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. Click on the link above for the full article.

Lab Tests Online-UK is delighted to announce that the LTO-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.

People infected with hepatitis B or C often have no symptoms but can eventually develop cirrhosis or liver cancer. On 12 December 2012 the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) published guidance about the need for greater awareness that those at risk can be tested for the viruses and treated to clear the infection. NICE recommends pathways that will increase testing for those who could have been in contact with virus infected blood, including drug users who inject, those who have had heterosexual or homosexual contact with an infected person and family members of carriers.

Our News item on 6 June 2012 described a large international study that showed people with inherited raised plasma HDL cholesterol concentrations had no reduction in cardiac risk. Research published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on 5 November 2012 found that a drug that increased HDL cholesterol more than 30% did not reduce risk. It seems that there is not a cause and effect association between raised HDL cholesterol and lowered risk; both result from healthy life style factors like taking regular exercise.

A lung cancer called mesothelioma caused over 2,000 deaths in the UK last year, more deaths than were caused by all road accidents. The cancer develops following breathing in airborne asbestos fibres, usually many years after exposure. By the time symptoms appear and the condition is diagnosed it has often spread extensively and treatment has little success. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on 11 October 2012 reported that a protein called fibulin-3 is raised in the blood and lung fluid from patients with the disease, raising the hope that this test may allow earlier diagnosis and treatment.

Lab Tests Online was recently recognised with an Award of Distinction in the 18th Annual Communicator Awards.

The name ‘good’ cholesterol has been given to high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol because people with higher plasma HDL concentrations have a lower risk of heart attacks and vice versa. The current theory is that a raised HDL causes a reduction in risk. A very large international study published online in the Lancet on 17 May 2012 compared the risk of heart attack in the general population with the risk in those with an uncommon inherited condition that gives rise to a raised HDL. There was no difference. In the general population, lifestyle factors such as exercise are known to reduce the risk of heart attack and also to raise HDL. The authors concluded that lifestyle factors rather than raised HDL concentrations cause the reduction in risk.