In the News

Doctors rely on blood tests for cardiac troponins, proteins released into the blood by damaged heart muscle cells, to help diagnose heart attacks in people who visit the emergency department with chest pain. Evaluation of patients using the current versions of the troponin tests takes many hours to be sure whether a heart attack has occurred. Now, findings from several recent studies indicate that newer versions of troponin tests may be useful in helping to rapidly rule out heart attacks. Though results of the studies are promising, this new generation of highly sensitive troponin tests is still under evaluation and not yet approved for use in the U.S.

UPDATE: Numerous studies have concluded that current tests do not reproducibly detect Murine leukemia viruses (MLV), including xenotropic-MLV-related virus (XMRV/MLV), in blood samples from people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Two journals have now retracted previously published papers that reported finding evidence of a link between CFS and MLV-related viruses. 

In an effort to help stop the spread of HIV among teens, the American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends routine screening for adolescents who live in certain high risk communities. In areas where more than 1 in every 1000 people is infected with the virus or the HIV prevalence is unknown, pediatricians should offer testing at least once to all teens between the ages of 16 to 18 regardless of sexual history.

A new guideline from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends routine cardiovascular screening with cholesterol tests for pre-adolescents and young adults. It advises that all youths should have cholesterol screening tests performed during well visits once between the ages of 9 and 11 and again between ages 17 and 21.

Babesiosis is the most common parasitic blood disease in the U.S. Incidence of the tick-borne disease has been increasing in recent years and now the CDC has published a report noting an increase in babesiosis related to blood transfusions. Effective and efficient donation testing is needed in those areas that have reported cases of babesiosis, but developing a test that is sufficiently sensitive and specific has presented some challenges.

An outbreak of cantaloupe-borne listeriosis that began in late August and expanded to 28 states is the deadliest foodborne outbreak in the United States in over 25 years. The Centers for Disease Control and public health laboratories have coordinated throughout the outbreak to identify the source and limit the number of cases.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has released a draft recommendation statement that contains changes to its previous guidelines for cervical cancer screening. Three other health organizations have released their proposed joint recommendations as well. Both sets of guidelines recommend that women between the ages of 21 and 65 get screened for cervical cancer every 3 years. 

The FDA recently approved a new drug called vemurafenib (Zelboraf®, Roche) that targets some cases of late-stage melanoma, a deadly skin cancer. In addition, a companion genetic test that identifies individuals with the type of melanoma that may respond to therapy with the new drug was also approved. The new test detects a mutation known as V600E in the BRAF gene in cells from biopsied tissue. The BRAF V600E mutation occurs in about half of patients with melanoma.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has released a new draft recommendation that discourages use of the PSA test for screening healthy men in all age groups, saying that the harms outweigh the benefits and that testing does not reduce death rates. This recommendation is at odds with that of other major health organizations. Most groups maintain that PSA is useful and encourage men to discuss the issue with their doctors when deciding whether to be tested.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recommended that states screen all newborns for critical congenital heart disease using pulse oximetry. Congenital heart disease is one of the most common types of birth defects and can be life-threatening if not treated. With the goal of improved survival rates, universal screening could help in the identification of cases, resulting in early intervention.

A new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services may soon give patients direct access to their laboratory results. Allowing patients to obtain their test results directly from the laboratory is part of a larger movement towards expanding the use of health information technology. The reforms are intended to empower patients, coordinate better care and improve health care quality.

Researchers have developed a new small, portable testing device that employs technology termed microfluidics as a way to quickly detect infectious diseases at the time that the patient is seen by the healthcare provider. Researchers evaluated the performance of the "mChip" in Rwanda, Africa with promising results. The mChip endeavors to improve upon the performance of current point-of-care tests (POCTs) by using some of the same technology found in instruments used in laboratories but on a much smaller scale and allows testing for more than one disease at the same time, something that has been problematic for other POCTs.

Either fasting plasma glucose or hemoglobin A1c can identify people at elevated risk for developing diabetes within the next five years, but together the two tests better predict excess risk than does either one alone, Japanese researchers report. The identification of high risk populations using both tests may lead to more effective interventions to prevent the progression to diabetes.

New clinical practice guidelines from the Endocrine Society recommend against screening the general population for vitamin D deficiency but do urge Americans to use vitamin D supplements to maintain healthy levels. In its review, the society found no evidence to support routine vitamin D testing on a population-wide basis but did conclude that screening is useful for certain groups and for people who have conditions that put them at a greater risk of deficiency.

Results from the ovarian cancer component of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial showed that in average-risk women, annual screening with the CA-125 test and transvaginal ultrasound was no better than routine medical care in reducing the number of deaths due to this cancer. Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in women. Survival rates improve dramatically with early detection and treatment. Unfortunately, there is currently no good method for detecting this disease in the early stages. Though results from this study are disappointing and do not offer improved screening options for women, research is ongoing.