BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of mortality in patients receiving hemodialysis(HD) for end stage renal disease(ESRD). After renal failure, antioxidant levels increase, possibly in response to increased generation of free radicals. As a result, increased lipid peroxidation may contribute to increased risks of atherosclerosis. The aims of this study was to investigate the distribution of total antioxidant capacity of plasma in Korean adults and ESRD patients, and effects of HD. METHODS: Ninety five patients(41 men and 54 women, mean ages 54.7+/-28.3 years) receiving regular HD for ESRD were recruited. Venous blood samples were taken immediately before HD in 65 patients, and before and after HD in 30 patients. Control subjects were healthy individuals(61 men and 51 women, mean ages 42.7+/-10.8 years). Total antioxidant capacity of plasma and serum uric acid concentration were assessed. RESULTS: Reference range of plasma total antioxidant capacity in Korean population is 1.04 ~ 1.52 mmol/L. Total antioxidant capacities in male(1.32+/-0.11 mmol/L; mean+/-SD) were higher than those of female(1.24+/-0.12 mmol/L, P<0.001). Total antioxidant capacities in ESRD patients(1.72+/-0.26 mmol/L) were higher than controls(1.28+/-0.12 mmol/L, P<0.001). Total antioxidant capacities in pre-HD samples(1.55+/-0.16 mmol/L) were higher than post-HD(1.33+/-0.10 mmol/L). Plasma total antioxidant capacities and serum uric acid concentrations showed positive correlation(r = 0.69, P < 0.0001). DISCUSSION: The increase in total antioxidant capacity in ESRD patients might be due to high serum uric acid. Plasma total antioxidant capacities decreased after HD in ESRD patients due to decrease of uric acid concentration.
Adult ; Atherosclerosis ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Female ; Free Radicals ; Humans ; Kidney Failure, Chronic* ; Lipid Peroxidation ; Male ; Mortality ; Plasma ; Reference Values ; Renal Dialysis* ; Renal Insufficiency ; Uric Acid

No abstract available.
*Algorithms ; Automation ; Clinical Laboratory Information Systems/*standards ; Humans ; Immunoassay/*methods ; Indicator Dilution Techniques ; alpha-Fetoproteins/*analysis

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the performance of the GEM Premier 4000 (Instrumentation Laboratory, USA), a new blood gas/electrolytes/co-oximetry analyzer, according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute (CLSI) guidelines. METHODS: Within-run precision, total-run precision, linearity and sample-related carryover were analyzed using quality control materials at three different concentration levels for each analytes. Correlation was compared with the routinely used NOVA CCX2 (Nova Biomedical, USA) with patients' whole blood samples. RESULTS: The within-run and the total-run precisions of the GEM Premier 4000 showed very low CV of 0.04~4.40% and 0.06~4.11%, respectively, in all parameters except the lactate, which had CV of 5.58% in Level 1 QC material. The system showed a good linearity (r2=0.997~1.000, systemic error=0.00~0.20%) for all items. Sample-related carryover was -4.35%~0.15%. In comparison with the NOVA CCX2 instrument, correlation was high in all parameters with the r value ranging from 0.983-0.999 except for carboxyhemoglobin (r=0.804) and methemoglobin (r=0.010) whose concentrations were in the lower level. CONCLUSIONS: GEM Premier 4000 showed good analytical performance required for blood gas analyzer in its precision, linearity, sample-related carryover, and close correlation with NOVA CCX2. It fulfills most of the requirements for both point-of-care and laboratory use.
Carboxyhemoglobin ; Lactic Acid ; Methemoglobin ; Quality Control

