David Bareford

YKL-40 regulates vascular endothelial growth factors and induces tumor proliferation. We investigated YKL-40 before and after treatment with vorinostat in 31 polycythemia vera (PV) and 16 essential thrombocythemia (ET) patients. Baseline PV patient levels were 2 times higher than in healthy controls (P < 0.0001) and 1.7 times higher than in ET (P =...

An open letter to the BMA and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges calls on them to make a joint public statement of opposition to the amended section 75 regulations On 1 April the government is due to enact enabling legislation to the Health and Social Care Act, which will in effect require clinical commissioning groups to enter into competitive...

This seventh best-practice review examines four series of common primary care questions in laboratory medicine: (1) blood count abnormalities 2; (2) cardiac troponins; (3) high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; and (4) viral diseases 2. The review is presented in a question-answer format, with authorship attributed for each question series. The reco...

This best practice review examines four series of common primary care questions in laboratory medicine: (i) "minor" blood platelet count and haemoglobin abnormalities; (ii) diagnosis and monitoring of anaemia caused by iron deficiency; (iii) secondary hyperlipidaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia; and (iv) glycated haemoglobin and microalbumin use in d...

This second best practice review examines five series of common primary care questions in laboratory medicine: (1) laboratory testing for allergy, (2) diagnosis and monitoring of menopause, (3) the use of urine cytology, (4) the usefulness of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and (5) the investigation of possible urinary tract infection. The revi...

A 40-year-old patient, who was a Jehovah's Witness, with acute myeloid leukaemia entered remission using a chemotherapeutic based regime aided by the addition of gemtuzumab ozogamicin without requiring any blood product support. The use of gemtuzumab ozogamicin may have helped avoid fatal pancytopenia. The use of gemtuzumab ozogamicin might be cons...

This first best practice review examines four series of common primary care questions in laboratory medicine, namely: (i) measurement and monitoring of cholesterol and of liver and muscle enzymes in patients in the context of lipid lowering drugs, (ii) diagnosis and monitoring of vitamin B12/folate deficiency, (iii) investigation and monitoring of...

Iron deficiency (ID) has been reported to increase lead absorption. This relationship has been investigated in detail in children but not in adults. This study was designed to investigate whether blood lead levels are significantly higher in iron-deficient adults. ID-parameters (haemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, se...

A 76 year old woman presented acutely with non-traumatic splenic rupture, which was successfully treated by emergency splenectomy. Histological examination of the spleen revealed the coexistence of metastatic adenocarcinoma cells, together with low grade B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Splenic rupture as a consequence of malignant disease is discussed...

To define the incidence, risk factors and complications of priapism in a large population of patients with sickle-cell anaemia in five centres in the UK and Nigeria, as priapism is common among these patients, but the precise characteristics of the condition in this population are poorly documented. A questionnaire was developed and administered to...

Occurrences of second malignancies in hairy cell leukaemia are well recognised. Most of these malignancies are either solid tumours or lymphoproliferative disorders. The association of myeloproliferative disorders with hairy cell leukaemia (HCL) is very rare. This report describes a case of a patient with HCL who after remaining in remission develo...

The laboratory diagnosis of haemoglobinopathies, including the thalassaemias, is of growing importance, particularly because of an increasing requirement for antenatal diagnosis of significant disorders of globin chain synthesis. This guideline discusses the laboratory tests which are most useful in the diagnosis of haemoglobinopathies and describe...

To determine whether placental ratio is influenced by maternal ethnic origin, obesity, hypertension, and haematological indices of iron deficiency anaemia. Observational study. District general hospital in Birmingham. 692 healthy nulliparous pregnant women, of whom 367 were European, 213 Asian, 99 Afro-Caribbean, and 13 of other or undocumented eth...

Full textFull text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (300K), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References. 120 Selected References These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete lis...

To see whether changes in request patterns for haematological tests could be influenced in the long term by information released from a haematology department. Analysis of request patterns by hospital divisions before and after intervention and of costs of intervention and savings achieved. Haematology laboratory of an inner city district general h...

Previous work in our department showed that after blood transfusion, the platelet count often falls to levels which are clinically significant. The probable site of platelet sequestration was identified as the spleen, and post-transfusion thrombocytopenia was prevented by blood filters which remove microaggregate debris from the donor blood. Since...

11 patients with anaemia and thrombocytopenia due to bone marrow failure each received 2 sets of red-cell transfusions. They were randomised to receive 1 blood transfusion through a standard 170-micron giving set filter and another through a 40 micron micro-aggregate filter. After transfusion, the mean fall in platelet count was 15 x 10(9)/l (41.7%...

11 patients with anaemia and thrombocytopenia due to bone marrow failure each received 2 sets of red-cell transfusions. They were randomised to receive 1 blood transfusion through a standard 170-µm giving set filter and another through a 40 µm micro-aggregate filter. After transfusion, the mean fall in platelet count was 15x10^9/1 (41.7%) and 1.4x1...

Prophylactic exchange transfusion is of uncertain value in pregnancy complicated by sickle cell disease (SCD), and there is a lack of laboratory tests to monitor its effect and determine the optimal number and frequency of transfusions. In a prospective study of four consecutive pregnancies complicated by SCD, the product of the PCV and percentage...

The degree of rheological benefit arising from microcytosis in polycythaemia is controversial. The filterability (3 μm diameter pores) and viscosity (241 s-1 shear rate) or microcytic erythrocytes from 18 patients with polycythaemia were therefore compared with microcytes from 19 patients with iron deficiency and 12 patients with β-thalassaemia tra...

