Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry
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Obstructive jaundice is an important clinical problem. It may cause transient hemolysis and shortened erythrocyte life span as well as cytokine induction. An increase in lipid peroxidation has been noted as evidence of oxidative damage in red cells due to cholestasis. The influence of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), mechanical lithotrepsy and stone extraction on the antioxidative capacity of the erythrocyte and immune response is still unclear. ⋯ In biliary obstruction, serum IL-18 is increased and antioxidative capacity is decreased, and have a direct correlation with biochemical markers of liver injury. After ERCP intervention, the altered antioxidative capacity as well as serum IL-18 was completely restored to normal.
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Clinical Trial
Monitoring of serum ionized magnesium in neurosurgical intensive care unit: preliminary results.
Our purpose was to determine the values for serum ionized magnesium (Mg) concentrations in traumatic brain injury and its effect on the prognostic scores of patients. ⋯ Based on this clinical preliminary study, traumatic brain injury is associated with graded deficit in serum ionized magnesium concentrations. Thus, measurement of serum ionized magnesium concentrations can be used as a clinical marker in traumatic brain injury.
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Acute coronary syndrome is a major cause of death, morbidity and access in emergency departments (ED). ⋯ Our data confirmed that the accurate utilization of POCT in the ED assumes an effective triage of patient with chest pain and the improvement of preanalytical phase out of the laboratory (delivery of specimens) and within the laboratory reception, centrifugation. However, efficiency must be linked to methodological and quality control of the Core Lab, mainly through connectivity.
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Comparative Study
Signify ER Drug Screen Test evaluation: comparison to Triage Drug of Abuse Panel plus tricyclic antidepressants.
Signify ER Drug Screen Test (Signify ER) and Triage Drug of Abuse Panel plus TCA (Triage DOA Panel) rapid drug screening devices were compared at four laboratories. Both assay systems are point of care immunoassays, measuring phencyclidine, barbiturates, amphetamine, cocaine metabolite, methamphetamine, tricyclic antidepressants, opiates, marijuana metabolite, and benzodiazepines in human urine. The performance of these two assay systems, including a cutoff verification and cross-reactivity using spiked urine specimens and accuracy using clinical urine samples, was investigated. ⋯ Eighty-seven structurally related drugs and metabolites were found to cross-react with at least one of the nine tests of the Signify ER. Four hundred forty structurally unrelated compounds that can be found in human urine were shown not to cross-react with the Signify ER. In terms of operating characteristics, the Signify ER device is simpler since only a single pipetting step is required, and reaction completed within 8 min.
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Adrenal function is commonly assessed by measuring plasma cortisol following synthetic ACTH (synacthen) challenge. Generally little regard is given to plasma levels of corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG). We have developed and validated an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for CBG and together with plasma cortisol calculated the "free cortisol index" as an additional parameter for assessing adrenal function. ⋯ We conclude that the measurement of both plasma CBG and total cortisol to derive the free cortisol index may provide an additional parameter in the interpretation of the short synacthen test and that there is a decline in plasma CBG over this test.