Annals of Clinical Biochemistry

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: There is limited published data on the stability of calcitonin, chromogranin A, thyroglobulin and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies in serum. The aim of this study was to determine stability at three temperature conditions over 7 days, reflecting current laboratory practices. METHODS: Surplus serum was stored at room temperature, refrigerated and in the freezer; for 1, 3, 5 and 7 days. Samples were analysed in batch and analyte concentrations compared to that of a baseline sample...

INTRODUCTION: Triage of patients with suspected colorectal cancer (CRC) utilises a single faecal immunochemical test (FIT) at a defined threshold. Limited evidence exists regarding whether replicate FIT improves the positive and negative predictive value in symptomatic patients. This study examines urgently referred symptomatic patients undergoing replicate FIT. Primary aim is to assess two FITs and CRC/serious bowel disease. Secondary aims are to determine correlation and utility of replicate FIT...

Selecting appropriate laboratory tests based on available evidence is central to improve clinical effectiveness and impacting on patient outcome. Although long studied, there is no mutual agreement upon pleural fluid (PF) management in the laboratory context. Given the experienced confusion about the real contribution of laboratory investigations to guide clinical interpretation, in this update, we tried to identify useful tests for the PF analysis, aiming to unravel critical points and to define a common line in requesting modalities and practical management...

AIMS: To explore differences in BNP concentration and stability and evaluate BNP accuracy in different collection tubes. METHODS: BNP concentrations in heparin/glass, EDTA/glass, and EDTA/ PET tubes were measured on the Mindray CL-6000i at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 h after collection. Differences were evaluated using Wilcoxon's paired tests and Bland-Altman plots. BNP stability and measurement accuracies were estimated using Kruskal-Wallis H tests and recovery tests. RESULTS: BNP concentrations in EDTA/glass tubes were 31...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Background Pregnancy is a risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE) due to increased coagulation factor activity and decreased protein S activity. However, thrombosis markers for predicting VTE in pregnancy remain controversial. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between VTE risk and thrombosis markers in pregnant women and to identify markers related to VTE risk. Methods Archived plasma samples from 107 pregnant women were used in this study, and the concentrations of D-dimer, fibrin monomer complex (FMC), plasmin-plasmin inhibitor complex, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, and fibrinogen were measured...

Background The Dutch guideline algorithm for the analysis of anaemia in patients of general practitioners (GPs) was programmed in a Clinical Decision Support system (CDS-anaemia) to support the process of diagnosing the cause of anaemia in the laboratory. This study investigates the diagnostic yield of the automated anaemia algorithm compared to that of the manual work up by the general practitioner. Methods This retrospective population-based study consisted of 2697 people ≥18 years. Anaemia was defined according to the Dutch College of General Practitioners (DCGP) guideline...

BACKGROUND: Exposing blood serum samples to ambient white light-emitting diode (WLED) light may accelerate bilirubin photoisomer production. We previously demonstrated the quantitative effect of bilirubin configurational isomers (BCI) on direct bilirubin (DB) value using the vanadate oxidation method. However, the effects of bilirubin structural photoisomers (BSI) remain unclear. METHODS: In Study 1, the relationship between WLED irradiation time and BSI production was examined...

BACKGROUND: Sapropterin has been approved as a treatment option for individuals with Phenylketonuria in the United Kingdom. Individuals are assessed as responsive to Sapropterin by a ≥30% reduction in Phenylalanine (Phe) concentrations using dried blood spot (DBS) specimens. DBS quality is critical for accurate and precise measurement of Phe. Currently, UK national guidelines for DBS specimen acceptance do not exist for patient-collected DBS specimens. We adopted evidence-based guidelines for specimen acceptance criteria and retrospectively assessed the impact of introducing these guidelines on specimen rejection rates...

