When collecting blood for amino acid testing, leaving plasma in contact with cells at room temperature lowers the concentration of arginine and raises that of ornithine. This is presumably due to the arginase content of red blood cells. In contrast, the sum of arginine and ornithine is constant over the first hour, and defines a reference interval of 74-148 mumol/L (mean +/- 2 SD, n = 20) which...

Reference ranges for -amylase in serum, spontaneously voided urine, and 24h urine were determined, using 4,6-ethylidene-(G7)-l-4-nitrophenyl-(Gl)-a,£)-malthoheptaoside äs the Substrate (EPS method), at 25, 30, and 37 °C. The measured values were evaluated with and without the use of a factor which converts the results of the -amylase EPS method into values comparable to those obtained with the ...

Macroprolactin (MaPRL) - a complex of monomeric prolactin (PRL) with immunoglobulin G, may be a cause of laboratory diagnosed hyperprolactinaemia. To quantify MaPRL, a precipitation with polyethylene glycol may be performed. This method involves calculating of recovery ratio but the cut-off value is not precisely determined. Moreover, it is proposed that the assessment of macroprolactinaemia sh...

Yarn quality is judged according to the achieved values of tested yarn properties that are selected in dependence on yarn utilization. Quality level of the yarns can be assessed using the USTER® STATISTICS [2]. This tool is composed of graphs enabling users to compare their measured results of yarn (sliver, roving, fiber) with the corresponding worldwide established fibrous product quality refe...

n k − is the rate of constitutive degradation of lateral signaling. Lateral signaling is mediated by complexes of LIN-12-cyto with LAG-1 transcription factor. Silencing of lateral signaling occurs due to proteosomal degradation of LIN-12-cyto [1]. The mean half-life of proteins susceptible to proteolysis has been measured to be approximately 43 minutes [2]. Therefore, the reference value of par...

The determination of adjustment method of urinary mercury in spot urine is one of the important issues in assessing the health risks of mercury workers. But there have been debates about whether creatinine or other forms of correction for urinary concentration are better in reducing the variation of urinary mercury. We evaluated four adjustment methods-specific gravity, creatinine, log creatini...

BACKGROUND Insufficient function of the thyroid gland can cause low concentrations of thyroid gland hormones which are necessary for the proper development of the foetus brain, especially during the beginning of pregnancy. We determined the reference interval for TSH in the first trimester of pregnancy and the decision point for anti-TPO antibodies' positivity. METHODS We tested 5520 women fr...

BACKGROUND Clinical vital signs in children (temperature, heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure) are an integral part of clinical assessment of degree of illness or normality. Despite this, only blood pressure and temperature have a reliable evidence base. The accepted ranges of heart and respiration rate vary widely. METHODS This study examined 1109 children aged 4-16 years in the...

Providing normal reference values and the means to interpret such values in practice is an urgent issue requiring consensus. Five basic approaches to defining normalcy for 24 h blood pressures (BP) are considered: 1) the relationship of ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) to morbidity and mortality, 2) the relationship of ABP to end-organ involvement, 3) ABP levels in normal populations, 4) the rel...

OBJECTIVE D-dimer testing has an important role in the exclusion of acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) in the nonpregnant population. Establishing D-dimers role in the diagnosis of VTE in pregnancy is hampered because of the substantial increase of D-dimer throughout gestational age. STUDY DESIGN In a prospective study we followed 89 healthy pregnant women to establish the reference range of ...