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Welcome to Lab Week 2018

Good day, and welcome to Medical Laboratory Professionals week, April 22–28, 2018. Congratulations and thanks to medical laboratory technicians, scientists, managers, and directors worldwide whose products support at least 70% of medical and surgical decision-making. As promised, I have, with the help of colleagues, prepared a special Lab Week hemostasis case study series. Please review […]

Laboratory Professionals Week April 22–28

Please see the attached Precision BioLogic post card announcing our special case study series developed for Medical Laboratory Professionals’ Week, April 22–28, 2018: /sites/default/files/lab_week_cards_2018_0.pdf

VWD Testing

Tiffany Jones at Orlando Health writes: “Hi, George! We are trying to update our VWF disease panel and we use the VWF:RCo plasma testing on our Stagos using Siemens reagent. When researching other algorithms I noticed there was VWF:Ac as well. Can you help clarify to me if both these tests are VWF activity assays? […]

Bleeding Disorders

World Federation of Hemophilia

Today, April 17, 2018, is World Hemophilia Day, sponsored by the World Federation of Hemophilia. See the WFH web site for educational and networking opportunities and for the announcement describing the WFH World Congress, Glasgow, Scotland, May 20–24, 2018.

April Quick Question: Dabigatran Measurement

Our April, 2018 Quick Question is now available. Please select the answer closest to your practice, or send your comment to George at [email protected]. Here is a current article that addresses measurement of all DOACS: Gosselin RC, Adcock DM, Bates SM, et al. International Council for Standardization in Haematology (ICSH) Recommendations for Laboratory Measurement of […]

Anticoagulant Therapy

March, 2018 Quick Question: D-dimer Controls

Here are the results of our March, 2018 Quick Question about the appropriate D-dimer controls. What controls are most valid for managing D-dimer assay precision? VTE decision point control only; 500 ng/mL FEUs 10% (3) Low end of linearity & VTE decision point: 100 and 500 ng/mL FEUs: 32% (10) Low and high ends of […]

Traumatic Venipuncture

From George: Long ago at a Temple University-sponsored meeting in Philadelphia, Dr. Dorothy Adcock provided data showing it was unnecessary to collect a “discard” tube ahead of a blue-closure hemostasis specimen. Conventional wisdom prior to hers and the work of others was that a discard tube was necessary to avoid contamination with “tissue thromboplastin,” which […]

Specimen Management

Protein S Activity < 1%

George had a phone conversation with a reference lab colleague who generated protein S levels on a patient specimen: free and total protein S concentrations over 70%, clot-based protein S activity less than 1%. PT normal, PTT prolonged by about 15 seconds. DRVVT prolonged, not shortened by platelet phospholipid-rich reagent. What could account for these […]

Inflammatory Biomarkers

Wherever you turn you see reference to the effects of chronic inflammation related to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. Here is a link to a March, 2018 CAP Today article by Anne Paxton about the relationship of inflammatory biomarkers to chronic kidney disease in diabetes. George is especially interested in the tie-in […]

Hemophilia: Gene Therapy

The February issue of CAP Today published an abstract describing some initial vector-mediated gene transfer therapy success using the vector AAV5-hFVIII-SQ. The work is published in Rangarajan S, Walsh L, Lester W, et al. AAV5–factor VIII gene transfer in severe hemophilia A [published online ahead of print December 9, 2017]. N Engl J Med. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1708483. […]

Bleeding Disorders

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George Fritsma is a medical laboratory scientist, educator, and author. George is a member of the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis, the International Society for Laboratory Hematology, and the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science.

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