Urine high-sensitive troponin I in children cannot offer an applicable alternative to serum.

Introduction: In children, congenital heart defects represent the primary cause of increased serum troponin I. The elimination process of cardiac troponin I from the bloodstream and the factors influencing this process remain unknown. The objective of this study was to explore the role of troponin I as an indicator of cardiac damage in children both in serum and urine, a concept previously investigated in adults.

CLSI-based verification and establishment of reference intervals for common biochemical assays in Croatian newborns.

Introduction: This study aimed to examine whether the Canadian Laboratory Initiative on Pediatric Reference Intervals (CALIPER) reference intervals for 19 commonly used biochemical assays (potassium, sodium, chloride, calcium, magnesium, inorganic phosphorous, glucose, urea, creatinine, direct and total bilirubin, C-reactive protein (CRP), total protein, albumin, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LD)) could be applied to the newborn population of one Croatian clinical hospital.

Materials And Methods: Reference interval verification was performed according to the CLSI EP28-A3c guidelines. Samples of healthy newborns were selected using the direct sampling method and analyzed on the Beckman Coulter AU680 biochemical analyzer.

Fragility spinal fractures among cirrhotic liver transplant candidates in Croatia.

Introduction: Existing data on fragility spinal fractures prevalence in liver transplant candidates are scarce and inconsistent. This may be due to other comorbidities, besides hepatic osteodystrophy (HO), that contribute to bone loss and fragility fracture prevalence in chronic liver disease (CLD).

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of spinal thoracic and lumbar fragility fractures among cirrhotic, non-chronic kidney disease (CKD), non-diabetic liver transplant candidates and to explore their relationship with clinical characteristics, laboratory markers and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) results.

Effect of low-flux and high-flux dialysis membrane on plasma concentrations of cardiac troponin I.

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) concentration stability during dialysis have not been fully elucidated. The aim is to evaluate the effect of a single dialysis session on plasma cTnI. From 122 consecutive anuric adult patients (75 [61.

Risk analysis of the preanalytical process based on quality indicators data.

Background: Improving quality and patient safety in the medical biochemistry laboratory accredited according to the International Standard Organization (ISO 15189:2012) requires the patient-centered evaluation of errors based on the implementation of quality indicators (QIs) across the total testing process. Our main goal was to achieve quality improvement of the preanalytical process in an emergency laboratory which had the highest error rate using risk management principles.

Methods: Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) was applied to analyze predefined preanalytical QIs and score laboratory failures for the failure demerit value (FDV), probability of failure (PF) and probability of failure remedy (PFR).

Standardization in laboratory medicine: Adoption of common reference intervals to the Croatian population.

Considering the fact that the results of laboratory tests provide useful information about the state of health of patients, determination of reference value is considered an intrinsic part in the development of laboratory medicine. There are still huge differences in the analytical methods used as well as in the associated reference intervals which could consequently significantly affect the proper assessment of patient health. In a constant effort to increase the quality of patients' care, there are numerous international initiatives for standardization and/or harmonization of laboratory diagnostics in order to achieve maximum comparability of laboratory test results and improve patient safety.

Validation of a laboratory and hospital information system in a medical laboratory accredited according to ISO 15189.

Introduction: The aim of the study was to present a protocol for laboratory information system (LIS) and hospital information system (HIS) validation at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine of the Merkur University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia.

Materials And Methods: Validity of data traceability was checked by entering all test requests for virtual patient into HIS/LIS and printing corresponding barcoded labels that provided laboratory analyzers with the information on requested tests. The original printouts of the test results from laboratory analyzer(s) were compared with the data obtained from LIS and entered into the provided template.