UNASSIGNED: To assess the inter-laboratory comparability and intra-assay reproducibility of full blood count (FBC) results.
UNASSIGNED: Exploratory cross-sectional study.
UNASSIGNED: Three and two selected medical laboratories in the northern and southern zones, respectively.
UNASSIGNED: Forty-nine individuals per zone; 16 type 2 diabetes mellitus, 16 with HbAS haemoglobin type and 17 normal samples.
UNASSIGNED: Each sample was run eleven times through the analysers in the participating laboratories to evaluate intra-laboratory reproducibility and comparability of FBC results.
UNASSIGNED: Intra-laboratory reproducibility was evaluated using %coefficient variation (%CV). Interlaboratory comparisons were assessed through t-test or One-Way ANOVA for two-sample and three-sample tests. All statistical testing was undertaken using the two-tailed assumption.
UNASSIGNED: Statistically significantly different haemoglobin levels were estimated in both northern and southern zones (mean difference 0.00 g/dL to 3.75 g/dL vs 0.18 g/dL to 1.92 g/dL respectively). Also, total WBC counts significantly differed across laboratories in both northern and southern zones (mean difference 0.15 ×109/L - 3.86 ×109/L vs 0.02 ×109/L to 1.39 ×109/L respectively). Furthermore, platelet counts significantly differed across the participating laboratories in the northern and southern zones (mean difference 0.40 ×109/L to 299.76 ×109/L vs 5.7 ×109/L to 76.9 ×109/L respectively). Moreover, there was evidence of non-reproducibility of results within the respective laboratories in each zone as the respective %CV were outside the acceptable limits.
UNASSIGNED: The intra-laboratory non-reproducibility and inter-laboratory non-comparability of FBC results highlight the need to establish a national quality assessment scheme to harmonise laboratory practices nationwide.
UNASSIGNED: This study was funded by the University of Cape Coast Individual-Led Research Support Grant (RSG-INDI-CoHAS-2019-107).

The management of patients with critical bleeding requires a multidisciplinary approach to achieve haemostasis, optimise physiology, and guide blood component use. The 2011 Patient blood management guidelines: module 1 - critical bleeding/massive transfusion were updated and published. Systematic reviews were conducted for pre-specified research questions, and recommendations were based on meta-analyses of included studies.
The critical bleeding/massive transfusion guideline includes seven recommendations and 11 good practice statements addressing: major haemorrhage protocols (MHPs) facilitating a multidisciplinary approach to haemorrhage control, correction of coagulopathy and normalisation of physiological derangement; measurement of physiological, biochemical and metabolic parameters in critical bleeding/massive transfusion; the optimal ratio of red blood cells to other blood components; the use of tranexamic acid; viscoelastic haemostatic assays; and cell salvage.
The new guideline recommends MHPs be established as standard of care in all institutions managing patients with critical bleeding. In addition to routine physiological markers, the new guideline recommends temperature, biochemistry and coagulation profiles be measured early and frequently, providing parameters that define critical derangements. Ratio-based MHPs should include no fewer than four units of fresh frozen plasma and one adult unit of platelets for every eight units of red blood cells. In the setting of trauma and obstetric haemorrhage, administration of tranexamic acid within three hours of bleeding onset is recommended. The use of recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) is not recommended. There was insufficient evidence to make recommendations on the use of viscoelastic haemostatic assays or cell salvage as part of MHPs.

