AIM: To assess the effect of raloxifene, a selective estrogen modulator, on the transcriptional activity of estrogen responsive element (ERE) in vascular endothelial cells. METHODS: Vascular endothelial cells were transfected with ERE-TK-Luc reporter plasmid and PRL-SV40 control plasmid via FuGENE 6. The activities of firefly luciferase and renilla luciferase were measured with dual-luciferase reporter assay system. The transcriptional activity in transfected cells treated with raloxifene was compared with that in untreated cells. Furthermore, raloxifene was used to cotreat the cells with estradiol (E_2) and the influence of raloxifene to the effect of E_2 was assessed. RESULTS: Compared to untreated cells, the luciferase activity in cells treated with raloxifene decreased and showed significance at concentration of 10~(-7)mol/L (P

The aims of this article is to provide the quality control requirements of preanalytical variation for the determination of trace element aluminum,arsenic,chromium,cadmium and mercury in samples of human origin,reduce the influence of preanalytical variation on the test results.Refer to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) documents,Control of Preanalytical Variation in Trace Element Determinations and other references and guidelines,the methods of quality control of aluminum,arsenic,chromium,cadmium and mercury determination have been made,including:the factors needed to be considered in collection,preservation,transportation and other preanalytical factors,the abilities and considerations of laboratory staff,etc.Hope this article provide some useful suggestions and help to the laboratories of determination of aluminum,arsenic,chromium,cadmium and mercury in samples of human origin.

Objective To investigate and analyze the current situation of reference intervals and decision limits of reticulocyte count in China.Methods The information related to upper/lower limits,decision limits,data resources,method principles, instruments and reagents of reticulocyte count in 2014 was collected via the external quality assessment software system based on website.The participants were divided according to their methods and instruments.The SPSS 1 9.0 was used for conducting the data analysis and statistics of results for each group.Results There were 276 laboratories submitting the val-id results.The major resources for reference intervals came from national guide to clinical laboratory procedures (53.99%), instructions of instrument manufacturers (16.30%),textbook (9.78%),instructions of reagents manufacturers (9.06%) and others.The major resources for decision limits were national guide to clinical laboratory procedures (56.06%),instruc-tions of instrument manufacturers (16.67%),textbook (7.58),instructions of reagents manufacturers (7.58%)and others. The medians and averages of upper/lower limits and decision limits among subgroups were close,whereas the P2.5 and P97.5 were significant discrepancies.Only 45.65% and 48.48% of participant laboratories had verified reference intervals and deci-sion limits before clinic use.The lower limits and decision limits among subgroups had nostatistical difference (P>0.05), where as the upper limits of different instrument groups had significant differences (P<0.001).Conclusion The current situation of reference intervals and decision limits of reticulocyte count is unsatisfactory.It is certain to establish a uniformed reference interval and decision limits for reticulocyte count,which provides a reference for the standardization of reticulocyte count testing.

Objective Discussthe reference intervals and their sources of lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry tests by all Chinese clinical laboratories at 2014 with a comparison of difference between different test systems.Methods Questionnaires about reference intervals were distributed to 212 clinical laboratories participating in October 2014 national external quality assessment scheme of lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry tests of National Center for Clinical Laboratory.Relevant information about reference intervals of 5 relative counting items CD3 + (％),CD3 + CD4 + (％),CD3 + CD8 + (％),CD3-CD16 + CD56 + (％) and CD3-CD19 + (％) was collected by a internet-based external quality assessment software systems.Microsoft Excel 2010 and SPSS 19.0 were used to sort out raw data,eliminate unreasonable or incorrect data,and only analyze source distribution,arithmetic average,median,minimum value,maximum value and percentiles (P2.5 and P97.5) of upper and lower limits about healthy adults' reference intervals.Laboratories derived from the highest percentage of source distribution whose reagent and instrument were matching with each other were grouped according to the test systems used and the differences of reference intervals between different systems were compared with Mann-Whitney test.Results For five items collected,in the clinical laboratories who accepted statistical analysis,respectively 39.32％ (81/ 206),37.44％ (79/211),37.68％ (78/207),37.11％ (72/194),36.98％ (71/192) of them had verified the reference intervals they used.The top three sources of reference intervals were instructions of reagent and instrument manufactures (49.70％-52.54％),calculations by laboratories themselves (18.64％-20.00％),and calculations by other laboratories (14.12％-15.43％).The arithmetic averages and medians of upper and lower limits about every item were relatively close.But the minimum and maximum values of upper and lower limits of certain items had moderate differences.As Mann-Whitney test later showed,all items with the P values of upper and lower limits between different test systems,except for the lower limit of CD3 + CD4 + (％) (P value is 0.052) and the upper limit of CD3-CD19 + (％) (P value is 0.117),were lower than 0.05 which meant an existing statistical difference.Conclusions The sources of lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry tests in all Chinese clinical laboratories were different and the instructions of reagent and instrument had the highest percentage,but the reference intervals among differenttest systems had statistically significance.

