Smoking, von Willebrand factor and ADAMTS-13 in healthy males.

While von Willebrand factor (vWF) has been reported to be elevated in smokers, there are no reports on the effects of smoking on its cleaving protease ADAMTS-13, particularly in subjects of Arab ethnicity. This study was conducted to determine the effects of smoking on vWF and ADAMTS-13 antigen and activity levels in Arab males. Venous blood samples from 80 smoking (at rest) and 80 non-smoking healthy males were collected after asking subjects to fast and refrain from smoking for 8 hours.

A fatal case of oleandrin poisoning.

The study presents a case of fatal poisoning with oleander leaves in an adult diabetic male. After repeated vomiting, and gastrointestinal distress the patient was admitted at the hospital with cardiac symptoms 1h after the ingestion. Urine samples were assayed immunochemically and by GC-MS for drugs of abuse and for general toxicological screen.

Effects of cigarette smoking on hematological parameters and von Willebrand factor functional activity levels in asymptomatic male and female Arab smokers.

Objectives: This study aimed at determining the effects of cigarette smoking based on gender, on several hematological parameters and von Willebrand factor protein in the asymptomatic Arab population of Kuwait.

Subjects And Methods: Ninety-two subjects participated in this study: 55 males (31 smokers and 24 nonsmokers) and 37 females (18 smokers and 19 nonsmokers). Complete blood count results were obtained using Beckman Coulter Hematology Analyzer.

Validity assessment of nine discriminant functions used for the differentiation between iron deficiency anemia and thalassemia minor.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and thalassemia minor are two of the most common causes of microcytic anemias worldwide. Because of similar red blood cell count parameters and blood picture, it was imperative to develop other measures that would differentially and correctly diagnose these two anemias. Several mathematical formulas and simple RBC indices have been introduced as simple, fast and inexpensive means of providing differential diagnosis for IDA and thalassemia minor.

Comparison of erythrocyte sedimentation rate measurement by the automated SEDIsystem and conventional Westergren method using the Bland and Altman statistical method.

Objectives: To compare the performance of SEDIsystem(TM), a fully automated analyzer for the measurement of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), with the manual Westergren method.

Materials And Methods: Both methods were applied to 150 randomly selected subjects. The linear regression and Bland and Altman data analysis methods were used to measure the agreement between the automated and manual methods.