ICYMI: Around the Journals June 2021

AJCP and Lab Medicine journals publish original research, case studies, and more that is important to pathology and laboratory medicine.

Here are some highlights you may have missed.

In AJCP….

Summer is here, and that means paying increased attention to lockboxes to avoid preanalytical errors. What does that mean? Check out this article in AJCP to find out.

RBCs undergo deleterious changes during storage, but there is inadequate literature describing the effects of stored RBC allogenic transfusion on oxygen parameters in vivo. A single-center retrospective study revealed evidence of significantly decreased oxygenation and tissue perfusion after single-unit RBC transfusion, despite corrected Hb levels.

HER2 positivity is associated with high-grade morphologic features in MiBCs. But HER2 overexpression in MiBCs doesn’t appear to be associated with nodal metastasis or worse outcome in this study cohort. Read on to find out more.

In Laboratory Medicine…

Lewis antibodies are often considered clinically insignificant. But this recent case study in Laboratory Medicine shows the importance of considering cold antibodies, including Lewis antibodies, as a possible cause of an acute hemolytic transfusion reaction.

From a lack of exposure to the field, to incorrect impressions of pathology being “inferior” to other areas of medicine, there are numerous issues encountered when developing the pathology and laboratory workforce pipeline. A new editorial suggests reaching out to non-traditional candidates, from visual arts majors to music majors, as they have potential to be a good fit for the profession.