SummaryOur aim was to compare the performance of the Sahli and Colour Scale methods in diagnosing anaemia in school children, where the prevalence of anaemia is low and the haemoglobin level ranges from mild to moderate (8-11 g/dl). The study was conducted in February 2001, in Qena Governorate, Upper Egypt. The haemoglobin level measured by the two methods in each child were compared with the result obtained by using a portable haemoglobin photometer ÔHemoCueÕ. A total of 149 school children were included in the study. Using HemoCue, 17.4% children were anaemic; using the Sahli method (SM), 66.4% children were anaemic; and using the Haemoglobin Colour Scale (HCS) method, 57.7% children were anaemic. Neither method detected any cases of severe anaemia (Hb < 7 g/dl). Both the Sahli and Colour Scale methods are sensitive but have low specificity, giving a high rate of false positive results. Both methods perform perform very similarly in haemoglobin measurement; they fulfil many of the criteria for their use at primary health care level and detect almost all cases of anaemia in a given population, even if the level of anaemia is mild. Standards for collection, handling and disposal of blood samples are guaranteed more easily by the HCS than the SM. Moreover, lay people can easily manage the HCS with success after brief training. We suggest to gradually replace the SM by the HCS method in primary health care (PHC) centres. Where anaemia levels are moderate to mild, the use of SM and HCS as tools to define anaemia prevalence might be limited, as they often label healthy individuals as anaemic. Both methods remain a useful diagnostic tool to confirm the diagnosis of clinically suspected anaemia in areas where the prevalence of anaemia is low and the haemoglobin level ranges from mild to moderate.keywords haemoglobin measurement, Haemoglobin Colour Scale method, Sahli method, Egypt

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Chitin, which is the second most abundant biopolymer next to cellulose, and can be extracted commercially from the shells of crustacean (such as crabs, shrimps, prawns, krill), insects, fungi, and yeast. It can be converted into chitosan by partially deacetylation process. chitosan, has unique and distinctive features like, biodegradability, nontoxicity, high reactivity, excellent chelation behavior due to the presence of amine and hydroxyl functional groups which show high adsorption potential for various aquatic pollutions, and low cost in comparison with other adsorbents. Chitosan was successfully produced in the laboratory from shell waste. The yield was about 42.34 gm dry chitosan with ratio of 15.3% from the dry shells. The produced chitosan has good solubility in 1% acetic acid solution, it achieved up to 96.3%. It has % D.D.A. with value of 63% to 80%. However, it has good performance in removal of metals from industrial wastewater, it is not recommended to use it in the raw form due to presence of undesirable characters; such as low mechanical strength, swelling, and solubility in acidic media. chitosan/Activated carbon composite overcome these undesirable features in chitosan and gave good performance in the remediation of wastewater.

Breast cancer is the commonest malignancy of women in many parts of the world and comprises 18% of all female cancers. There is one million new cases in the world each year. Neopterin which is a pteridine produced by activation of monocytes by IFN-γ may be used as a marker of immune system activation. The biological function of neopterin is still largely unknown and certain pathophysiologic roles have only recently been elucidated. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate the role of neopterin in females with primary and metastatic breast cancer. The obtained results were correlated with different clinicopathological data of those patients. The study population included females with primary and metastatic breast cancer as well as healthy age matched females were taken as a control group. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated from each subject under study by Ficoll-Hypaque density gradient centrifugation technique. The isolated cells were cultured with and without PHA and neopterin levels were measured in serum and culture supernatants by ELISA technique. The results showed that neopterin levels were lowest in serum, followed by culture supernatants without PHA and highest in culture supernatants with PHA in each studied group. The mean neopterin values in serum and culture supernatants with PHA of metastatic breast cancer patients were significantly higher than in the primary breast cancer patients and the control group. Our results also indicated that neopterin levels positively correlated with the tumor grade, tumor stage and the presence of metastasis. From all mentioned data it is clear that, measurement of neopterin either in serum or in culture supernatants with or without PHA can give an indication about immunological status of breast cancer patients' response to therapy and early detection of metastasis. It gives an important and valuable prognostic information before surgical intervention is performed.