Acute viral bronchiolitis is a common and costly pediatric condition for which clinical practice guidelines discourage use of diagnostic tests and therapies.
To evaluate trends over time for use of nonrecommended services for bronchiolitis since publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics clinical practice guideline on bronchiolitis (originally published in October 2006 and updated in November 2014).
This cohort study was conducted using interrupted time-series regression analysis adjusting for the hospital providing service, patient demographic characteristics, and payer, with 2014 guideline update publication as the event point. Included patients were children younger than 2 years old discharged from the emergency department (ED) or hospital inpatient setting with a primary diagnosis of bronchiolitis at US Children\'s Hospitals contributing data to the Pediatric Health Information Systems database. Data were analyzed from June through December 2020.
Rates of nonrecommended tests (ie, chest radiography, viral testing, and complete blood cell count) and treatments (ie, bronchodilators, corticosteroids, antibiotics) were measured.
Among 602 375 encounters involving children with a primary diagnosis of bronchiolitis, 404 203 encounters (67.1%) were ED discharges and 198 172 encounters (32.9%) were inpatient discharges; 468 226 encounters (77.7%) involved children younger than 12 months, and 356 796 encounters (59.2%) involved boys. In the period after initial guideline publication (ie, November 2006 to November 2014), a negative use trajectory was found in all measures except viral testing in the ED group. Using the 2014 guideline update as the event point, several measures showed decreased use between study time periods. The greatest decrease was in bronchodilator use, which changed by -13.5 percentage points in the ED group (95% CI, -15.2 percentage points to -11.8 percentage points) and -11.3 percentage points in the inpatient group (95% CI, -13.1 percentage points to -9.4 percentage points). In the period after the 2014 guideline update (ie, December 2014 to December 2019), bronchodilators also showed the greatest change in usage trajectory, steepening more than 2-fold in both groups. In the ED group, the negative trajectory steepened from -0.11% monthly (95% CI, -0.13% to -0.09%) in the first guideline period to a new mean monthly slope of -0.26% (95% CI, -0.30% to -0.23%). In the inpatient group, the mean monthly slope steepened from -0.08% (95% CI, -0.10 to -0.05%) to -0.26% (95% CI, 0.30% to -0.22%). Length of stay decreased from 2.0 days (95% CI, 1.9 days to 2.1 days) to 1.7 days (95% CI, 1.7 days to 1.8 days). Hospital admission rate decreased from 18.0% (95% CI, 13.8% to 22.2%) to 17.8% (95% CI, 13.6 to 22.1%).
This cohort study with interrupted time-series analysis found that use of most nonrecommended bronchiolitis services decreased continuously after 2006. The rate of decline in bronchodilator use increased more than 2-fold after the 2014 guideline update. These findings support potential associations of practice guidelines with improved bronchiolitis care.

UNASSIGNED: It is often quoted that 70% of clinical decisions are based on laboratory results, but the evidence to substantiate this claim is lacking. Since clinical guidelines aim to document best-practice decision making for specific disease conditions, inclusion of any laboratory test means that the best available evidence is recommending clinicians use it. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the world\'s most common cause of mortality, so this study reviewed all CVD guidelines published by five national/international authorities to determine what proportion of them recommended laboratory testing.
UNASSIGNED: Five leading CVD guidelines were examined, namely the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the Australian Heart Foundation (AHF) and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ).
UNASSIGNED: A total of 101 guidelines were reviewed. Of the 33 individual ESC guidelines relating to CVD, 24/33 made a direct reference to the use of clinical laboratory tests in either diagnosis or follow-up treatment. The same applied to 15/20 of NICE guidelines, 24/32 from the ACC and 15/16 from the AHF/CSANZ. Renal function and blood count testing were the most recommended (39 and 26 times), with lipid, troponin and natriuretic peptide measurement advocated 25, 19 and 19 times respectively.
UNASSIGNED: This study has shown that laboratory testing is advocated by between 73% and 94% of individual CVD guideline recommendations from five national/international authorities. This provides an index to assess the potential value of laboratory medicine to healthcare.

BACKGROUND: Creation of a clinical guideline to reduce the number of complete blood counts (CBCs) obtained on healthy term infants for early onset sepsis (EOS) evaluation secondary to maternal chorioamnionitis.
METHODS: A clinical guideline was introduced at four neonatal intensive care units (NICU) to reduce laboratory tests during EOS evaluation. Measures include frequency and timing of CBCs, culture negative sepsis, length of stay, and readmission rate.
RESULTS: Mean number of CBCs per patient significantly decreased (2.31±0.62 versus 1.52±0.65) without increasing trends for patients with culture negative sepsis, length of stay, or re-admission.
CONCLUSIONS: The clinical guideline demonstrated a significant reduction in the number of CBCs obtained in well-appearing infants admitted to the NICU secondary to maternal chorioamnionitis.