Erythrocyte filterability through pores of nominal 3 μm diameter was studied in 37 patients with microcytosis secondary to iron depletion. The index of filtration (IF) was dependent on both the mean cell volume (MCV) and the degree of anisocytosis (red cell volume distribution width; RDW) of the erythrocyte suspension. A significant correlation (r...

The mean fall in the platelet count following 23 routine transfusions of 3-5 units packed cells for anaemia was 32.5%. This was significantly reduced to 12.5% in 15 similar transfusions through a 40 microns microaggregate filter (P less than 0.01) and to 4.6% following five transfusions through a polyester fibre filter (P less than 0.005). In 10 tr...

Erythrocyte deformability was studied in a total of 83 poorly controlled diabetics (mean blood glucose 12.2 mmol/l) who were divided into three groups, each with matched healthy controls. There was no appreciable difference between diabetics and matched controls regarding the filtration of erythrocytes through 3 micron diameter straight channel por...

The Imugard IG500 cotton wool pre-filtration technique, used to remove leucocytes from whole blood prior to study of erythrocyte deformability, has been tested to determine whether it selectively retains less deformable erythrocytes. Leucocyte-free suspensions of erythrocytes prepared in parallel by this technique and by centrifugation in narrow-bo...

Blood rheology measurements (blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, and erythrocyte deformability) were made at 15 °C and 37 °C in 16 patients with Raynaud's phenomenon (11 secondary) compared with 16 healthy matched controls. At both temperatures the patients showed a significant reduction in filterability of washed erythrocytes through pores of 3 μm...

Erythrocyte deformability was studied by filtration through silver membranes (nominal 5 μ m diameter channels) and by laser diffractometry (Ektacytometer) in 30 non-dialysed patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) compared with 30 matched healthy controls. Patients with CRF showed impaired erythrocyte filterability, which correlated with the degr...

16 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) who relapsed on maintenance treatment between September 1978 and December 1981 were studied. Their previous bone marrow aspirates were reviewed to determine the first evidence for marrow relapse and the subsequent rate of evolution of the disease. 60% of children had bone marrow evidence of unsus...

Over a period of 20 yr (1962-1982), 67 apparently fit donors at a Regional Blood Transfusion Service were found to have an unexplained positive direct antiglobulin test (DAT). During 1983, 26 were traced and re-tested. 9 still had a positive DAT only 1 of whom had developed autoimmune haemolytic anaemia. 17 had become negative though in 7 of these...

A rheological study of 32 patients with peripheral occlusive arterial disease (POAD), compared with 32 matched healthy controls, has shown no loss of erythrocyte deformability as measured by filtration methods (using initial flow rate and positive pressure instruments, polycarbonate and silver membranes, and 3 microns and 5 microns diameter pores)...

Initial-flow-rate filtration of erythrocytes was studied using a Hemorheometre fitted with straight-channel polycarbonate and tortuous-channel silver membranes of both 3 and 5 μm pore diameter. Erythrocyte filtration through straight-channel 3 μm pores was sensitive to in vitro manipulation of erythrocyte mean cell volume (MCV) and correlated with...

Erythrocyte filtration, as measured by the initial-flow-rate Hemorheometre technique, showed a highly significant correlation (r = 0.603, P < 0.001) with even a small number of contaminating leucocytes (mean 0.08 × 109 1, SEM 0.01) in 29 erythrocyte test suspensions. Failure to reduce leucocyte contamination to <0.025 × 109 1 caused falsely abnorma...

Erythrocyte deformability was studied by 5 μm pore filtration (initial-flow-rate and positive-pressure methods) and by viscometric and Ektacytometric techniques in 30 patients with liver disease compared with 30 matched controls. All of the rheological techniques demonstrated abnormal erythrocyte deformability in the patient group, with a left shif...

A comparison of instruments for the measurement of erythrocyte deformability (Contraves LS30, Ektacytometer, Hemorheometre SP02 and Erythrometre) was made using in vitro manipulated erythrocytes and also ex vivo leucocyte-free blood samples from 110 patients. In vitro manipulation of either erythrocyte cytoplasmic viscosity, membrane elasticity, or...

A study of the relationship between erythrocyte mean cell volume (MCV) and erythrocyte elongation (EI max) in the Ektacytometer has been made in healthy controls [58], arterial disease [40], renal disease [33], diabetes mellitus [32], Raynaud's phenomenon [16], and liver disease [30]. There was a significant correlation between MCV and EI max in th...

Two patients with advanced immunocytomas who had become resistant to conventional chemotherapy with developing pancytopenia were given cyclical courses of bleomycin, doxorubicin, vindesine, and prednisolone. Both patients showed an excellent response with recovery of peripheral blood cell counts, marked reduction in marrow involvement, and an incre...

The ingestion of the new sun-tan capsules 'Orobronze' containing the carotenoid derivative canthaxanthin discolours plasma orange. This is noticeable in the plasma of blood donations received 4 days after starting the capsules and continues for a further 4 weeks after finishing the course. This cause of plasma discolouration should be recognised as...

The ingestion of the new sun-tan capsules ‘Orobronze’ containing the carotenoid derivative canthaxanthin discolours plasma orange. This is noticeable in the plasma of blood donations received 4 days after starting the capsules and continues for a further 4 weeks after finishing the course. This cause of plasma discolouration should be recognised as...

A simple method is described of preparing a series of stable polymers of Bence-Jones protein, of known molecular weight, for use as molecular weight markers for sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) - polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

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