Point-of-care (POC) testing is desirable because of both the ease with which it can be administered and its short turnaround time. However, because standard POC devices cannot transmit test results automatically to a laboratory information system (LIS), each result must be recorded by hand. This inconvenience not only increases the possibility of clerical errors, but also limits the proper use of test results. If POC test results are not saved in the LIS, it is hard to either monitor patients' health trends or to quality control (QC) the test results. In this paper, we describe how we have solved these problems by connecting 250 POC blood glucose test devices to the LIS via a local area network (LAN). After connecting the POC devices (we used the Accu-Chek Inform II; Roche Diagnostics, Germany) to a manufacturer-provided POC data management system (Roche's Cobas IT 1000; Roche Diagnostics), we developed our own interface program for delivering data from the Cobas IT 1000 system to the LIS. By installing a program to scan the identification barcode worn by patients on their wrists, network-connected POC devices enable users to omit extra ordering, receiving, and recording processes, and they also reduce the possibility of patient misidentification. Such a system also provides an effective way for physicians to follow both the current and accumulated test results of patients. We note that performing QC on glucometers and the sending of data via LAN to the LIS are necessary steps to monitor both patients' results and the QC of those results.
Blood Glucose* ; Clinical Laboratory Information Systems ; Glucose ; Hand ; Humans ; Local Area Networks ; Point-of-Care Systems ; Quality Control ; Wrist

No abstract available.
Drug Monitoring ; Sirolimus ; Tacrolimus

BACKGROUND: National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III) is the guideline for detection evaluation, and treatment of high blood cholesterol in adults. The risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) is assessed by the presence of CHD risk equivalents and the number of risk factors. LDL-cholesterol is the goal of treatment for hyperlipidemia. Contents: The most common approach for determining LDL-cholesterol level in clinical laboratory is to calculate it based on Friedewald formula. For accurate risk assessment by the calculated LDL-cholesterol, good analytical performances of total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride are prerequisite. Even if the analytical performance of these three analytes are within the acceptable criteria, pooled imprecision and bias of the calculated LDL-cholesterol could not meet the criteria for LDL-cholesterol. Even under conditions satisfying the requirements of Friedewald formula, the calculated LDL-cholesterol level was lower than the directly measured level and the difference was dependent on the level of triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol. When evaluatingpatients with hyperlipidemia, Friedewald calculation may underestimate the risk for coronary heart disease which may lead to inappropriate treatment option. CONCLUSIONS: When evaluating patients with hyperlipidemia, direct measurement of LDL-cholesterol appears to be better than Friedewald calculation.
Adenosine Triphosphate ; Adult ; Bias (Epidemiology) ; Cholesterol ; Coronary Disease ; Humans ; Hyperlipidemias ; Lipoproteins ; Risk Assessment ; Risk Factors

Serum creatinine has been widely used clinically as an important index for kidney function. Kinetic Jaffe assay is used for serum creatinine analysis at about 80% of clinical laboratories in Korea. There are two major interferences when creatinine level is measured by kinetic Jaffe method. One is Jaffelike chromogen, which causes positive interference, and the other is bilirubin that creates negative interference. Positive interference created by Jaffelike chromogen can be easily corrected by subtracting 0.3 mg/dL (arithmetic compensation), which is average interference by Jaffelike chromogen in normal serum, from the measured creatinine value by kinetic Jaffe method. The interference created by bilirubin can be eliminated by rate blanking which corrects the rate of change in absorbance by bilirubin from the absorbance change by Jaffe reaction. Compensated rate-blanked Jaffe kinetic assay employs above two major corrections. In clinical laboratories currently using kinetic Jaffe Method, simple application of "compensated rate-blanked Jaffe kinetic assay" can determine serum creatinine values that minimizing major interferences without change of reagent.
Bilirubin ; Creatinine ; Kidney ; Korea

BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation and immune response to oxidized low density lipoprotein(oxLDL) are important events in the progression of atherosclerosis in diabetes mellitus(DM). Though, many clinical studies used man-made reagents that the reproducibility of the tests was not reliable and showed controversial results in some aspects. We performed above three tests in DM patients by the commercial kits and compared our results with previous results. METHODS: Total 67 DM patients and sex- and age-matched healthy persons were tested about total antioxidant status(TAS), lipid peroxidation(LPO) and autoantibody to oxLDL(anti-oxLDL) by Total Antioxidant Status kit(RANDOX Labs., Crumlin, UK), BIOXYTECH LPO-586 kit(OXIS International Inc., Portland, OR, USA) and Ox-LDL IgG ELISA kit(BIODESIGN International, Kennenbunk, ME, USA) each. RESULTS: The intra-run and between-run coefficients of variation of TAS and LPO were 2.6/2.7% and 13.4/15.6% respectively. The intra-run coefficient of variation of anti-oxLDL was 1.8 to 6.9%. DM patients showed decreased TAS(1.31+/-0.15 mmol/L) when compared with normal controls(1.38+/-0.09 mmol/L, P <0.01). TAS was inversely correlated with HbA1c(r=-0.38, P <0.01). LPO and anti-oxLDL in DM patients did not differ significantly from normal controls. CONCLUSIONS: By commercial kits, we could get reproducible results of TAS and anti-oxLDL, but not LPO test. The results of TAS and HbA1c among the DM patients and normal controls suggested that poor glycemic control might be associated with decrease of TAS. We could not find significant difference in the results of LPO and anti-oxLDL between two groups.
Atherosclerosis ; Diabetes Mellitus* ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin G ; Indicators and Reagents ; Lipid Peroxidation* ; Lipoproteins* ; Oxidative Stress

