Development of a fasting blood glucose-based strategy to diagnose women with gestational diabetes mellitus at increased risk of adverse outcomes in a COVID-19 environment.

Objective: To evaluate the role of fasting blood glucose (FBG) to minimise the use of the oral glucose tolerance test in pregnancy (POGTT) for the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

Research Design And Methods: We analysed the POGTTs of 26,242 pregnant women in Queensland, Australia, performed between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2015. A receiver operator characteristics (ROC) assessment was undertaken to indicate the FBG level that most effectively identified women at low risk of an abnormal result.

Bias Assessment of General Chemistry Analytes using Commutable Samples.

Harmonisation of reference intervals for routine general chemistry analytes has been a goal for many years. Analytical bias may prevent this harmonisation. To determine if analytical bias is present when comparing methods, the use of commutable samples, or samples that have the same properties as the clinical samples routinely analysed, should be used as reference samples to eliminate the possibility of matrix effect.

Limited clinical utility of high-sensitivity plasma C-reactive protein assays.

Many recent studies have shown a relationship between plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations and risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the intra-individual variation in plasma CRP concentrations is large. Use of plasma CRP measurement in individual patients is likely to result in many being misclassified in their risk status.