From the Bench

Direct-to-consumer laboratory (DTC laboratory)testing permits consumers to order laboratory tests directly from a clinical laboratory without necessarily having to work with their healthcare provider....

We have blogged previously about the ongoing debate regarding the treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism in pregnancy (here and here).  In brief, there was a study published in 1999 that demonstrated that...

It has been several years since cell-free DNA (cfDNA) tests for the detection of fetal aneuploidies became available. The first clinical studies of these tests were reported in women who, because of age or...

Preeclampsia occurs in 5 to 8% of pregnancies and is a major contributor of premature deliveries and neonatal morbidity in the U.S. and worldwide. It is characterized by new onset hypertension and proteinuria...

When you’re in a medical technology program, you quickly learn that there are some microbiology test questions that you only need to skim for key words before you can guess at an answer. Has the patient been...

Cross-training is often thought of as a routine staffing event designed to provide additional flexibility and backup for the laboratory’s day to day operation.  However, it is far more than that; it is...

We have previously blogged about Zika virus   during pregnancy.That post was in February of 2016 and a lot has changed since then. For one thing, Zika has been shown to be transmitted via sexual contact...

Laboratory professionals are comfortable with blood; after all, without it we wouldn't be able to perform many of the tests necessary for delivering quality healthcare to the people in our communities. We work...

In an episode of “Science Happens!” produced by STAT News, Scientist Roy Kishony and his colleagues build a MEGA plate for us and let us see how they make an invisible catastrophe visible. In the process,...

We have blogged previously about the limitations of urine hCG tests to detect pregnancy in a hospital setting and about the Abbott iSTAT, the first FDA approved device for detection of hCG in whole blood at...