Although ELF score ≥9.8 reliably identifies advanced fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease, both age and inflammatory activity need to be considered when interpreting the result. Importantly, ELF score performed well in the presence of steatosis and could thus be helpful in the assessment of fatty liver disease.

This new hs-TnI assay is able to measure to an order of magnitude lower than the current generation TnI assay from the same manufacturer. With TnI being detectable in nearly all apparently healthy subject samples this suggests that TnI presence does not always indicate cardiomyocyte necrosis.

Background: The clinical utility of serum k and l free light chains (FLC) for the diagnosis and prognosis of plasma cell proliferative disorders is well established. We assessed the analytical performance of the N Latex FLC assays and compared it with the Freelite TM assays.

Background Troponin T is present in the blood of a majority of patients with endstage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing regular dialysis and presence of troponin T is a predictor of adverse outcome in these patients. With several new formulations of troponin I assays available, this study was performed to see whether these newer assays were able to detect troponin I in these patients more effectively than the older assays.

No abstract

Background: We compared a novel assay for free light chain (FLC) quantitation based on monoclonal antibodies (N-Latex, Siemens, Germany) to the established polyclonal antibody-based assay (Freelite

Our findings support the use of the free light chain assay in the diagnostic work-up of patients with suspected AL amyloidosis, and also as a sensitive biomarker of response to therapy.

Two techniques were used to seek variants of human erythrocyte transketolase and to test for any association of the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a thiamin-deficiency disease, with a particular variant of this thiamin-dependent enzyme. Apparent Km values for the cofactor thiamin diphosphate were similar for patients and controls. However, isoelectric focussing separated erythrocyte transketolase into different isoenzymes characterized by pI values in the range 6.6-9.2. Six distinct patterns of isoenzymes were found in thirty-six healthy control subjects. The isoenzyme pattern for thirty-nine out of forty-two patients suffering from the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome was identical to a pattern found in only eight of thirty-six control subjects, a highly significant association (P less than 0.001). This association suggests that a variant transketolase and thiamin deficiency together contribute to the pathogenesis of the brain damage of the Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome by some mechanism independent of apparent Km values for thiamin diphosphate.