As the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Subcommittee (TDMS) of the Korean Association of Quality Assurance for Clinical Laboratories (KAQACL), we organised two trials as an external quality assessment of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and testing for drugs of abuse (DOA) in 2014. In each trial, low and high level control materials for TDM testing, and positive and negative control materials for DOA testing, were requested from institutions. The number of participating laboratories was 107 for the first trial and 106 for the second. The average number of drug items provided was 5.7 per institution. The most commonly tested substances were, in descending order, valproic acid, digoxin, tacrolimus, phenytoin, and vancomycin. The mean inter-laboratory coefficients of variation for low- and high-level TDM control materials were 8.5% and 7.2%, respectively. The most widely used TDM analysers were the Architect i System (Abbott Diagnostics, USA), followed by the Cobas Integra (Roche Diagnostics, Switzerland) and the Cobas c501 analyser (Roche Diagnostics). The number of participating laboratories for DOA testing was 23% higher that than in 2013. In 96.9% of cases, our analysis confirmed the suitability of the tests at participating DOA laboratories in both trials. In the external quality assessment of TDM by the TDMS of KAQACL in 2014, the overall performance of TDM testing was found to be similar to that observed in the previous years, and inter-laboratory precision was higher than that in 2013. Continuous quality improvement of TDM testing by participation in a proficiency-testing program is necessary.
Digoxin ; Drug Monitoring* ; Korea ; Laboratory Proficiency Testing ; Phenytoin ; Quality Improvement ; Street Drugs* ; Tacrolimus ; Valproic Acid ; Vancomycin

BACKGROUND: Lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is an atherogenic lipoprotein that is assembled from a low density lipoprotein(LDL) and apolipoprotein(a) [apo(a)]. The variations in Lp(a) concentration tend to be inversely related to the number of kringle IV in apo(a) gene, but other polymorphisms [pentanucleotide(TTTTA) repeats, +93 C/T polymorphism, and Met/Thr polymorphism] of the apo(a) gene are also seems to be related to Lp(a) concentrations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of the pentanucleotide repeat polymorphism(PNRP) and Met/Thr polymorphism with the Lp(a) concentrations. METHODS: We studied 197 healthy adults. For genotype analysis of the PNRP and the Met/Thr polymorphism, PCR was performed. Apo(a) phenotyping was performed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting. The Lp(a) concentrations were measured by ELISA method. More than two groups were compared using the Kruskal Wallis one-way analysis test. To establish a relationship between gene polymorphisms and Lp(a) concentrations, The linear regression test was performed. RESULTS: Mean Lp(a) concentration was 25.3+/-21.5 mg/dL. Allele frequencies for PNRP, subjects with 8/8 genotype were 114(57.9%) and most frequently observed. The Lp(a) concentrations showed the tendency to decrease as the sum of alleles of PNR increased. Subjects with Met/Thr genotype were 119(60.4%), Met/Met genotype were 71(36.0%) and Thr/Thr genotype were 7(3.6%). CONCLUSIONS: For PNRP, subjects with 8/8 genotype were 114(57.9%) and 8/8 genotype was the most frequently observed. Met/Thr genotype was most frequently observed.
Adult ; Alleles* ; Apoprotein(a) ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Gene Frequency* ; Genotype ; Humans ; Immunoblotting ; Kringles ; Linear Models ; Lipoprotein(a) ; Lipoproteins ; Microsatellite Repeats ; Polymerase Chain Reaction