NationWide Laboratories: sampling and testing tips

What do I need to know about allergy testing?

Author: Stacey Newton

Allergy testing is a useful tool that should only be performed when a diagnosis of allergic disease has been made. Allergy testing is not used to make a diagnosis; it is possible for individuals that do not have allergic disease to have some positive results when tested, just like patients that do. In the cases where there is no evidence of allergic disease, these results do not mean this patient has an allergy. This instead could be due to non-specific IgE or be a false positive. Read or listen to the podcast ???

Investigation of calcium disorders and sample preparation

Author: Stacey Newton

Sample preparation is essential to avoid incorrect or spurious results when investigating calcium disorders using parathyroid hormone and ionised calcium measurements. Read or listen to the podcast ???

Sampling and packaging techniques for histology samples, and how to deal with unusual biopsy specimens

Author: Sandra Dawson

Some biopsies are not straightforward, but these sampling and packaging tips will help ensure specimens arrive at the histology laboratory in good condition and can be easily examined. Read or listen to the podcast ???

Immunohistochemistry in tumour diagnosis

Author: Sandra Dawson

General practitioners are increasingly faced with a histology report which suggests they use immunohistochemistry to further classify the tumour at hand – but what does this entail? Read more ???