Chemical Pathology, Laboratory Medicine

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is a common malignancy affecting men beyond the middle age. Monitoring of treatment of the disease using serum testosterone and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) offers an index of treatment efficacy and a reflection of disease progression, respectively. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between changing values of serum PSA and serum testosterone in patients with advanced prostate cancer following bilateral total orchidectomy (BTO)...

OBJECTIVE: The acid/molybdate assay performed on the Beckman Coulter AU5821 could be subject to paraprotein interference, which potentially results in spurious hyperphosphatemia. We attempted to find a reliable solution to eliminate paraprotein interference in laboratory test results and discuss the causes of paraprotein interference. METHODS: We observed 50 multiple myeloma patients with serum paraproteins. We used the trichloroacetic acid (TCA) deproteinizing method to confirm that paraproteins indeed interfered with phosphate detection in the serum acid/molybdate assay...

This review summarises the long period in which man has approached nature to understand its powers, and has tried to control it through physical and chemical, and also magical, practices. From the attempt to manage nature to the development of primordial drugs and medical practices and later to achieve modern biomedical science, laboratory practices always played a pivotal role. Over the years and centuries, the laboratory has acquired more and more importance in the improvement of health.In addition to the well-known importance of laboratory medicine in the early diagnosis and appropriateness, the discoveries of the last 50 years have also given the Laboratory a decisive role in regenerative and personalised medicine...

OBJECTIVE: To determine aetiological factors in children with short stature, and to evaluate the role of insulin like growth factor-1 and insulin like growth factor binding protein-3 as screening markers for growth hormone deficiency. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Chemical Pathology and Endocrinology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from August 2020 to July 2021, and comprised children with short stature...

In 1946, the U.S. Army established the 406th Medical General Laboratory as the central medical research institute for their new Asia-Pacific-occupied area. The primary mission of the 406th medical laboratory was to supplement the epidemiologic, sanitary, and diagnostic services available in other medical facilities and hospitals, and to investigate outbreaks of disease and conditions which affect or may affect the health of the people in the occupied area. At the time of its establishment, the 406th laboratory had considerable difficulties securing researchers, but it solved the related problems by actively cooperating with Japanese medical researchers and research institutes...

BACKGROUND: Diarrheal irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) is a common chronic functional gastrointestinal disorder, and the underlying pathogenic mechanism is still unclear. Animal models that mimic the pathological state of IBS-D patients were constructed to provide a reference for later drug research and model development. METHODS: The IBS-D model was induced using restraint stress and chemical stimulation (rhubarb), and rats were divided into normal control group (NC), chemically stimulated group (CS), and restraint stress group (RS)...

OBJECTIVES: To determine association of biomarkers-high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hsCRP), D-dimer, interleukin-6 (IL-6), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), ferritin and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR)-at hospitalisation with outcomes in COVID-19. DESIGN AND SETTING: Tertiary-care hospital based prospective registry. PARTICIPANTS: Successive virologically confirmed patients with COVID-19 hospitalised from April 2020 to July 2021 were prospectively recruited...

Myocardial injury and necrosis caused by hyperlipidemia have been investigated by several researchers. Their pathogenesis and molecular basis are different from those of the more common clinical ischemic myocardial injury. Hyperlipidemia leads to peroxide accumulation in the cardiomyocytes, causes lipid overload, decreases the antioxidant capacity of the body, and promotes the inflammatory response. Furthermore, hyperlipidemia causes changes in the structure and function of mitochondria in the cardiomyocytes, which results in their injury and necrosis...

BACKGROUND: Acute compartment syndrome (ACS) is a devastating complication which develops following a traumatic extremity injury that results in increased pressure within osteofascial compartments, thereby leading to ischemia, muscle and nerve necrosis, and creates a life-threatening condition if left untreated. Fasciotomy is the only available standard surgical intervention for ACS. Following fasciotomy the affected extremity is plagued by prolonged impairments in function. As such, an unmet clinical need exists for adjunct, non-surgical therapies which can facilitate accelerated functional recovery following ACS...

Multiphytoadaptogen (MPhA) containing 70 major phytocomponents of different chemical classes from 40 medicinal plant extracts has been studied in vitro, in vivo and in clinical researches. Antiproliferative and anti-tumor activities have been shown against some tumors as well as evidence-based therapeutic effects against age-related pathologies. In addition, the neuroprotective, antioxidant, antimutagenic, radioprotective, and immunomodulatory effects of MPhA were confirmed. Many human diseases including cancer, degenerative and autoimmune disorders, diabetes and others are multifactorial...

