E. coli is the major aerobic commensal organism in the gut and only causes disease following some disruption of gut, e.g. after penetrating injury. However, a number of E. coli strains or pathotypes possessing particular sets of virulence factors are adapted to cause...
South Africa carries a heavy influenza burden with more than 12000 deaths each year due to influenza associated severe acute respiratory illness. The most effective strategy to prevent influenza is vaccination.VaccinationAdminister the vaccine each year because the...
Iron is an intriguing nutrient with many paradoxical characteristics. it is the most abundant element on our planet and yet it is hard for living organisms to access due to its very low solubility. Its ability to switch easily between the ferric and...
We are pleased to announce the launch our Next Generation Sequencing panel for Solid tumours (Oncomine Focus assay). This has been done in an attempt to improve and streamline our molecular pathology testing offering. As opposed to testing for single gene...
Procalcitonin (PCT) is a 116 amino acid peptide precursor of calcitonin. In the absence of infection, it is produced at very low levels in a few highly selected tissues. However, at the onset of infection bacterial factors and host inflammatory cytokines...
Southern Africa has a very high background prevalence of HIV infection, making exposure risk both inside and outside the occupational setting high. The approach to occupational, sexual and other forms of exposure (bites, assaults, trauma, injecting drug...
Alternate or modified Westergren methods to measure erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) have been adopted by laboratories worldwide. These methods offer reduction in analysis time and improved operator safety. The iSED Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate...
Acute Viral Hepatitis is the most common cause of jaundice in pregnancy. HBV infection during pregnancy is usually mild, not associated with increased mortality or teratogenicity, and should not prompt consideration of termination. Acute HBV infection...
Pathcare Reference Laboratory has recently instituted a rapid blood culture ID technique where organisms from positive blood cultures can now be identified after about 4 hours from the time when the blood culture system flags the blood culture bottle as...
Although few gastrointestinal infections may require specific therapy, the quick and efficient detection of a causative agent of diarrhoea may limit unnecessary use of antimicrobials, reduce hospitalisation duration and also provide valuable information...