Clinical Chemistry Podcast

Mark Chan

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that affects an estimated 300 million people worldwide, including 25 million in the United States. There are currently no definitive diagnostic tests for asthma. Diagnosis is based on history and tests of respiratory function.

Circulating tumor cells are fundamental to the concept of a liquid biopsy for cancer. These cells are shed from the primary tumor and are carried in the blood to remote sites, potentially leading to metastasis formation. Understanding more about this process is critical as tumor metastasis is a leading cause of cancer death. Yet this is challenging as the number of circulating tumor cells in an individual is very small, making them difficult to study in detail. Cell lines derived from circulating tumor cells can be created to overcome this problem. This has been done in colon cancer, for example, and enables researchers to examine molecular and functional differences between the circulating tumor cells and those from the primary tumor. In this way, researchers may further our ability to identify and characterize cells that initiate metastasis and to ultimately develop new therapies to stop them. An original report in the January 2017 issue of Clinical Chemistry describes the differential gene expression between colon cancer cell lines derived from circulating tumor cells and the primary tumor. Dr. Catherine Alix-Panabières is the primary author of this article and joins us for this podcast.

Cannabis and its products are the most widely used illicit drugs world-wide, with the majority of countries currently harboring consumers and producers. Medicalization and legalization of the drug...

Monitoring of glycemic control with hemoglobin A1c (A1c) in hemodialysis patients may be compromised by anemia and erythropoietin therapy.

Disorders of bone metabolism, most notably osteoporosis, are highly prevalent and predispose to fractures, causing high patient morbidity and mortality.

Every year, commercial testing labs earn millions of dollars from selling the anonymized results of blood, urine, tissue, and other tests with almost no public scrutiny or debate.2 Few outside the industry know anything about this trade, and lab workers are often in the dark as well.

In addition to focusing on the publication of cutting-edge scientific reports, Clinical Chemistry has shown a genuine commitment to education by devoting a substantial portion of its pages to educational articles since 2008.

Interpretation of serial high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) measurements for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) assumes random fluctuation of hs-cTn around an individual's homeostatic set point.

Researchers have developed approaches for the noninvasive prenatal testing of single gene diseases.

Quantifying the variability of biomarkers is important, as high within-person variability can lead to misclassification of individuals. Short-term variability of important markers of vitamin D metabolism is relatively unknown.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common, particularly in those of advanced age.

The development and implementation of sensitive and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays has not only expedited the early ruling in and ruling out of acute myocardial infarction, but has also contributed to the identification of patients at risk for myocardial injury with necrosis, as confirmed by the presence of cardiac troponin concentrations above the 99th percentile.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is associated with high all-cause and PE-related mortality and requires individualized management.

Serial measurements of high-sensitivity troponin are used to rule out acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with an assay specific cutoff at the 99th percentile.

Patients with chest pain comprise a large proportion of emergency presentations and place a major burden on healthcare resources.

Risk stratification in acute myocardial infarction (MI) remains a clinical challenge.

The role of alcohol in the development of subclinical cardiovascular disease is unclear. We examined the association between alcohol consumption and markers of subclinical cardiac damage and wall stress.

The substantial technological advancements in next-generation sequencing (NGS), combined with dropping costs, have allowed for a swift diffusion of NGS applications in clinical settings.

This is the November2016 issue of Clinical Chemistry, Volume 62, Issue 11.

Measurement of serum cancer antigen 125 (CA125) is the standard approach for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) diagnostics and follow-up. However, the clinical specificity is not optimal because increased values are also detected in healthy controls and in benign diseases.

Electrophoretic separation of serum and urine proteins has played a central role in diagnosing and monitoring plasma cell disorders. Despite limitations in resolution and analytical sensitivity, plus the necessity for adjunct methods, protein gel electrophoresis and immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE) remain front-line tests.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a good candidate for tracking tumor dynamics in different cancer types, potentially avoiding repeated tumor biopsies. Many different genes can be mutated within a tumor, complicating procedures for tumor monitoring, even with highly sensitive next-generation sequencing (NGS) strategies.

Most people perceive pilots who don't fly for the commercial airlines as daredevils who always "fall out of the sky." My acquaintances are genuinely surprised to learn that I, a medical doctor and a clinical chemist, am one of those presumed reckless individuals.