Promoting Health Equity Through Effective Laboratory Stewardship Strategies.

There is a close relationship between the goals of laboratory stewardship and efforts to improve health equity for vulnerable populations. Laboratory stewardship programs should evaluate their policies and interventions to ensure that they improve access to testing, test selection, and result interpretation and delivery for all populations. Specific solutions to consider are (1) to evaluate the benefits of point-of-care testing when it can decrease barriers to specimen collection, (2) to use standardized naming conventions to help providers select the best test, and (3) to partner with insurance processing departments to help reduce financial barriers for expensive testing.

Current state of laboratory test utilization practices in the clinical laboratory.

Appropriate laboratory test utilization is of growing interest in the face of rising healthcare costs and documented evidence of over- and under-utilization. Building from published literature, laboratory organizations have recently published guidelines for establishing laboratory utilization management programs. However, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have consistently struggled to define rigorous evidence-based best practice recommendations due to the paucity of published data or the heterogeneity of available data.

The Androstenedione Roche Elecsys immunoassay has superior comparability to the LC-MS/MS assay than the Siemens Immulite immunoassay.

Unlabelled: Androstenedione (ASD) is a biomarker used in the diagnostic workup of hyperandrogenism, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, premature adrenarche, and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The Elecsys ASD competitive electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, IN) is a new assay recently available in the US.

Objective: This study evaluated the analytical and clinical performance of the Elecsys ASD assay.

Retrospective comparison of results for simultaneous orders for LDL particle count, apolipoprotein B, and LDL-C.

Background: Analysis of lipoprotein size and composition by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been advocated as a method for identifying individuals at high CVD risk. We compared risk stratification between NMR-based LDL particle number (LDL-PNUM), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C), and apolipoprotein B (apoB).

Methods: Retrospective data from patients with simultaneous orders for LDL-PNUM, LDL-C, and apoB were analyzed and included data from an NMR assay (Numares).

Retrospective Analysis of Pediatric and Adult Populations Using an LC-MS/MS Method for Oxcarbazepine/Eslicarbazepine Metabolite.

Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring of anti-epileptic drugs is important to manage seizure control in patients with epilepsy. Oxcarbazepine is a second-generation anti-epileptic drug approved for use in pediatric patients, and eslicarbazepine acetate is a newer generation drug used as adjunctive therapy and monotherapy for partial-onset (focal) seizures. While several second and third generation anti-epileptic drugs have broader therapeutic efficacy in patients, these drugs can still have severe side effects and variable interpatient pharmacokinetics.

Cannabinol (CBN) Cross-Reacts with Two Urine Immunoassays Designed to Detect Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) Metabolite.

Background: The psychoactive component of cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is one of many cannabinoids present in the plant. Since cannabinoids have extensive structural similarity, it is important to be aware of potential cross-reactivity with immunoassays designed to detect THC metabolite. This is especially important as cannabinoid products are increasingly marketed as legal supplements.

Lrp Regulates One-Third of the Genome via Direct, Cooperative, and Indirect Routes.

The global regulator Lrp plays a crucial role in regulating metabolism, virulence, and motility in response to environmental conditions. Lrp has previously been shown to activate or repress approximately 10% of the genes in However, the full spectrum of targets, and how Lrp acts to regulate them, have stymied earlier study. We have combined matched chromatin-immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) under nine physiological conditions to comprehensively map the binding and regulatory activity of Lrp as it directs responses to nutrient abundance.

Sulfur-Oxygen Chalcogen Bonding Mediates AdoMet Recognition in the Lysine Methyltransferase SET7/9.

Recent studies have demonstrated that carbon-oxygen (CH···O) hydrogen bonds have important roles in S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) recognition and catalysis in methyltransferases. Here, we investigate noncovalent interactions that occur between the AdoMet sulfur cation and oxygen atoms in methyltransferase active sites. These interactions represent sulfur-oxygen (S···O) chalcogen bonds in which the oxygen atom donates a lone pair of electrons to the σ antibonding orbital of the AdoMet sulfur atom.

Regulation of the dynamic chromatin architecture of the epidermal differentiation complex is mediated by a c-Jun/AP-1-modulated enhancer.

The epidermal differentiation complex (EDC) locus comprises a syntenic and linear cluster of genes whose concomitant expression is a hallmark feature of differentiation in the developing skin epidermis. Many of the EDC proteins are cross-linked together to form the cornified envelope, an essential and discrete unit of the mammalian skin barrier. The mechanism underlying coordinate transcriptional activation of the EDC is unknown.