Objective To compare the current application status of reference intervals in dry chemistry to the reference inter-vals of anlytes of wet chemistry in the same hospital.Methods By using web-based external quality assessment (EQA) software system,collecting the submitted data from the laboratories which attended national reference intervals investigation of reference intervals of analytes in dry chemistry and wet chemistry,using professional statistical software for analyzing the data,including paired-samples t test and Yates’Chi-square test.Results 231 laboratories submitted their investigation re-sults including the reference intervals of 23 analytes of dry and wet chemistry.69.6% (32/46)of reference intervals of ana-lytes in dry chemistry have significant statistical differences compared with the wet chemistry in paired-samples t tests. 80.4% (37/46)of medians of reference intervals of analytes in dry chemistry had significant statistical differences in loca-tions and distributions compared with medians of reference intervals of wet chemistry in the same institute.Conclusion The reference intervals of analytes of dry chemistry have differences compared with the wet chemistry in the same hospital.The medians of reference interval’s lower and higher limits of dry and wet chemistry have difference in locations and distribu-tions.Proposed to create our own reference intervals of dry chemistry in China.

Objective To evaluate hemoglobin A2 and F (HbA2 and HbF)assays in part of Thalassemia screening laborato-ries in China.Methods Two lots of controls were sent to 50 Thalassemia screening laboratories.Test results of HbA2 and HbF were collected,analyzed and evaluated by different method groups.Results 49 of all laboratories reported the results and the rate of return was 98%.The proportion of laboratories reporting acceptable results for HbA2 and HbF testing was 42.9~92.3% and 27.3% ~ 84.6% respectively.HbA2 test results from 3 laboratories for Lot 201311 and 4 for 201312 were unsatisfactory.And HbF test results from 5 laboratories for Lot 201311 and 3 for 201312 were unsatisfactory.Conclu-sion Conclude that quality in the measurement of HbA2 and HbF should be improved.

Objective To investigate the current application status of reference intervals in routine chemistry and compare with the current health industry standards draft for approval.Methods By using web-based external quality assessment (EQA)software system,collected the submitted data from the laboratories which attended national reference intervals inves-tigation,used professional statistical software to analyze the data.Results 385 laboratories had submitted the investigation results.The vast majority of the analytes of attended laboratories had significant statistical differences in comparison with the health industry standards draft for approval in no grouping and not filled groups[t = - 55.435 ~ 17.070,P < 0.05, 86.1% (31/36)].Only a few of laboratories’reference interval had been grouped (approximately 20%).There were some differences in grouping rules between laboratories and standards.Even though some of the laboratories adopt the grouping rules as same as the standards,there were still big differences in reference intervals between the laboratories and the stand-ards[t=-39.365~13.155,P <0.01,62.5% (10/16)].Conclusion The reference intervals of routine chemistry analytes suggested by the health industry standards draft for approval had quite big differences from the reference intervals used in current clinical laboratories daily work.It is important to propel the authority health industry standards to use in the daily work of clinical laboratories.The evaluation and validation of using them should be done first.