Background: Laboratories use quality control processes to monitor and evaluate analytical performance in terms of precision and bias. Sigma metrics provide an objective assessment of laboratory quality using the total allowable error as an additional parameter. Objective: This study aimed to determine the sigma metrics of analytes when using different total allowable error guidelines. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 19 general chemistry analytes at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in South Africa between January 2017 and December 2017...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of the National External Quality Assessment Programme of Pakistan NEQAPP in improving the quality of laboratory results among the participating laboratories. METHODS: The cross-sectional observational study was conducted from July to December 2020 at the Department of Chemical Pathology and Endocrinology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in association with the National Quality Assurance Programme of Pakistan...

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a growing epidemic in Africa. Its diagnosis relies exclusively on laboratory evidence, which differs based on clinical circumstances. Objective: The study described the appropriateness of plasma glucose test requests per the American Diabetes Association criteria. Methods: We reviewed the plasma glucose test requests received by the chemical pathology laboratory of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria between June 2018 and November 2018...

Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks are used as biomaterials for next-generation sequencing of cancer panels. Cross-contamination is detected in approximately 5% of the DNA extracted from FFPE samples, which reduces the detection rate of genetic abnormalities. There are no effective methods available for processing FFPE blocks that prevent cells from mixing with other specimens. The present study evaluated 897 sheets that could potentially prevent cell transmission but allow for the movement of various solvents used in FFPE blocks...

Epichaperomes are disease-associated pathologic scaffolds composed of tightly bound chaperones and co-chaperones. They provide opportunities for precision medicine where aberrant protein-protein interaction networks, rather than a single protein, are detected and targeted. This protocol describes the synthesis and characterization of two 124 I-labeled epichaperome probes, [124 I]-PU-H71 and [124 I]-PU-AD, both which have translated to clinical studies. It shows specific steps in the use of these reagents to image and quantify epichaperome-positivity in tumor bearing mice through positron emission tomography...

BACKGROUND: Amongst the pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical phase of laboratory testing, pre-analytical phase is the most error-prone. Knowledge gaps in understanding of pre-analytical factors are identified in the clinical years amongst undergraduate students due to lack of formal teaching modules on the pre-analytical phase. This study was conducted to seek experts' consensus in Clinical Chemistry on learning objectives and contents using the Delphi technique with an aim to develop an asynchronous virtual classroom for teaching pre-analytical factors of laboratory testing...

BACKGROUND: Analysis of the constituents of gallstones using various spectroscopic techniques assists in identification of the pathogenesis of gallstones. In the current study, using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) Spectroscopy, a Gallstone Standard Library (GSL) and a Gallstone Real Patients' Library (GRPL) were developed and validated for gallstone composition analysis. METHODS: The study was conducted at the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Aga Khan University, Pakistan...

Various plasticizers and nanomaterials have been linked to endocrine disruptors or endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which represent a large, heterogeneous, yet incompletely understood group of structures acting on normal and pathological body pathways such as hormonal production, secretion, transport and receptor binding. By contrast, various applications of nanoparticles are currently under investigation since the delivery of useful drugs, particularly insulin in diabetes mellitus, is essential in case of insulin deficiency...

OBJECTIVES: The objective of our study was to use laboratory data to describe prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing trends for primary healthcare (PHC) services from a single province. PHC is a basic package of services offered to local communities, serving as the first point of contact within the health system. These services are offered at clinics and community health centres (CHC), the latter providing additional maternity, accident and emergency services. DESIGN: The retrospective descriptive study design was used...

Balneotherapy, a branch of physical and rehabilitation medicine using the natural factors of balneal resorts for therapeutical purposes to modulate the symptoms of numerous diseases, represents a non-pharmaceutical therapeutic alternative, easily accepted by patients and used both preventively and curatively. Crenotherapy, a branch of balneotherapy, is the method in which mineral waters are used as a therapeutic internal cure by ingestion. This procedure is performed in spa resorts (where these natural resources exist), and the ingestion of mineral water takes place at the source (spring), in the quantities recommended by the medical rehabilitation physician, according to specific regimens for the condition to be treated...