In several medical journals patients’ case reports are often communicated by clinical images accompanied by a short comment, updating the recent knowledge and literature of the presented subject.

Pathological results from the clinical diagnostic laboratory are usually reported as numeric results and/or short commentaries. Images such as histo- or diagrams and blots are relatively common, whereas colour changes, inclusions such as cristalls, malformated granules, cellular changes in shape and size or unusual cellular inclusions, visualisation of genetic tests such as FISH and other examples of improved diagnostic techniques are also worth to be published.

In this issue of the Journal of Laboratory Medicine we start with an impressive illustration of clarithromycin-induced crystalluria with needle-shaped crystals after a single intravenous dose of clarithromycin.

Image information are eye-catching and generate receptive attention: it therefore has great educational potential. It creates a kind of cognitive shortcut, as visual information is processed directly and more quickly by the brain.

Therefore, we decided to introduce this new category of short communications illustrating rare laboratory findings, to encourage our readers to submit own images complemented by a short comment.

Prof. Dr. med. Peter Schuff-Werner, Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Ralf Lichtinghagen

Editors-in-Chief Journal of Laboratory Medicine

Aus der Zeitschrift Journal of Laboratory Medicine

https://doi.org/10.1515/labmed-2024-0188

Published Online: 2025-01-17

© 2024 the author(s), published by De Gruyter, Berlin/Boston

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.