 2017
Validation of Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing Tests for Universal Pathogen Detection.
- Metagenomic sequencing can be used for detection of any pathogens using unbiased, shotgun next-generation sequencing (NGS), without the need for sequence-specific amplification. Proof-of-concept has been demonstrated in infectious disease outbreaks of unknown causes and in patients with suspected infections but negative results for conventional tests. Metagenomic NGS tests hold great promise to improve infectious disease diagnostics, especially in immunocompromised and critically ill patients. ⋯ - Although laboratory and data analysis workflows are still complex, metagenomic NGS tests for infectious diseases are increasingly being validated in clinical laboratories. Many parallels exist to NGS tests in other fields. Nevertheless, specimen preparation, rapidly evolving data analysis algorithms, and incomplete reference sequence databases are idiosyncratic to the field of microbiology and often overlooked.
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Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med. · Apr 2017
New-Generation Thromboelastography: Comprehensive Evaluation of Citrated and Heparinized Blood Sample Storage Effect on Clot-Forming Variables.
- Thromboelastography (TEG) is a whole blood, real-time analyzer measuring the viscoelastic properties of the hemostasis process and allowing for individualized goal-directed therapy. However, routine use of TEG requires validation of sample storage effect on clot parameters. ⋯ - For nonemergent cases or in a central laboratory setting, all tests provided reliable results for up to 4 hours in the citrated multichannel cartridge and for 3 hours for platelet function information in the platelet-mapping cartridge. In emergent/urgent situations in which the sample needs to be run immediately, RapidTEG and functional fibrinogen tests may be preferred.