Objective To investigate the current application status of clinical laboratories in China, including:testing items, the testing amount of each item, total cost of each item and turnaround time ( TAT) of each item.The testing tem with larger proportion of testing amount required better quality control, more financial investment and policy making.Methods Except Tibet and Taiwan, 30 provinceswere included in this investigation.3 grade A tertiary hospitals, 3 tertiary hospitals and 3 secondary hospitals were randomly chosen from every province, and 270 hospitals were enrolled totally.The principals of clinical laboratories of chosen hospitals were contacted by each provincial center of clinical laboratories to complete the online questionnaire.The submitted data was checked by staff of our center and analyzed by Microsoft Excel 2007. The survey information included general information of the hospital, testing menu of the laboratory, test panels , annual test amount, cost, turnaround time, et al.Results All the hospitals enrolled in this investigation had submitted effective results (100%, 270/270).There were 628 single testing item collected in this survey:230 single items were in the field of clinical immunology, which made the biggest proportion (36.62%, 230/628 ); the total amount of testing of clinical chemistry had the biggest proportion (59.97%);the summary amount of the top 100 testing items exceeded 90% of the overall amount; the summary cost of the top 100 testing items exceeded 85% of the overall cost.Conclusions The information collected and analyzed after the survey of testing items of clinical laboratories in China could provide valuable reference information for quality control, financial investment and policy making.

Objective To carry out the current status of internal quality control by statistical analysis of the Internal Quality Control (IQC)data of homocysteine in 2014 March.Methods Web-based External Quality Assessment (EQA)system was used to collect IQC data of homocysteine from 292 EQA participant laboratories nationwide.The data include thecoefficient of variation (CV)of IQC data under control in March 2014 and long-term cumulative data.Acceptable rates of CVs of two-lot internal quality controls in homocysteine were calculated according to 5 criteria,that were 1/3TEa,1/4TEa and the speci-fications based on biological variation including the minimal,appropriate and optimal allowable imprecision.The instrument the participant laboratories used were sorted into 6 groups and the passing rate of each group were calculated by the 5 crite-ria.Results 292 laboratories reported the data of level 1 IQC for homocysteine,106 of which reported the data of level 2 IQC.The passing rate was different according to different criteria.The passing rate had few difference by the criteria of 1/3TEa and the minimal allowable imprecision based on biological variation,which were from 63.36% to 76.42%.It was also true for 1/4TEa and the appropriate allowable imprecision based on biological variation,which were from 34.25% to 57.55. The passing rate was only 10.62%~16.98% by the criteria of appropriate allowable imprecision based on biological varia-tion.Statistical results showed that instruments the participant mainly used were HITACHI (77/292),Olympus (61/292), Roche (19/292),Beckman (14/292),Abbott (10/292)and Simens (10/292).The passing rates of all the instrument group had few difference except Simens group.Conclusion Most of the laboratories could meet the criteria of 1/3TEa and the min-imal allowable imprecision based on biological variation.But less than half of the laboratories could meet the criteria of 1/4TEa and the appropriate and optimal allowable imprecision based on biological variation.The precision performance of ho-mocysteine among laboratories needs further improvement.

Objective To investigate the current application status of reference intervals in routine chemistry and compare with the current health industry standards .Methods By using web-based external quality assessmentsoftware system , data were collectedfrom the laboratories which attended 2012 national reference intervals investigation , including the sources of reference intervals , upper and lower limits , subgroups and grouping rules , test methods, instruments and reagents , etc.Microsoft Excell2007 and SPSS 13.0 were used to analyze the trimmed data .Results There were 385 laboratories submitting the reference intervals they had been using .Only a few of laboratories'reference intervalsweregrouped .There are some differences in grouping rulescompared with the currentstandards .Even though some of the laboratories adopt the grouping rules as the same as the standards , there are still significantstatistical differences in reference intervals between the laboratories and the health industry standards (P <0.01).Conclusions The reference intervals of routine chemistry items suggested by the health industry standards have quite big differences from thoseused in current clinical laboratories dailywork ,that might be related from the population they served and many internal influence factors. If the health industry standards are used , the evaluation and validation of reference intervals should be done first.