Clinical biochemistry
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Clinical biochemistry · May 2008
Comparative StudyCystatin C could be a replacement to serum creatinine for diagnosing and monitoring kidney function in children.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is accepted as the best way to diagnose and monitor kidney function. Plasma Cystatin C (CysC) has been proposed as a better marker of GFR than serum creatinine (SCr), but it is not widely used because of some drawbacks with CysC assays. Our purpose is to determine the diagnostic accuracy of CysC and SCr for GFR estimation in children, using 99Tc-DTPA clearance (Cl(Tc)) as the reference standard. We also discuss some of the economic implications of these tests, in order to guide clinicians when to use CysC or SCr for the diagnosis or monitoring of CKD. ⋯ CysC is a very interesting option, and could be a replacement to serum creatinine for diagnosing and possibly for monitoring kidney function in children.
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Clinical biochemistry · Mar 2008
ReviewDiagnostic accuracy of BNP and NT-proBNP in patients presenting to acute care settings with dyspnea: a systematic review.
We sought to compare the diagnostic performance of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal proBNP measurements in patients presenting to acute care settings with dyspnea, a common presenting symptom of heart failure. ⋯ BNP and NT-proBNP have very similar diagnostic performance characteristics and can be used to rule out heart failure as a cause of dyspnea in the acute clinical setting. However, there is no easily identifiable optimum cut point value for each peptide.
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Clinical biochemistry · Dec 2006
Procalcitonin in the diagnosis of inflammation in intensive care units.
To assess the effectiveness of different procalcitonin cutoff values to distinguish non-infected (negative+SIRS) from infected (sepsis+severe sepsis+septic shock) medical and surgical patients. ⋯ This study highlights the need of different PCT cutoff values in medical and surgical critically ill patients, not only at the ICU admission but also in the entire ICU stay.
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Clinical biochemistry · Jul 2006
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative StudyDiagnostic and prognostic role of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) measured on the DPC Immulite.
To evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic role of the Immulite cTnI assay for the detection of acute coronary syndromes (ACS). ⋯ The Immulite cTnI assay can be used for diagnosis and risk stratification in patients admitted with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndromes.
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Clinical biochemistry · Jul 2006
Comparative StudyA single serum test for measuring early pregnancy outcome with high predictive value.
Current testing to determine a failing pregnancy requires two separate clinic visits to measure the hCG doubling rate. Diagnosing a failing pregnancy is often done in emergency departments where simplified and accelerated testing methods are needed. Here, we investigated hyperglycosylated hCG (hCG-H) for predicting pregnancy failure. ⋯ Our data indicate that hCG-H provides a much more accurate single test than hCG for assessing pregnancy outcome. Compatible with the use of serum or urine samples, a single hCG-H test might provide simpler, faster, and more accurate results for predicting the progress of a pregnancy than standard hCG testing.