Clinical Pathology Laboratories

57357 Clinical Pathology laboratory is keen on continuously upgrading all lab services to be comparable to the worldwide diagnostics. This is an important step in achieving highest patients’ cure rate:

• Hematology & Coagulation, Chemistry, Serology Units
  • The introduction of a complete lab automation system connecting all instruments for efficient and effective reporting of test results. This system greatly eliminates errors, decreases test turnaround time, and decreases reagent costs.
  • Also, the hematology atlas will be published for use by all residents, fellows, trainees, medical doctors, and master and doctoral students from outside the hospital. It is sold for a nominal fee for the benefit of the hospital.

• Microbiology Unit
  • The microbiology lab accepts diverse patient specimen types (e.g., Blood culture, stool samples, respiratory secretions, urine samples, surgical materials, etc.) for all microbiology panels: aerobic, anaerobic, mycobacteria, and fungal cultures & smears. The availability of 24/7 service and timely reporting significantly improved turnaround time. This was of great value in reducing the time needed to initiate optimal therapies and patient care.
  • The lab recently implemented an identifying method, MALDI-TOF, with more than 5000 strains in the database. Also, rapid diagnosis of specific antibiotic resistance patterns (KPC, NDM, VIM, IMP-1, and OXA-48 in 48 minutes ) directly from blood cultures was applied using full automated multiplex PCR tools( Xpert Carba-R test & BioFire BCID2 Panel).
  • The routine ZN staining and mycobacteria culture. The QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) was also recently applied, commonly known as an IGRA, and is a modern alternative to the tuberculin skin test.
  • Diagnosis of infectious causes of diarrhea was added by Xpert C. difficile toxin detection in 45 Minutes; it includes. difficile binary toxin (CDT) and toxin A/B and differentiate C. difficile presumptive 027/NAP1/BI.

• Virology Unit
  • Acquaintance with quality procedures for tracking samples and results for best performance, including sharing Helix upgrade for molecular virology tests and proficiency test program from CAP.
  • Newly introduced molecular tests, real-time PCR for common and emerging viruses; CMV, EBV, BK virus real-time, BioFire FilmArray panels, Meningitis, Respiratory & Pneumonia, and Measles real-time PCR.
  • Testing Panel for SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19), including SARS CoV-2 real-time PCR and SARS CoV-2 antigen test.
  • Introduction of Euro-line fully automated blotting instrument for testing food allergy panels and Food intolerance panels for 216 different food types.

• Flow Cytometer Unit
  • We have updated work by adding to the already present 6 colors flow cytometer from Coulter, one 10 color from BD, and one 10-color instrument from Coulter to cope with the increased workload.
  • The workload includes immunophenotyping and DNA analysis for Leukemia and Lymphoma, CD34 counting and donor lymphocyte for bone marrow transplantation, Lymphocyte subsets and detection of immunodeficiency, Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH), body fluid like ( CSF and pleural fluid) infiltration by malignant cells, MRD detection of acute leukemia with high sensitivity & specificity.

• Cytogenetics Unit
  • The Cytogenetics Lab offers an analysis and clinical interpretation service on a wide spectrum of diagnostic tests for patients with hematological malignancies using conventional karyotype, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and next-generation sequencing (NGS).
  • We also provide genomic testing for hereditary predisposition to cancer and constitutional rare diseases.
  • We commit to high-quality standards by being an accredited lab by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and participating in relevant external quality assessment programs.

• Molecular Biology & Tissue Typing Units
  • Introduced Molecular Genetic profiling of AML and myeloid neoplasms by next-generation sequencing from Illumina.
  • FLT3 Internal Tandem Duplication (ITD).
  • WT1 gene expression in AML.
  • Genetic profiling of JMML.
  • MRD for acute leukemia.
  • MRD in CML according to the international scale (by a nearly automated system).
  • HLA Typing by Luminex.
  • Monitoring engraftment by short tandem repeats (STRs).
  • Anti-HLA antibody tests (PRA and Single Antigen Tests).