Clinical Case Study Submissions

Clinical Chemistry is proud to announce a change in the format for Case Reports. Beginning in 2008, a new section, Clinical Case Study, has been added to the Journal. This new section will include:

1. Comments from experts in the field will be solicited and published together with the case report.

2. The case and several questions about the case will be circulated to teaching institutions 3-4 weeks prior to publication in order to stimulate discussion and education.

Clinical case reports form a vital part of education and help develop problem-solving skills. They may include unusual biochemical manifestations of a disease, unusual presentation of a disease, situations where laboratory medicine is vital in making a diagnosis, or occasionally help in understanding the pathophysiology of a disease etc.

To submit a Clinical Case Study, go to submit.clinchem.org.

Specifications

Clinical Case Studies should be set out in a logical order, i.e. age, sex and occupation of the patient, presenting symptoms, any relevant family or social history, relevant clinical findings before a description of laboratory investigations. There should be an explanation of the differential diagnosis, final diagnosis, treatment, and progress. A short discussion of the pathophysiology should follow. For most case studies the authors will need access to the patient’s medical records to allow the full clinical picture to be presented. The case description should be no more than 500 words and the entire manuscript should be no greater than 1500 words. No abstract is required. The manuscript should have no more than two figures and/or tables total and no more than 10 references. Authors should submit the manuscript plus the names of 3 experts in the field that could provide commentary on the disease and the specific case. Authors should also include 3-5 brief questions regarding the case that would stimulate discussion and learning about the disease state. These will be circulated to educational centers before publication. At the end of the case the authors should provide up to 5 points to remember. The cases will be published with comments from one or more experts in the field.

To access and download all previous Clinical Case Studies online, go to http://www.aacc.org/resourcecenters/casestudies/.

Educational Centers

If you are associated with an educational center and would like to receive the cases and questions 3-4 weeks in advance of final publication, please email clinchem{at}aacc.org.