Cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or stroke is one of the major causes of impairment and morbidity in this country. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. and costs billions of dollars in care and disability. Both the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Stroke Association (a division of AHA) classify CVA as an emergency ...

USA Today recently ran a story on ''undercover patients''-- people who get paid to fake physical illness so they can grade a medical facility's services. The American Medical Association is considering endorsing this practice during its 5-day meeting starting on Saturday. Although this appears to be an adequate way to get a handling on which ...

In September 2006, the CDC issued new guidelines recommending a wider screening of the general public for HIV. This aggressive guideline resulted from the finding that of new HIV diagnosis, almost a half (over 40 percent)  went on to develop AIDS in about a year after diagnosis. This suggests the initial diagnosis was made late--maybe ...

It seems if a celebrity or her loved one is diagnosed with an illness, it tends to get a lot of ink or television exposure. For example, actress and comedienne Jenny McCarthy has been talking about autism-her son Evan has the disorder. She's even written a book, called Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism, about her ...

The incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is increasing at an alarming rate. In fact, MRSA is now the No. 1 diagnosis in people presenting to U.S. emergency departments with skin and soft tissue infections. The infection is not entirely benign either; MRSA infections result in approximately 19,000 deaths ...

It is the laboratory scientist's responsibility to make a test choice clear for the physician. We can be expected to reasonably interpret an order that doesn't match a menu name (AST for SGOT, for example). Other times, a questionable order is a methodology choice. A simple telephone call to the provider, a pathologist or a reference ...

A recent study published in the Lancet medical journal states AIDS patients in poor countries who are observed for clinical symptoms of the disease have close to the same survival rate as those who undergo lab testing. Read the whole story.  As laboratory professionals, what do you think of this? Are symptoms as reliable as lab tests?

As a programmer on the coast of Maine 20 years ago, I liked a quick and dirty solution--the inelegant, simplistic, but often workable idea. Scientists call this lex parsimoniae or Occam's Razor (after a 14th century English logician), which states the simplest solution is best, all things being equal. It surfaces in Toyota's Lean philosophy, ...

A nurse calls from the oncology clinic wanting to know how long she would have to wait to get the results of a CBC in order to start the patient's chemotherapy. The lab assistant answering the phone stumbles and says something like ''we are really short staffed today. We are working on it and will get out a soon as possible; I can't give you a ...

The acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are a continuum of ischemic heart disease that spans the entire range from unstable angina, associated with reversible injury; to frank myocardial infarction with large areas of cardiac necrosis. Here are some facts: The acute coronary syndromes are the biggest killer in the western world, accounting for ...