[Preventive treatment of jaundice in premature newborn infants with clofibrate. Double-blind controlled therapeutic trial].

A double blind therapeutic trial of ethyl clofibrate as a preventive treatment of hyperbilirubinemia in preterm neonates was performed in neonates of gestational ages ranging between 31 and 36 weeks. Forty-six children were given the treatment and 43 a placebo. A single 100 mg/kg dose of ethyl clofibrate was administered orally, between the 24th and the 48th hour of life.

[Course of the concentration of serum free amino acids as a function of time and the method of preservation].

In order to determine the optimal conditions for storage in the case of deferred serum amino acid assay, the authors studied the effect of storing the sample for four hours at two different temperatures: melting ice and ambient temperature, as well as the effect of storing the amino acids for three months according to four methods of storage; freezing at -20 degrees C and -80 degrees C of deproteinised and non-deproteinised serum. When the analysis was performed within four hours of collection of the specimen, the best conditions are obtained when the sample is kept at the temperature of melting ice. The optimal conservation consists of immediately deproteinising the sample and storing it frozen for 14 days.

Lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme activity in malignant haematological diseases.

The isoenzymes 1 and 2 (LDH1 and LDH2) of lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) were studied in the serum of 32 patients with malignant haematological diseases. In non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) a diminution in LDH1 and an increase in LDH2 was a sign of evolution towards a more aggressive phase of the disease, or the absence of clinical remission, even when no significant variation of total LDH can be observed in the serum. In acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the isoenzymatic variations are not an early indication of relapse.

[Structural relations in the comparison of methods in clinical chemistry. Application to the study of bias between a centrifugal analysis (Cobas) and the Kodak-Ektachem method].

In this paper, the authors present the aims of a comparison of 2 biochemical methods in terms of their accuracy. They discuss the inadequacies of classical statistical techniques (paired series, linear correlation coefficient, regression). Instead of them, the authors suggest other approaches based on the structural relationship and, more particularly, York's method which, at the present time, seems to be the best one adapted to the most frequently encountered experimental conditions.