Barton MLT Seminar Blog

Can testing for HIV be as easy as a home pregnancy test? OraQuick advance may be the answer. Just a quick swab of your gums and 20 minutes later you can know if you are HIV positive. According to the statistics, some 300,00 people are infected with HIV that don’t know it. People who know are 50% more likely not to infect others. Will people go to their local drug store and get an HIV test? If the test was positive, would they get treatment? Facing the results of an HIV test would be traumatic even with professional support. Should people face that alone, in the privacy of their own homes? I don’t think I could handle it.

Mary Jane Alex
New Scientist 10 Nov 2005

The 2005 salary survey was very interesting. I was amazed at some of the differences in salaries across the nation. It amazed me that males still make considerably more than females today. The survey charted salaries by position and by gender. In almost all cases, a male makes about 10% more than their female counterparts. I think that is ridiculous in today’s society. How does an employer justify such a big difference in salary among employees? It makes you stop and think. The article gave a lot of good information for negotiation. The survey did not mention if the positions were filled by MT’s or MLT’s. It would have been helpful to know what size of facility was represented. The article was informative but it was not detailed. I think that they could have done a better job.

An exciting development in the last decade is the commercialization of major histocompatibility (MHC) tetramers, which provide direct measurement of antigen-specific immune responses. There are two classes of MHC tetramers: Class I measures CD8+T-cells, and Class II measures CD4+ “helper” T-cells.

The study of cytomegalovirus (CMV) is an application of tetramer technology. Measuring frequency of antigen-specific CD8+ T-cells to assess immune response and ID patients with impaired recovery of CMV-specific immunity. It also identifies patients at higher risk for CMV disease.

The use of MHC tetramers in the development and testing of vaccines is promising.

Study and treatment of autoimmune diseases will benefit. Tetramer technology is also used to better understand the pathology of cancer and infectious diseases such as EBV, and hepatitis C.

A whole new era is ahead for development of vaccines and therapies using tetramer technology.

Medical Laboratory Observer, Sept. 2005, p. 26
Kendra F.

Many times in the hospital setting, mistakes happen. One that is of great concern is the proper identification of the patient. The patient should have an identifacation bracelet on their arm. Included in this information is the patients name, hospital number, medical record number, physician name, patients date of birth and gender. Many hospitals have gone to barcoded arm bands and scan these when working with the patient. Along with proper identification of the patient, specimens must be correctly drawn and reported in a timely fashion. When calling a result, it is important for the receiver to repeat the information back to the caller. This will help in ensuring correct results were written down by the receiving party. If these guidelines are followed, errors in patient identification and result reporting can be minimized. Advance January 2005. pg 21-22.
Dawn Houston

Recently at my clinical lab site they told me about an unusal case with a five month old baby whose culture was positive for MRSA. After reviewing the chart, they learned the patient had presented to the ER with what the parents though to be a spider bite. I began to do some research and found that it was an emerging form of community aquired MRSA. Conincendentally my uncle recently was hospitalized for the same thing. It was a very nasty infection. Here are some web links that I used while researching this topic:
http://www.surviveoutdoors.com/emergency/mrsa.asp

http://www.lapublichealth.org/acd/docs/TPHSeptember2003Revised.pdf

The American Heart Association is revising the CPR guidlines. These guidlines are being updated to sufficient studies of saving some 30,000 lives taken each year and the nearly 95% of patients that die even before getting to the hospital. Increasing chest compressions from the 15 to 30. Studies have shown increasing 30 chest compressions per 2 breaths increased opportunity for the heart to restart. Also, the guidlines are calling for the patients body to be cooled to a 90 degree F. Lowering the body temp. for a period of 12 to 24 hours and potential for increasing the recovery of the brain cells and survival.
Info at:

Melissa Roach

This article was about how “a person’s reaction to stress is one mechanism through which higher lipid levels may develop.” The researchers measured cardiovascular, inflammatory, and hemostatic responses to some moderately stressful activity. The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that stress-induced acute increases in lipid concentration would predict fasting levels three years later. In this study, they found that the only significant difference between men and women after three years was the level of HDL. Age, hormone-replacement therapy and smoking could not predict serum lipid concentrations at three years. I thought this article was of interest to us students since we are approaching finals and a higher stress level.

I want us to blog our last Journal (Journal # 3) and also send me an electronic copy. You may provide links to your article if you found interesting web sites about the subject matter. When you go in to write a blog you will have a link option to use. Let me know if you have questions.

I would like a discussion on the Virtual Lab Unknowns. What do you like best? What do you like the least?