Analysis of Body Fluids in Clinical Chemistry (C49-A); Toxicology and Drug Testing in the Clinical Laboratory (C52-A2); Clinical Flow Cytometric Analysis of Neoplastic Hematolymphoid Cells (H43-A2); Molecular Methods for Bacterial Strain Typing (MM11-A)

CLSI Publishes New Guideline for Analysis of Body Fluids
Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA—May 2007—Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, formerly NCCLS) has recently published an approved-level document, Analysis of Body Fluids in Clinical Chemistry; Approved Guideline (C49-A). This document provides guidance for clinical diagnostic laboratories to apply widely available measurement procedures to body fluids, as well as for reporting and interpreting those results.
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CLSI Publishes Guideline for Toxicology and Drug Testing in the Clinical Laboratory
Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA—May 2007—Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, formerly NCCLS) recently published a new edition of its document, Toxicology and Drug Testing in the Clinical Laboratory; Approved Guideline—Second Edition (C52-A2). It is designed to aid the clinical laboratorian in developing procedures for the efficient and reliable analysis of clinical and forensic specimens to qualitatively and/or quantitatively determine the presence of drugs of abuse and other commonly encountered drugs. This guideline addresses forensic drug testing applications, such as workplace, criminal justice system, and rehabilitation settings, and clinical drug testing as typically undertaken for the diagnosis and treatment of emergency room patients. Its primary objective is to ensure that high quality standards are maintained within both of these important areas of clinical laboratory analysis.
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CLSI Establishes Performance Guidelines for Clinical Flow Cytometric Analysis of Neoplastic Hematolymphoid Cells
Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA—May 2007—The importance of immunophenotyping for the proper diagnosis and management of patients with hematolymphoid neoplasia necessitates the development of guidelines for the appropriate performance of these techniques in the clinical laboratory. The newly published edition of Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute’s (CLSI, formerly NCCLS) document, Clinical Flow Cytometric Analysis of Neoplastic Hematolymphoid Cells; Approved Guideline—Second Edition (H43-A2), addresses issues of safety, specimen collection and transportation, sample preparation, immunofluorescent staining, instrument quality control, data acquisition, and data storage for the application of flow cytometry to the immunophenotypic analysis of these disorders.
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CLSI Publishes Approved Guideline for Bacterial Strain Typing
Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA—May 2007—Molecular strain typing has become an essential tool for the analysis of bacterial pathogens obtained during investigations of epidemiologic outbreaks, laboratory contamination, and recurrent infection. Similarly, the results of bacterial strain typing are now used in many different contexts, including clinical care settings; public health investigations, particularly of emerging infections; the food and pharmaceutical industries; and environmental analyses. A wide variety of strain typing methods have been described using contemporary DNA-based technologies. However, developing methods and generating data have proven easier than defining robust approaches for interpreting the results.

In response to this need, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI, formerly NCCLS) recently published a new, approved document, Molecular Methods for Bacterial Strain Typing; Approved Guideline (MM11-A), which examines the biology behind molecular strain typing and the process of characterizing and validating typing systems. This document provides the much-needed framework to facilitate consistency in reporting bacterial strain typing and to assist both laboratories performing these studies and professionals applying the results.
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