Transcription

• Elizabeth McMahon

  Tick bites on the rise. Why testing may not tell the full story. Plus, a portable machine called the Mini Dock gives new hope for faster, more accurate tuberculosis testing. This is the Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. It's Tuesday, May 5th. New data from the CDC shows that emergency room visits for tick bites are at their highest rates in nearly a decade. Tick bites typically spike in May, but not every bite results in infection. Ticks can carry germs that cause Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and alpha-gal syndrome. Dr. Bobbi Pritt, chair of the Division of Clinical Microbiology at Mayo Clinic, recently joined the Tick Boot Camp podcast to talk about diagnostics for tick-borne illness and testing after a suspected or confirmed bite. She says that if you're feeling unwell and have been in an area where ticks are prevalent, you should tell your doctor you've been exposed to tick bites.

• Dr. Bobbi Pritt

  That's a big thing right off the bat because people don't always think that. But if you're really savvy, then yeah, you could say, well, you could ask questions. What is your procedure for testing for tick-borne diseases? Would it be possible to order a broad panel for tick-borne pathogens.

• Elizabeth McMahon

  A new study led by Dr. Pritt in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology found that standard two-tier serologic testing for Lyme disease misses between 64 and 78 percent of cases in the earliest stages of infection.

• Dr. Bobbi Pritt

  The one area that I think there's a big gap is early diagnosis. We don't have a good test for that, and you're right. The serologic tests have, you know, early on for acute disease. it might miss half the cases. We do know though, that after that initial window, the serology, the indirect tests are actually pretty good in detecting. So by the time it's like week two, most people that have Lyme disease will have a positive result.

• Elizabeth McMahon

  Find the link to the full conversation in our show notes. You can also find Dr. Pritt's extensive Arthropod Benchtop Reference Guide with nearly 20 pages on ticks, for sale at the CAP homepage. From molecular tools to point-of-care innovations, diagnostics for many diseases have gotten faster, more accurate, and easier to deploy. One stubborn holdout has been tuberculosis tests, which rely on phlegm samples that are hard to get and hard to handle in the lab. Recently, a Chinese company called Plus Life introduced an alternative approach, a tongue swab. Their portable, battery-operated device called the Mini Dock MTB heats up samples, spins them down, and scans them for DNA from TB bacteria. Now, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine of nearly 1,400 patients with TB symptoms in Asia and Africa shows the MiniDock is more accurate than microscopy using both tongue and phlegm swabs. The test also met the World Health Organization's targets for accuracy, meaning I'm that many more people could have access to high-quality TB testing soon. There's plenty of binge-worthy content out there, but as a CAP member, you have a channel dedicated exclusively to your interests and area of expertise. CAP On Demand is about six months old and already has a large library of expert-led videos, including webinars and lectures to help your practice. Would you rather plug in for a podcast instead? CAP On Demand has those too, including a new podcast series called The Pathologist's Playbook, hosted by Dr. Aaron Auerbach. In a recent episode, Dr. Auerbach, Director of Education, Research, and Repository at the Joint Pathology Center, urged pathologists to think of good communication as a leadership skill.

• Dr. Aaron Auerbach

  Too often, We underestimate our own voices. Or worse, we stay silent. Leadership doesn't belong only to the loudest person in the room. It belongs to the clearest communicator. And in pathology, clarity is literally our job.

• Elizabeth McMahon

  The short podcast provides tips on communicating with colleagues in leadership, homing in on oral communication, an area where Dr. Auerbach says some colleagues feel less comfortable.

• Dr. Aaron Auerbach

  If we don't explain the value of pathology, then someone else will, and they may get it wrong. We need to speak for ourselves. So when we speak, we are advocating for patient care, advocating for our laboratories, and advocating for our people. We don't need to be the loudest voice, but we need to be the most prepared voice.

• Elizabeth McMahon

  Use your CAP login to access CAP On Demand, where you'll find both episodes of the Pathologist Playbook, along with hundreds of other videos to fit your professional interests. And finally, the CAP recently celebrated Lab Week, spotlighting the often unsung professionals who keep labs humming and results coming. Last week, the U.S. Army shared scenes of the life-saving work lab teams do at Fort Bragg, the largest military installation in the world. The photo spread takes you inside the Womack Army Medical Center, where the CAP-accredited pathology lab serves a population of around 200,000 active-duty service members and their families. Womack also houses one of 20 donor centers that make up the Armed Services Blood Program. Womack's lab technicians share their daily duties on the base, which includes serving members of the legendary 82nd Airborne Division. Find a link to the photos and story in our show notes. That does it for today's Daily Edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Got a story you'd like us to cover on the Daily Edition? Write to us at stories at cap.org. We're back at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of the Daily Edition. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. Have a great day.