Our cover article, Laboratory diagnosis of autoimmune diseases, examines the current state of the art of autoimmune disease diagnostic procedures. One of its reviewers described the article as logically presented with enough physiology and laboratory information to be useful to the reader. Authors Marc and Candace
Golightly, of State University of New York at Stony Brook, discuss the two classifications of the rheumatic and autoimmune diseases systemic and organic or tissue-directed diseases and the unique problems each type presents to the diagnostic lab. They include an algorithm, which provides a concise and practical path to methodical diagnosis. This article is a ripper, said another reviewer, one that people will rip out of the magazine and squirrel away in a safe place for easy access.
The community phlebotomy response plan differs from the clinically oriented articles we publish. Nova Scotians Judy Arbique and Shaun OBrien of the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax describe the experience their hospital lab went through in doing an emergency collection of a large number of blood samples during a community influenza epidemic. After the emergency was over, an emergency phlebotomy response team was formed and an operations plan established. These were soon put to the test when blood had to be drawn for DNA testing on 200 family members of victims of an air disaster. Does your facility have a plan in place for coping with an emergency that requires large numbers of blood samples to be drawn? If not, this article can give you some helpful suggestions about how to get prepared.
Lee Shuett, vice president of the Science and Technologies Group at Nikon Instruments Inc., is Anne Pontius July interviewee in our Lab 2007 series. Youll be interested in his views, which include comments on a truly ergonomic microscope, digital imaging, the lab personnel shortage, new microscopic technologies, and concerns about bioterrorism.
Our Product Roundup this month shines the spotlight or is it the excitation light source on flow
cytometry. Guest writer Joe Myers has put together a piece that we hope youll find both practical and instructive. He gives a basic explanation of the science behind flow
cytometry, and takes a look at several products of some of the main players in this field.
Show season for the medical lab industry is in full swing. As you read this, many of you will have already experienced the CLMA/ASCP show in New Orleans, and will be packing your suitcases to join us in sunny Florida for the AACC annual meeting July 28 through Aug. 1 in Orlando. Hope to see you there!
Best regards,
Celia Stevens
[email protected]
© 2002 Nelson Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