The objective of this literature review is to update the recommendations for clinical practice about the diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), microbiologic diagnosis excluded. An adnexal pain or cervical motion tenderness are the signs that allow a positive diagnosis of PID (LE2). Associated signs (fever, leucorrhoea, metrorrhagia) reinforce clinical diagnosis (LE2). In a woman consulting for symptoms compatible with PID, a pelvic clinical examination is recommended (grade B). In cases of suspected PID, hyperleukocytosis associated with a high C-reactive protein suggests a complicated PID or a differential diagnosis such as acute appendicitis (LE3). The absence of hyperleukocytosis or normal CRP does not rule out the diagnosis of PID (LE1). When PID is suspected, a blood test with a blood count and a CRP test is recommended (grade C). Pelvic ultrasound scan does not contribute to the positive diagnosis of uncomplicated PID because it is insensitive and unspecific (LE3). However, ultrasound scan is recommended to look for signs of complicated PID (polymorphic collection) or differential diagnosis (grade C). Waiting for an ultrasound scan to be performed should not delay the start-up of antibiotic therapy. In case of diagnostic uncertainty, an abdominal-pelvic CT scan with contrast injection is useful for differential diagnosis of urinary, digestive or gynaecological origin (LE2). Laparoscopy is not recommended for the unique purpose of the positive diagnosis of PID (grade B).

Pyruvate kinase deficiency (PKD) is the most common enzyme defect of glycolysis and an important cause of hereditary, nonspherocytic hemolytic anemia. The disease has a worldwide geographical distribution but there are no verified data regarding its frequency. Difficulties in the diagnostic workflow and interpretation of PK enzyme assay likely play a role. By the creation of a global PKD International Working Group in 2016, involving 24 experts from 20 Centers of Expertise we studied the current gaps in the diagnosis of PKD in order to establish diagnostic guidelines. By means of a detailed survey and subsequent discussions, multiple aspects of the diagnosis of PKD were evaluated and discussed by members of Expert Centers from Europe, USA, and Asia directly involved in diagnosis. Broad consensus was reached among the Centers on many clinical and technical aspects of the diagnosis of PKD. The results of this study are here presented as recommendations for the diagnosis of PKD and used to prepare a diagnostic algorithm. This information might be helpful for other Centers to deliver timely and appropriate diagnosis and to increase awareness in PKD.

UNASSIGNED: The International Consensus Group for Hematology Review (ICGHR) are essentially review criteria designed to reduce the number of manual smear reviews following analysis in automated hematology analyzers (AHAs). Although AHAs are an indispensable part of the present-day clinical laboratory, manual smear reviews still play an integral role in identifying morphological abnormalities and to confirm the results of the analyzers.
UNASSIGNED: The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of the ICGHR criteria and our laboratory criteria using the Sysmex XN-1000 for manual peripheral smear review (MSR).
UNASSIGNED: A prospective cross-sectional comparative study between the two sets of criteria for MSR was performed.
UNASSIGNED: A total of 860 whole blood samples sent over a period of 19 months for complete blood count testing to our laboratory were collected using systematic random sampling. Truth tables were prepared for each set of criteria. Tests of proportion were used to compare performance specifications between both sets of criteria.
UNASSIGNED: Using ICGHR criteria, sensitivity was 81.58%, specificity was 84.61%, 83.38% positive predictive value, and 82.92% negative predictive value. The microscopic smear review rate was 47.56% and efficiency was 83.14%. Using our laboratory criteria, sensitivity was 98.80%, specificity was 41.40%, positive predictive value of 61.46%, and negative predictive value of 97.34%. The microscopic smear review rate was 78.14% and efficiency 69.30%.
UNASSIGNED: There was a significant reduction in the microscopic smear review rates using the ICGHR criteria compared to our laboratory criteria. The ICGHR criteria can thus be adapted to daily laboratory practice provided they are first optimized and locally validated before use.

暂无摘要。

Dengue is an endemic disease in Puerto Rico, with three to nine thousand suspected dengue cases reported yearly. In PR, physicians are required to maintain medical education courses about dengue in order to recertify their medical licenses. The purpose of this study was to describe characteristics of patients admitted to Bella Vista Hospital with suspected dengue and estimate the compliance with guidelines established by the CDC documented in medical records. A total of 197 medical records of patients admitted with diagnosis of suspected dengue during January 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013 were reviewed. The annual distribution of admitted cases showed a higher incidence during the months of June through September, with August having the higher incidence of all. Combined aches and pains were most commonly reported at admission with a prevalence of 82%. In general there was a low prevalence of severe disease as per definition at presentation (DM, clinical fluid accumulation, hepatomegaly, pregnancy and/or renal insufficiency). Overall, compliance with CDC established guidelines were only partially followed. The guideline that was followed more frequently was a daily CBC, with 95% of patients having this as part of their management. Prevalence of administration of isotonic intravenous fluids was 63%, monitoring of vital signs was 48%), and administration of bolus of intravenous fluid was11%. No fatalities were reported during the period.