Abbott Diagnostics Educational Program

Cardiac || Clinical Chemistry || Hematology || Infectious Disease || Instrument Systems || All Categories

Cardiac

Patient Management and Role of Troponin in ACS

Professor Dr. Eckart Fleck

Heart Center
Berlin, Germany

Laboratory medicine may not always receive the recognition it deserves, but it plays a critical role in today's healthcare. The life-saving work medical laboratory scientists provide, aids in the early detection of disease, improves patient management and lives, and lowers overall health-care cost.
Improving cardiovascular care is a major focus of hospitals and healthcare facilities. Cardiac biomarkers are vital in the diagnosis and care of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), ischemia and heart failure. The workshop will provide a clinical perspective on the integral role of biomarkers in the treatment of acute coronary syndrome.

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Integration and Impact on Turnaround Time and Cost

Professor Peter George

Clinical Director
Canterbury Health Laboratories
Christchurch, New Zealand

Laboratory medicine may not always receive the recognition it deserves, but it plays a critical role in today’s healthcare. The life-saving work medical laboratory scientists provide, aids in the early detection of disease, improves patient management and lives, and lowers overall health-care cost.
The impact of improved laboratory efficiency on patient care and the emergency department demonstrates decreased TAT in the lab, its association with decreased TAT in the ER, and ultimately a more rapid treatment of patients in the ED.

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MPO and Risk Assessment

Stanley L. Hazen, M.D., Ph.D.

Section Head, Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation; Professor of Molecular Medicine, Cell Biology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio

Laboratory medicine may not always receive the recognition it deserves, but it plays a critical role in today’s healthcare. The life-saving work medical laboratory scientists provide, aids in the early detection of disease, improves patient management and lives, and lowers overall health-care cost.
Risk Assessment using MPO for the early prediction of vulnerable plaque and risk for cardiac events will be discussed.

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Biomarker Study (ARROW)

Alan H. B. Wu, Ph.D., D.A.B.C.C.

Chief, Clinical Chemistry and Toxicology, San Francisco General Hospital; Professor of Laboratory Medicine, University of California
San Francisco, California

Laboratory medicine may not always receive the recognition it deserves, but it plays a critical role in today’s healthcare. The life-saving work medical laboratory scientists provide, aids in the early detection of disease, improves patient management and lives, and lowers overall health-care cost.
The workshop discussed a new prospective study that puts 13 promising biomarkers to the test.

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Clinical Chemistry

Canadian Laboratory Initiative on Paediatric Reference Interval Database (CALIPER)

Khosrow Adeli, Ph.D.

Head and Professor of Clinical Biochemistry
The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

A major, and unique, national study to determine age and gender specific pediatric reference intervals for a total of 26 analytes, including clinical chemistry and immunoassay tests, is described by the lead investigator. The results of the Canadian Laboratory Initiative on Pediatric Reference Interval Database (CALIPER) study, will allow physicians to better diagnose and treat pediatric patients.

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Use of HIL Indices: Identifying Aberrant Specimens

Paul Yip, Ph.D.

Clinical Biochemist
Toronto Medical Laboratories
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Improving laboratory efficiency, minimizing laboratory error, and enhancing patient safety are naturally of interest to every clinical laboratory. This workshop examines an approach to advance these goals in Clinical Chemistry.
The use of hemolysis/icterus/lipemia (HIL) indices to detect and address aberrant specimens has proven to be a useful tool for ensuring that test results are not falsely elevated or decreased due to the common interferents. A clinical chemistry analyzer such as the Architect c8000 can estimate HIL on every patient specimen in a very objective fashion, avoiding subjective grading by visual inspection. The use of HIL indices by a major medical center to set HIL limits for key assays (CO2, Glucose, and Total Bilirubin) is described.

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Hematology

Fetomaternal Hemorrhage Testing on a Blood Cell Counter

Bruce Davis, MD

President
Trillium Diagnostics
Bangor, Maine

Despite the availability of more precise and reproducible FDA cleared flow cytometric methods for the measurement of fetmaternal hemorrhage (FMH) for nearly a decade, US diagnostic practice is still dominated by use of the subjective, imprecise Kleihauer-Betke (KB) or acid elution microscopic counting assay for the detection of HbF positive red blood cells.
Interestingly, flow cytometric methods have been widely adopted in the UK, Australia, and Europe. The difference in practice patterns may be traceable to differing clinical dosing of Rh Immune globulin outside North America causing the ready acceptance of the more accurate flow cytometric methods.
Dr. Bruce Davis, Trillium Diagnostics, Bangor ME, will discuss the potential for use of an HbF assay on a routine hematology analyzer.

