In the News

Two genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2 can be passed on from parent to child and increase the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Angelina Jolie recently had a double mastectomy after having a positive test for BRCA1. Representatives of 150,000 patients, geneticists and other medical and laboratory professionals recently appealed to the US Supreme court, challenging the validity of the patent held by Myriad Genetics since 1998. On 13 June 2013, the court ruled that the patent is invalid because natural human genes cannot be patented. Tests are likely to now become cheaper and more widely available.

Monday 10th June 2013 is the launch day for the Lab Tests Online-UK app. Today is the day for us to unite together as laboratory medicine professionals and inform our users about Lab Tests Online-UK, the website and the app.
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Lab Tests Online-UK is delighted to announce that the LTOL-UK app is now available, and is free to download for both iPhone/iPad and Android devices. The app will be officially launched at the Royal College of Pathologists on 10 June 2013.

A recent study found that women with the highest blood levels of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) are more likely to have a successful birth following in vitro fertilisation (IVF) than women of a similar age with lower levels of this hormone. The researchers concluded that a higher AMH result might be a useful predictive tool for determining the chances of successful pregnancy and live birth following IVF.

Asthmatic children who have a specific genetic make-up (Arg16 genotype) determined by testing saliva, are predisposed to exacerbations when salmeterol, a medicine effective in most children, is used as an additional treatment to inhaled steroids. Researchers from Brighton and Dundee reported in Clinical Science on 8 January 2013 the results of a small randomised trial in which half of 62 asthmatic Scottish children with the Arg16 genotype took salmeterol and the other half took a different add-on treatment, montelukast. Over the next year those taking montelukast had fewer school absences for asthma and fewer exacerbations, showing that genetic testing can provide a personalised medicine approach to clinical management.