Speaker #1:
Sally Ezra. Clinical Chemistry Fellow. Alberta Percision Laboratories and University of Calgary.
Sally Ezra, Ph.D., is currently a clinical chemistry fellow at Alberta Precision Laboratories and the University of Calgary. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Toronto, where she focused on studying the pathophysiological and molecular mechanisms of rare connective tissue disease-causing mutations. Following this, she was awarded an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship to complete her postdoctoral research at Western University, where she utilized mass spectrometry and multi-omics in the field of molecular immunology to develop cancer diagnostics and immunotherapies. Dr. Ezra is passionate about implementing testing algorithms to streamline laboratory processes, enhance diagnostic accuracy, and improve test utilization, reflecting her commitment to providing high-quality patient care and improving healthcare outcomes.
Overview:
Insulin-Like Growth factor 1IGF-1 is a key mediator of growth hormone actions. Accurate assessment of IGF-1 is crucial for diagnosis and monitoring of GH deficiency and acromegaly. Current immunoassays for IGF-1 are subject to a variety of interferences and pre-analytical sample handling issues, as well as having poor agreement between different platforms. LC-MS/MS assays provide an alternative platform not prone to most analytical interferences associated with immunoassays. We developed and validated a quantitative IGF-1 assay traceable to NIST reference standard 2926. As clinical interpretation of IGF-1 results are highly reliant on age-specific reference intervals, a reference interval transference study was conducted against the Mayo Clinic LC-MS/MS assay traceable to WHO reference standard.
Objectives:
At the end of this activity, participants will be able to:
- Describe the pathophysiology of Insulin Like Growth Factor 1 IGF-1
- Discuss the pitfalls in IGF-1 measurements
- Explain how the agreement between two LC-MS/MS assays with different traceability enables the transference of IGF-1 Reference interval
Speaker #2:
Janet Zhou. Clinical Biochemistry Fellow. University of Toronto.
Janet Zhou is a first year clinical biochemistry fellow at the University of Toronto. She completed her undergraduate training in the Medical Laboratory Science program at the University of Alberta and obtained certification from the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science in 2017. Then she completed her PhD at the University of Alberta in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology in 2022. She has also held positions as a medical laboratory technologist with Alberta Precision Laboratories at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton.
Overview:
Ebola Virus Disease is highly transmissible through blood and body fluids, which are common matrices for biochemistry testing in clinical laboratories. Therefore, potentially infectious specimens require sample manipulation prior to testing to ensure the safety of laboratory staff. Methods for viral inactivation of enveloped viruses such as Ebola include heating at 60°C and/or addition of 1% Triton X-100. In this presentation, we discuss the impact of viral inactivation on 32 commonly measured plasma and urine analytes.
Objectives:
At the end of this activity, participants will be able to:
- Describe Ebola Virus Disease
- Discuss inactivation techniques for enveloped viruses
- Describe the impact of viral inactivation on commonly measured biochemistry analytes