Meera Sridharan, M.D., Ph.D., explains Mayo Clinic Laboratories' approach to testing for atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS), a type of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) caused by the abnormal activation of the complement cascade. The serological profile examines nine analytes for a comprehensive understanding of the three different complement cascade pathways. This allows physicians to exclude other possible complement abnormalities and isolate the specific pathway problem in support of a clinical diagnosis, which has approved therapies.
Show Notes
Before we get started, I'm really interested, could you give me a little bit of background on yourself and, uh, just where you work at Mayo Clinic?
So before we start talking about the tests, can you just tell me a little bit about TMA and in that disease state itself?
As we talk very specifically about this testing, so can you give me a brief overview of the assays we're using here at Mayo clinic to diagnose this disease state?
So this testing is really comprehensive and that it covers what you said, classic and alternative, correct? And that it's kind of making sure that anything that's outside of the norm, we're picking up in that one comprehensive test so you're not having to kind of pick through bits and pieces with a bunch of single individual tests. Am I correct and understand kind of how you brought that up?
As you get those results back, how does that affect how you treat a patient? What are the treatments for them as, as you go through this, once you've made that decision?
So there's a lot of movement in this space that is really probably driving the need for a lot of understanding this complement testing and seeing that full clinical picture, because you have to know you now have different therapies to choose from?