AIMS To establish a mechanism to examine the components of turnaround time in a representative cross-section of laboratory users; and to identify potential areas for improvement. METHODS Information was collected manually from result reports received by eight laboratory users: three wards in the main hospital, four GP practices, and one local psychiatric hospital. This was combined with data ...

BACKGROUND Altered matrix degradation contributes to fibrosis in some liver diseases but the role of matrix degradation in fibrogenesis associated with genetic haemochromatosis has not previously been addressed. AIMS To measure serum concentrations of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP-1) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP), MMP-1, MMP-2, and MMP-3 in patients with haemochromatosis...

BACKGROUND Chronically increased intestinal iron uptake in genetic hemochromatosis (HC) may cause organ failure. Whilst iron loading from blood transfusions may cause dilated cardiomyopathy in conditions such as thalassemia, the in-vivo prevalence of myocardial siderosis in HC is unclear, and its relation to left ventricular (LV) dysfunction is controversial. Most previous data on myocardial si...

We describe a family with autosomal dominant inheritance of increased body iron stores characterized by raised serum ferritin concentration and normal transferrin saturation. Liver biopsy showed iron deposition in Kupffer cells without fibrosis. The clinical features of HFE-related hemochromatosis were absent, as were the Cys282Tyr and His63Asp mutations. Venesection therapy was poorly tolerate...

Porphyria cutanea tarda (symptomatica) (PCT) is an acquired hepatic porphyria, usually caused, in susceptible people, by liver damage from a high ethanol intake. Clinically, patients have skin fragility, hypertrichosis, photosensitivity and hyperpigmentation, and biochemically there is a high urinary excretion of uroporphyrin, hepatic siderosis, abnormal iron metabolism (Turnbull, Baker, Vernon...