General Practitioners

• Arthritis
  Russo K, et al. Circulating anticentromere CENP-A and CENP-B antibodies in patients with diffuse and limited systemic sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis. J Rheumatol. 2000 Jan;27(1):142-8.
• Rheumatology
  The American College of Rheumatology supports the immunofluorescence antinuclear antibody (ANA) test using Human Epithelial type 2 (HEp-2) substrate, as the gold standard for ANA testing. ACR notes that alternate bead-based or solid phase methods should demonstrate comparable sensitivity to IFA.
• Pediatric Care
• Infectious Diseases
  The Microbiology Department at CPL follows guidelines provided by American Society of Microbiology (ASM), Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines for organism identification and susceptibility testing. To promote adherence to these guidelines, CPL will initiate the following steps to ensure that Unit Code 6089, Urine Culture, Work Up All is limited to specimens from the appropriate clinical presentation...
• Diarrhea
• Immunizations
  Rubella: Also called German measles, this is a viral infection that can easily be passed from person to person through sneezing or coughing. Rubella is less common today because standard MMR vaccination offers protection against it, however, the virus may be passed to the fetus, which can cause miscarriage, premature birth, or congenital rubella syndrome.

Gynecologists

• Pregnancy
  Dr. J.R. Rainey and Dr. Thomas G. Price joined CPL for a total of four pathologists and the laboratory formally adopted the name, Clinical Pathology Laboratories. CPL moved to a state-of-the-art, 4,000 square foot facility in the Medical Arts Square. It offered tissue pathology, BMRs, NPNs, and syphilis testing, as well as new tests like bilirubin, pregnancy testing (using rabbits), uric acid levels and PAP smears.

Internists

• Gastroenterology
  To better support high quality patient care, CPL will inactivate the serology test codes for H. pylori listed above and recommend active infection assays. These changes are consistent with the current diagnostic guidelines of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) and the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA) that recommend either the urea breath test or the stool antigen test as preferred testing modalities for active H. pylori infection. These alternative noninvasive testing methods demonstrate higher clinical utility, sensitivity and specificity.
• Urology
  In our review process, we have identified a quality improvement opportunity concerning ordering patterns and specimen requirements for our Unit Code 6089, Urine Culture, Work Up All Organisms. This Unit Code requests urine culture to identify all organisms and perform antibiotic susceptibilities on each significant organism. While we understand that this request may be appropriate for some clinical scenarios and specialties, such as infectious disease or urology practices, we have identified a pattern that suggests some clinics are requesting this Unit Code by default or are routinely using this for evaluation of uncomplicated urinary tract infections. This practice may identify clinically irrelevant organisms and promote the use of clinically inappropriate antibiotic therapy, not conforming to standards of antimicrobial stewardship.
• Nephrology
  In response to recommendations from the National Kidney Foundation and American Society of Nephrology (NKF-ASN) Task Force on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), effective 12/13/2021, CPL will adopt the single CKD-EPI Refit equation to replace the separately reported eGFR – Black and eGFR – non-Black calculations for all serum creatinine measures.
• Urinary Tract Infection
  Unit Code 6049, Standard Urine Culture, is appropriate for symptomatic men and women, suspicious for uncomplicated urinary tract infection. The Microbiology department follows CLSI and ASM guidelines to identify urinary pathogens in pure culture or present at a significant level in mixed cultures. Additionally, Group B Streptococcus is identified at any colony count and in any background in women of child bearing age. A final culture result of “normal genital flora” is based on identification of mixtures of Lactobacillus, coagulase negative Staphylococcus or other skin contaminants in the absence of urinary pathogens. For further questions, please contact your account executive. We appreciate your support of Clinical Pathology Laboratories.

Psychiatrists

• Mental Health
  As of August 2021 more than 37 million Americans have been infected with COVID-19. A significant number of these patients either continue to experience clinical symptoms or develop new symptoms 4 weeks and later after a COVID-19 infection, including patients with initial mild or asymptomatic infections. Post-COVID conditions present with a wide range of physical and mental health consequences and may be referred to as long COVID, post-acute COVID-19, or chronic COVID, among other names.

Endocrinologist

• Diabetes Care
• Endocrinology
  1: “A Critical Evaluation of Simple Methods for the Estimation of Free Testosterone in Serum”, Vermeulen, A, Verdonck, L., Kaufman, J.M., Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 84:10, October 1999, 3666-3672.
• Hypothyroidism
• Thyroid
  The detection of anti-TPO and anti-Tg are considered diagnostic markers of autoimmune thyroid disorders. The prevalence of these two antibodies is high in patients with Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Dermatologists

• Dermatology
  Dr. Jiang will join CPL from her current role at Dahl-Chase Cancer Center in Maine. She completed an Anatomical Pathology residency at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland where she was chief resident. This was followed by fellowships in Surgical Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and Dermatopathology at the University of Virginia. Prior to pathology training, Dr. Jiang completed Dermatology residency and a masters program in Immunology in China.
• Lesions
  Herpes simplex virus (HSV): Pregnant people can can acquire genital herpes simplex virus through sexual contact with an infected individual or through reactivation of latent virus. Virus can be passed to the developing fetus transplacentally or during delivery. Congenital HSV can cause low birth weight, miscarriage, and preterm birth. Perinatal infection may cause lesions that affect skin, eyes, and mouth, or in rare cases, can cause serious brain and organ damage.
• Rashes

Allergists

• Allergies
  Clinical Pathology Laboratories is proud to announce the availability of enhanced reports for allergy testing, effective 12/08/2022. CPL has validated a report routine that automatically generates and stores the enhanced report for the subset of testing on an accession that includes any allergen specific IgE testing, including regional panels, food panels, pediatric panels or individually ordered allergens. The reports are available in CPL’s Atlas laboratory portal. In addition, certain electronic medical records are programmed to receive encoded, embedded PDF documents and may be able to download the enhanced report. For more information about how to receive this service, please contact your account executive.