Resources
Research Articles
A review of current issues encountered when sourcing blood based clinical patient samples
SCIPAC have published an article in IVDT magazine reviewing the current issues encountered when sourcing blood based clinical patient samples and the future outlook for IVD manufacturers. This review covers various aspects of sourcing samples including biomarker values, the reference range, test interferences and the pre-analytical status. It also takes a look at proposed changes in legislation, as well as developments in diagnostic efficiency which may have a significant effect on clinical sample collection in the near future.
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Does the level of fucosylation of PSA help to distinguish between Prostate Cancer and BPH?
One of the inherent problems of PSA use in the diagnostic setting is the poor specificity for Prostate Cancer; as patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) may also exhibit elevated levels of PSA. The relative abundance of the specific isoforms may be able to help distinguish BPH from prostate cancer and improve the selectivity and sensitivity of the PSA test. In this research, three PSA isoforms have been isolated from human seminal fluid.
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Measurement of HbA1c in blood spot samples by a novel ELISA - in resource limited settings
In many parts of the devloping world transportation of blood samples is a problem and sophisticated testing equipment only found in a few major centers. To facilitate blood testing for HbA1c in these situations a blood spot assay has been developed.
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Acute Anaphylaxis Monitoring: Studies Using Mast Cell Tryptase
Mast cell tryptase is a specific biomarker for the acute IgE-mediated allergic response known as anaphylaxis. Currently, the only commercial sources of controls and standards for tryptase are a recombinant protein or patients’ samples. Our objective was to prepare a stable and reproducible tryptase protein standard from human tissue and to evaluate its suitability when diluted in patient normal human serum for External Quality Assessment (EQA) distribution.
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Assessment of Preparations of the Mucin Tumour Marker Antigens on Different Immunoassay Platforms
Three important tumor markers; CA125, CA15-3 and CA19-9 are known to give varying results depending upon the assay platform used. Ideally, all assay formats should produce identical numerical responses but international reference preparations are not available, the analytes are a complex mixture of glycoproteins and comparability is therefore poor. The study showed that standardisation using mucins purified from cancer cell cultures give very promising results.
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Role of Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies in the Outcome of Pregnancy
This study aimed to find out if thyroid autoantibody status during pregnancy affected the outcome of pregnancy. Results showed that the outcome from pregnancy in patients with elevated levels of TPO autoantibody correlates with a poor outcome in pregnancy.
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