BACKGROUND: The iron-regulatory hormone hepcidin is a promising biomarker to differentiate anemia of inflammation from iron deficiency. Plasma hepcidin concentrations increase substantially during inflammation, and the amount of smaller, non-biologically active isoforms of hepcidin increase in inflammatory conditions. These smaller isoforms are measured in some, but not all analytical methods. Thus, we evaluated the comparability of two analytical methods with different isoform selectivity during and after acute-phase pneumonia as a highly inflammatory model disease...

BACKGROUND: Recalibration using serum pools assigned by higher-order reference methods had been demonstrated to be effective in improving the agreement among insulin immunoassays. To promote the application of serum pools in insulin harmonization, this study analyzed serum pools' commutability between insulin immunoassays, and their short- and long-term stability at different temperatures. The agreement between commonly used immunoassays was also evaluated. METHODS: Insulin in 69 individual serum samples, 10 serum pools, and three EQA samples (Lyophilized powder of serum pools) were detected by 6 widely used immunoassays...

OBJECTIVE: Unique clinical courses were observed in two asymptomatic patients receiving warfarin who referred to our hospital because of suspected central hyperthyroidism. We eventually diagnosed these patients with falsely elevated thyroid hormone levels caused by macroscopically invisible fibrin. Although false results caused by fibrin interference in vitro have been identified in various immunoassays, especially in blood samples from patients receiving anticoagulant therapy, no studies on thyroid function testing have been reported...

Factors associated with interindividual variability in the pharmacokinetics of micafungin have been identified. This variability can cause underexposure and loss of drug efficacy. For this reason, a simple, fast, cost-effective and sensitive ultra-performance liquid chromatography ultraviolet detector (UPLC-UV) method was developed and validated for the quantification of micafungin. The method involves simple plasma precipitation by UPLC with a reversed phase C18 column at 40ºC coupled with ultraviolet detection set at a wavelength of 264 nm...

BACKGROUND: Faecal calprotectin has been identified as a useful biochemical marker in the differentiation of inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Typically, patients send faecal specimens in a pot for manual extraction by the laboratory. During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) pandemic, the routine laboratory service was temporarily suspended due to the potential increased risk to staff. In this study we investigated the possibility of patients collecting samples directly in to the faecal extraction tubes...

BACKGROUND: Lactose intolerance is defined as the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms, such as bloating, abdominal pain or diarrhoea, after consumption of lactose in individuals with lactose malabsorption. Most cases involve primary lactose intolerance, caused by a loss of activity of the enzyme lactase, needed for digestion of lactose. A traditional method of establishing lactose intolerance is the hydrogen breath test (HBT), accompanied by a questionnaire to document complaints experienced by the patient during the test...

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 has led to a significant increase in demand for remote blood sampling in clinical trials. This study aims to ascertain the concordance between venous versus capillary samples, processed immediately or exposed to various pre-analytical conditions. METHODS: Participants (≥12 years old) provided a venous blood sample (processed immediately) and capillary samples, allocated to one of the following conditions: processed immediately or exposed to 12-, 24-, or 36-hour delays at room temperature or 36-hour delays with a freeze-thaw cycle...

AIM: A digital rectal examination (DRE) during routine assessment for patients with abdominal symptoms provides an opportunity to obtain faeces from the glove for faecal immunochemical testing (FIT). Here, we compared sampling via DRE to the standard faecal sampling by patients. METHOD: Patients were recruited to a prospective observational cohort study between July 2019 and March 2020. Patients provided a sample for the FOB Gold Wide® which was compared to a further sample taken at clinic via DRE...

BACKGROUND: Measurement of antithyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) is important in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) with total thyroidectomy. These patients are monitored based on serum thyroglobulin (Tg) levels. TgAb is known to interfere with the measurement of Tg by immunoassay. This study evaluates a new methodology for the measurement of TgAb Alinity Abbott® and the cconcordance with other methods (first and second generation Advia Centaur Systems Siemens® and Phadia 250 Thermofisher®)...