Samuel J. Pirruccello, MD

Department Affiliations
Professor
Medical Director, Rapid Response and Specialty Laboratories
Medical Director, Laboratory Information Systems
Medical Director, Lab CLIA Director and Decentralized Testing, Bellevue Medical Center

Interests
Flow Cytometry, Clinical Chemistry, Coagulation, Laboratory Information Systems, Outreach and Marketing

My clinical research efforts have focused on development of a new technique of flow cytometric data analysis. The approach is termed "antigen mapping" and utilizes antigen defined cell distribution patterns to facilitate diagnosis of myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative disorders. Conventional flow cytometric data analysis is cumbersome and inefficient when evaluating the multiple cell populations and cell lineages required for assessment of myeloid disorders. This becomes especially true as one moves to more sophisticated instrumentation capable of analyzing 5-6 color antibody cocktails. The antigen mapping approach creates higher complexity antigen maps that yield themselves well to pattern recognition. We utilized the analysis technique to characterize recurring phenotypic abnormalities in a series of 28 MDS cases. The types and number of phenotypic changes we identified were highly correlated with MDS grade, IPSS scores and IPSS risk groups.

Clinical flow cytometry is my main area of clinical expertise. We are well established as a regional flow cytometry service and perform close to 4,000 analyses/year for diagnosis or remission assessment in leukemia, lymphoma, myelodysplasia and myeloma. Approximately 2/3 of that testing is provided to pathologists or hematologists/oncologists practicing outside of The Nebraska Medical Center network.

I also serve as Medical Director for the Rapid Response and Specialty Laboratories, the Laboratory Information Services group and for Regional Pathology Services.  My duties include medical oversight of all aspects of clinical chemistry, hematology and coagulation. The Laboratory Information Systems group consists of five analysts with maintenance and oversight of the clinical and anatomic pathology data management systems. Regional Pathology Services is our laboratory outreach program and is managed by the Department of Pathology and Microbiology.  RPS services a four state region and provides access to state of the art testing services available at the Nebraska Medical Center.  Outreach laboratory testing volume comprises approximately 25% of total lab volume.

Education and Training
BA (Honors) University of Nebraska at Lincoln, 1978
MD (Honors) University of Nebraska Medical Center, 1982
Residency, Clinical Pathology, University of Minnesota, 1986
Fellowship, Immunopathology, University of Minnesota, 1987
Board Certified, Clinical Pathology, 1987

Teaching Activities
Medical Students; Senior Selective, Immunology laboratory, Small group discussion
Medical Technology Students; Lectures on clinical chemistry
Clinical Pathology; Flow cytometry, hematology, coagulation and clinical chemistry

For a list of publications, click here.