No abstract available.
Oligoclonal Bands*

No abstract available.
Pericardium*

No abstract available.
Coronary Artery Disease* ; Coronary Vessels* ; Hyperlipidemias* ; Prevalence* ; Risk Factors*

No abstract available.
Anemia, Iron-Deficiency* ; Iron* ; Milk*

No abstract available.
Drug Monitoring ; Mycophenolic Acid

BACKGROUNDS: Korean "in-vitro diagnostics (IVD)" market experienced rapid growth of almost 1800 folds in 20 years from 1970's to 1990's. Until recent financial crisis of Asia, the business showed very brisk annual growth rates; more than 20% for immunoserologic tests and 10-15% for other tests. Around 80-85% of all laboratory goods are imported and 15-20% are local products. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Market analyses of the world and Korean IVD business were done with interviews and written quesionnaires. Other data used were "List of trading in medical and pharmaceutical materials" by Korea Pharmaceutical Trader's Association and "List of production in medical and pharmaceutical materials" by the Korea Phamaceutical Manufacturers Association. RESULTS: In 1996, the Korean IVD was 151.64 million US Dollars (USD). Local products were responsible for 15-20% of market and imports for 80-85%. With recent financial crisis, importance of local IVD business and its R/D activity are getting keen attention. Market share by sectors, revenue analysis of local products, revenue according to product categories, export and import figures, comparison of import and local IVD product by sectors and manufacurers by their products were done and listed. CONCLUSIONS: Market analyses would be used by laboratorians to have a better knowledge and understanding of laboratory business and by the industry to view the Korea as a emerging and stabilizng market and by researchers to focus their resources into more feasible areas.
Asia ; Commerce ; Indicators and Reagents ; Korea

No abstract available.
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Collagen* ; Liver Cirrhosis* ; Liver*

No abstract available.
Toxicology

No abstract available.
Lung*

Through the present delta value check used in quality control programs is a powerful tool for detecting random errors in clinical chemistry analysis, it has some problems, such as missed true errors and delays in reporting time, because it also has the potential of showing erroneous positive results. Recently, new calculation methods for delta check with delta difference, delta percent change, rate difference, and rate percent change have been suggested by Lacher and Connelly (Clin Chem 34:1966-1970, 1988). Based on this new delta check method, we made the new criteria of which calculation method is applied to the clinical chemistry tests, i.e., the differential application of rate and delta check, and selectively applied the new method to 17 chemistry tests in order to solve the above problems. The applied criteria were the time dependence of the test item and the coefficient of variation of the absolute delta difference. Calcium, inorganic phosphorus, total protein, albumin, sodium, potassium, and chloride were classified as delta difference calculation method group; glucose and cholesterol as delta percent change group; creatinine, total and direct bilirubin as rate difference group; and urea nitrogen, uric acid, ALP, ALT, and AST as rate percent change group. With the previous criteria by Whitehurst et al. (Clin Chem 221:87-92) for 5045 specimens, the check-out rate was 47.8% (2,411 out of 5,045), and the positive predictive value was 0.41% (10 out of 2,411). For the new criteria, the check-out rate was 12.7% (621 out of 5,045), and the positive predictive value was 1.8% (nine out of 621).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Albumins/analysis ; Bilirubin/analysis ; Calcium/analysis ; Chemistry, Clinical/methods/*standards ; Clinical Laboratory Information Systems/*standards ; Creatine/analysis ; Glucose/analysis ; Phosphorus/analysis ; Quality Control ; Reference Values ; *Sensitivity and Specificity ; Specimen Handling ; Urea/analysis ; Work Simplification