Multiple patient samples of an analyte improve detection of changes in clinical status
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 - 12:07
in Health & Medicine
Clinicians rely on laboratory tests to monitor the progression or remission of disease, or to identify pathologic alterations in physiology that may precede clinical events. Monitoring quantitative laboratory results represents a crucial component in the assessment of response to therapy. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have developed a mathematical methodology to reduce the effect of biologic variation on the difference necessary to detect changes in clinical status. The findings, which appear in the January issue of Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, may lead to better patient predictions at a lower cost.