Our results indicate that PCT and CRP are comparably good diagnostic markers of bacterial GE but that PCT is not useful as in monitoring disease activity in patients with IBD.
The modified and improved Performa test strips were not affected by maltose and xylose. They meet ISO 15197:2003 requirements with a slight bias (-0.5 mmol/L) compared to the laboratory method.
Clot activator serum tubes have significantly improved turnaround times for result reporting compared to plain tubes. With increasing workload and service performance expectations confronting clinical laboratories with high-volume testing and with particular emphasis on critical analytes, attention has focussed on preanalytical variables that can be improved. We carried out a field study on the test performance of BD vacutainer rapid serum tubes (RSTs) compared to current institutional issued BD vacutainer serum separator tubes (SSTs) in its test result comparability, clotting time, and stability on serum storage. Data from the study population (n = 160) of patients attending outpatient clinics and healthy subjects showed that results for renal, liver, lipids, cardiac, thyroid, and prostate biochemical markers were comparable between RSTs and SSTs. Clotting times of the RSTs were verified to be quick with a median time of 2.05 min. Analyte stability on serum storage at 4°C showed no statistically significant deterioration except for bicarbonate, electrolytes, and albumin over a period of 4 days. In conclusion, RSTs offered savings in the time required for the clotting process of serum specimens. This should translate to further trimming of the whole process from blood collection to result reporting without too much sacrifice on test accuracy and performance compared to the current widely used SSTs in most clinical laboratories.
Letters tion (ADA) recommends that screening be confined to individuals with more than one risk factor for diabetes (4). The ADA Diabetes Risk Test (5) is a tool that is used to educate people about diabetes and encourage individuals at "high risk" of diabetes to seek further diagnostic testing.Two research groups have recently investigated the usefulness of the ADA Diabetes Risk Test and the ADA Diabetes Screening Position Statement. Using the Risk Test, Burden and Burden (6) found poor test sensitivity (46%) and specificity (59.5%) in England. In a U.S. Study (7), 8.3% of participants without risk factors were found to have abnormal screening glucose tests, and 9.2% of those with more than one risk factor were found to have abnormal screening glucose tests (NS).As part of a diabetes education and intervention project, we used the ADA Risk Test as an initial screening tool for finding individuals with undiagnosed diabetes. A revised version of the ADA Diabetes Risk Test was sent to all households occupied by individuals >60 years of age in the Everett, WA, area. These individuals were asked to complete and return the test. Test results were scored using the ADA Diabetes Risk Test scoring guidelines (5). All individuals in the high risk category were asked to have their fasting plasma glucose (FPG) tested. All FPG tests were done through our laboratory using the hexokinase-ultraviolet method. Individuals with FPG levels >6.38 mmol/1 were advised to visit their physicians for further diagnostic testing.We received 349 completed returns (return rate 4.7%). One hundred and eighty-one Risk Tests were classified as high risk by ADA criteria. One hundred and ten (61%) of those people with high risk test scores had FPG testing. Eleven of these people (10%) had FPG tests that exceeded 6.38 mmol/1. Of these 11,7 had FPG levels >7.77 mmol/1. Six new cases of diabetes were diagnosed.Results from individuals with known diabetes were eliminated from data analysis. We compared revised ADA Diabetes Risk Test total scores with FPG values using ^ and Fisher's exact tests.The revised ADA Diabetes Risk Test total scores were not significantly related to FPG results (P = 0.961). The ADA Diabetes Risk Test positive predictive value was 9.8% when an FPG level of 6.38 mmol/1 was used and 6.3% when a FPG level oil.11 mmol/1 was used.The revised ADA Diabetes Risk Test did not prove to be a useful instrument for detecting undiagnosed diabetes in our population of older, primarily Caucasian individuals.We recommend that ADA convert the ADA Diabetes Risk Test to an educational tool that lists common symptoms of diabetes and supports work to analyze the predictive value of various diabetes risk factors with an emphasis on changes that occur with aging and with relative occurrence of each risk factor.
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