Lung ultrasound and biomarkers in primary care: Partners for a better management of patients with heart failure?

Introduction: The association of pulmonary congestion assessed by lung ultrasound (LUS) and biomarkers-other than N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP)-is uncertain.

Methods: We investigated the relationship between total B-line count by LUS and several biomarkers in outpatients with suspicion of heart failure (HF). Primary care patients with suspected new-onset nonacute HF were evaluated both with a 12-scan LUS protocol (8 anterolateral areas plus 4 lower posterior thoracic areas) and 11 inflammatory and cardiovascular biomarkers.

Performance evaluation of the new hematology analyzer UniCel DxH 900.

Introduction: UniCel DxH900 (Beckman Coulter, Miami, Florida, USA) is a quantitative, multi-parameter, automated hematology analyzer for in vitro diagnostic use in clinical laboratories. The aim of this study was to evaluate the analytical performance of the new DxH900 analyzer to verify its diagnostic and clinical utility in the hematology laboratory of a tertiary care hospital in Spain. The most important and novel feature offered by DxH900 analyzer is providing MDW (monocyte distribution width), a new hematologic parameter which is being clinically validated as an early sepsis indicator with promising results.

Lung Ultrasound for Heart Failure Diagnosis in Primary Care.

Background: Lung ultrasound (LUS) is useful for diagnosing pulmonary congestion, but its value in primary care remains unclear. We investigated whether LUS improved diagnostic accuracy in outpatients with heart failure (HF) suspicion.

Methods And Results: LUS was performed on 2 anterior (A), 2 lateral (L), and 2 posterior (P) areas per hemithorax.

Spanish society of laboratory medicine external quality assurance programmes: evolution of the analytical performance of clinical laboratories over 30 years and comparison with other programmes.

The purpose of this study is to understand the evolution of the analytical performance of the laboratories participating in the Spanish society of laboratory medicine (SEQC) external quality assurance (EQA) programmes during its 30 years of operation and to compare it with the performance of other EQA programmes to establish whether the results are similar. The results obtained during this period are evaluated by applying the biological variability (BV) and state of the art-derived quality specifications. In addition, the results are compared with those obtained by other EQA programme organisations.