heart-foundation

Heart disease is the number 1 killer of Australian women – claiming 24 women’s lives a day – and is responsible for 1 in 8 premature deaths in women. Pathology has an important role in helping keep women’s hearts healthy.                

CIEReport

The 2018 Centre for International Economics report notes 25% of hospital admissions in Australia relate to chest pain, with 80% not requiring immediate attention. The troponin test can help clear busy Emergency Departments…

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With 70% of medical treatment decisions reliant on pathology testing, it’s integral to health, including heart disease. Whether it be troponin tests, Fabry disease, genetics or diabetes, every pathology test tells a story.

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With 1.2 million Australians suffering diabetes and a further 500,000 with undiagnosed diabetes it’s reaching epidemic proportions. One of the major effects of diabetes is an increase in heart disease…

Danse Macabre crop

In the Middle Ages life expectancy was short owing to shortages of food and medicine. Today ill health seems to spring from the phenomena of abundance. Is western health at the bottom of a nasty J Curve?

Troponin Story

Greville Knight, a 55 year-old South Australian firefighter, was the fittest he had ever been when he felt what he called a ‘dull pain in his arm’ at home one night. A heart attack was the last thing on his mind.

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A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and funded by the British Heart Foundation, shows the troponin test can predict a patient’s risk of heart disease and death.

Cholesterol

Cholesterol testing traditionally required patients to fast for 8 hours prior to having their blood taken. However, a new look at the effect of fasting on test results mean fasting for many may be a thing of the past. 

fabry disease

Fabry disease. You’d be forgiven for never having heard of it – there are currently only 300 Australians attending specialised Fabry clinics in Australia and awareness is low, even amongst some of the medical community.

Ken Sikaris speaking at a Pathology Awareness Australia event on diabetes at Parliament House

“Blood carries chemical information about what the cells of the body are up to. A good clinician can assess your health from the outside, while blood tests (and diagnostic imaging) tell us much more about the inside.”

IVF pathology

Science is experiencing a golden age in gene editing thanks to a new technology called CRISPR, credited with potential applications in everything from gene therapy and drug research to diagnosing viruses

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Most people have never seen inside a pathology laboratory but this month Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, and Member for Dunkley Chris Crewther MP, visited the laboratory at Frankston Hospital, Victoria.

mito-disease

They may be small but each mitochondria requires more than 1400 genes to create it. Mitochondrial disease (‘mito disease’ for short) is due to a fault in one or more of these genes.

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Cholesterol testing has traditionally required all patients to fast for eight hours prior to having their blood taken. However, a new look at the effect of fasting on test results means fasting for many may be a thing of the past.

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As director of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Associate Professor Nerina Harley manages the care of over 2,000 critically ill patients each year.

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A 2014 report from the Australian Institute of Health Welfare estimated that a third of Australians live outside the major cities and noted that mortality rates and rates of preventable hospitalisations increase with remoteness.

What do the most common pathology tests look for?

Over 500 million pathology tests were ordered for Australians in the last 12 months, covering a vast array of diseases and conditions from cholesterol checks to cancer diagnoses. But what are some of the most common pathology tests?

human-genome

The term overdiagnosis is not one most patients are familiar with and in medical circles is highly controversial. But what exactly is overdiagnosis and what should we do about it?