[Implementation of nine quality indicators in a hospital emergency clinical laboratory].

Background: Quality indicators are tools used to monitor specific activities within a process and improve it. In the area of clinical laboratories, the National Accreditation Standards for Providers of Health and the ISO 15189 standard recommend the implementation of indicators that monitor the test cycle with emphasis on those that contribute to a safer health care.

Aim: To describe the implementation of nine indicators in a hospital clinical laboratory and their measurement during one year.

[Epidemiologial profile of invasive candidiasis in intensive care units at a university hospital].

Unlabelled: Invasive candidiasis (IC) epidemiology has changed in critically ill patients and limited data are available in Chile.

Objective: To describe the epidemiological and microbiological profile of IC in critically ill patients.

Methods: Observational prospective study conducted from October 2001 to August 2003 in critically ill adults with suspected or confirmed IC.

[Troponin in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction: An approach from the Clinical Laboratory].

Among the many biomarkers studied to evaluate myocardial damage, troponin is considered the most sensitive and specific. However, current methodologies present pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical problems, of which the more significant are the lack of standardization and a high uncertainty in the level of decision or cut-off. It is hoped that a new generation of assays called "ultra sensitive" will improve analytical performance characteristics of the technique and achieve compliance with the internationally recommended quality specifications.

[Are blood glucose measurements made with portable glucometers reliable?].

Examinations performed beside the bed of patients ("Point-of-care testing, POCT") provide immediate results and are simple to perform. The most common of these tests is the self control of blood glucose levels in diabetic patients. The use of these devices at the hospital level, introduces a new set of requirements to health institutions, which should monitor all aspects of the process, including training of final users, proper quality control, development of written procedures for use and even participation in surveys of external quality control, avoiding the generation of errors and guaranteeing patient safety.

[Laboratory alert value reporting by the clinical laboratory at an academic medical network].

Background: An alert value is a result suggesting that the patient is at imminent danger unless appropriate remedial actions begin promptly. Report of alert values (AV) by the clinical laboratories has taken special relevance in recent years due to its contribution to patient's care.

Aim: To report results of AV informed during 2007 within the Health Network of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

[Universal or broad-range polymerase chain reaction (PCR): a contribution to the detection and identification of bacteria and fungi in clinical practice].

The use of techniques for the detection of nucleic acids such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has had a major impact on microbiological analysis, playing an important role in the clinical laboratory. Most of the techniques currently used are designed for specific detection of a particular microorganism. However, infectious agents can also be identified even if genus or species are unknown, using universal primers to amplify bacterial or fungal DNA and then identify the species by sequence (universal or wide spectrum PCR).

[Traceability and harmonization in clinical laboratory].

The results of a determination performed in two different laboratories can only be compared if the techniques used are comparable, independently of the methodology or manufacturer. For this purpose, methods must be traceable to common materials and methods. Despite the common sense of this statement, only few laboratory determinations fulfill this requisite.

[The contribution of critical laboratory values to patients' safety and care].

Critical values are those laboratory values that are so abnormal that may threaten the life of a patient unless immediate corrective or therapeutic actions are undertaken. Among laboratory procedures, this definition has been incorporated to standards that watch over patients' safety. Health institutions should incorporate this practice and monitor its effectiveness.

[Invasive fungal disease in hemato-oncological and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients from Hospital Clinico Universidad Católica, Santiago-Chile using revised EORTC/MSG diagnostic criteria].

Introduction: Invasive fungal disease (IFD) is a severe complication occurring mostly in haematooncological (H-O) patients and hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) receptors. Our aim was to describe the IFD occurring in our H-O and HSCT patients according to the EORTC/MSG revised criteria.

Patients And Methods: IFD surveillance was performed in adult patients of the Hospital Clínico Universidad Catolica, Santiago, Chile, from January 2004 to January 2008.