Contamination of breath methane samples in sterilized Vacutainer Tubes.

CLINICAL CHEMISTRY, Vol. 37, No. 11, 1991 2019 riod was also checked for CA-125 concentration, and only one (of >500) had an increased CA-125 concentration (60 arb. units/mL). The CA-125 concentrations of all other sera were always <35 arb. units/mL. The ovary or the uterus, the most likely source of CA-125 in adult women, shows little functional activity in prepuberal girls. Although this does not exclude a gonadal origin of the increased serum concentrations of this glycoprotein in some of the girls, we favor extragonadal mechanisms as the main determinants of the increase of serum CA-125 concentrations. This view is strengthened by the observation of above-normal CA125 concentrations in boys, where no relation between CA-125 serum concentrations and gonadal activity has ever been found (3). Although we were unable to identify a common cause for the increase of CA-125 in these children, there seemed to be an association with heart failures and cardiac diseases: 22.8% of these children exhibited CA-125 serum concentrations exceeding 65 arb. units/mL. Moreover, all of the patients with increased CA-125 concentrations were characterized by severe heart failures or had been connected to the heart-lung machine during heart surgery. That the increased CA-125 concentrations were not caused by an impaired liver metabolism (as a consequence of right heart failure, as one could argue) is indicated by the observation that only three of the 16 patients with above-normal concentrations of CA-125 had above-normal concentrations of liver enzymes. To understand the significance and the cause of the increase in CA-125 in serum, we propose further studies that concentrate on function and regulatory mechanisms for this glycoprotein.