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Advances in the Fluorescent Analysis of Erythrocytes

Albert Huisman, PhD

Department of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology,
University Medical Center
Utrecht, The Netherlands

One of the challenges in today's busy Hematology laboratory is being able to obtain specific information from the CBC analyzer on RBC morphology. The CELL-DYN Sapphire software version 2.6 will provide users with additional optical RBC information including RBC morphology.
Dr. Albert Huisman, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands will discuss preliminary information on his laboratory's experience on the sensitivity and specificity for the CELL-DYN Sapphire's ability to detect RBC irregularities and abnormalities in a University hospital patient population.

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Neutrophil CD64 Expression Is a Marker of Sepsis or Infection

Henry M. Rinder, M.D.

Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Internal Medicine; Director, Clinical Hematology Laboratory
Yale University School of Medicine
New Haven, Connecticut

Rapid diagnosis of serious community-acquired infections is essential to improve prognosis. Neutrophil CD64 expression has been proposed as an improved laboratory indicator of severe infection and sepsis.
This preliminary study of neutrophil CD64 expression in outpatients suggests that it is an improved laboratory parameter in identifying patients with serious infections and those at risk for bacteremia defined by clinical criteria. Sequential analysis of neutrophil CD64 may further improve the diagnostic efficiency for infection/sepsis detection. Analysis of the remaining 304 patients is underway to confirm and enlarge these findings.

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Infectious Disease

Utility of HIV Antigen/Antibody Combination Assays for Detection of Acute HIV Infections

Sushil G. Devare, Ph.D.

Senior Research Fellow, Volwiler Society;Manager, AIDS Research
Abbott Diagnostics
Abbott Park, Illinois

Early detection of HIV infections plays a key role in allowing earlier diagnosis and management of infected individuals and in helping to prevent further transmission of these viruses.
This workshop will review the most recent data on the frequency of acute HIV infections in the United States and review the clinical ramifications of missed acute infections including delays in treatment and increased risk of secondary transmissions. An important aspect in the diagnosis of acute HIV infection is the availability of practical, cost-effective testing strategies. Recently, combination antigen-antibody assays have been developed for the simultaneous detection of HIV antigen and antibodies. These assays help close the seroconversion window and allow earlier identification of HIV positive patients.

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Instrument Systems

ARCHITECT® c16000/ci16200: A New High-Volume Clinical Chemistry and Integrated System

Sally Gough, B.S.

Medical Technologist, Outreach Laboratory Manager
Sarasota Memorial Health Care Systems
Sarasota, Florida

A family of integrated clinical chemistry/immunoassay systems offers significant process improvement options to clinical laboratories. Individual laboratories have their own unique challenges and needs, and "a one size fits all" approach to laboratory automation is not practical to provide optimal solutions.
Performance validation and process improvement studies of a new system (ci16200), conducted at typical clinical laboratories that served as familiarization sites, are reviewed. The new analyzer provides more options for the Architect family of clinical chemistry, immunoassay, and integrated analyzers.
Family modules can be used individually or as integrated systems to harmonize laboratory networks by producing equivalent test results for patient specimens regardless of the analyzer used or the specific laboratory performing the analysis.

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Case Study of Process Improvement With an Integrated System, ACT Laboratories, Canberra, Australia

Peter E. Hickman, M.B.B.S., Ph.D.

Director of Chemical Pathology in ACT Pathology; Associate Professor
Australia National University Medical School
Canberra, Australia

A family of integrated clinical chemistry/immunoassay systems offers significant process improvement options to clinical laboratories. Individual laboratories have their own unique challenges and needs, and "a one size fits all" approach to laboratory automation is not practical to provide optimal solutions.
Use of an integrated system, the Architect ci8200, for test consolidation and enhanced operational efficiency in a major laboratory is also described. Advantages of the clinical chemistry and immunoassay analyzer family concept, specifically including the ability to fit low, mid, and high volume testing needs using the same reagents and matching analytical performance, is emphasized.
Family modules can be used individually or as integrated systems to harmonize laboratory networks by producing equivalent test results for patient specimens regardless of the analyzer used or the specific laboratory performing the analysis.

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ARCHITECT® i1000SR: A New Low-Mid Volume Chemiluminescent Immunoassay System

Sherry L. Perkins, Ph.D.

Head, Division of Biochemistry; Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
The Ottawa Hospital
Ottawa, Canada

A family of integrated clinical chemistry/immunoassay systems offers significant process improvement options to clinical laboratories. Individual laboratories have their own unique challenges and needs, and "a one size fits all" approach to laboratory automation is not practical to provide optimal solutions.
Performance validation and process improvement studies of a new system (i1000SR), conducted at typical clinical laboratories that served as familiarization sites, are reviewed. The new analyzer provides more options for the Architect family of clinical chemistry, immunoassay, and integrated analyzers.
Family modules can be used individually or as integrated systems to harmonize laboratory networks by producing equivalent test results for patient specimens regardless of the analyzer used or the specific laboratory performing the analysis.

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Email questions about PACE credits to PACE@abbott.com