Anemia and carnitine supplementation in hemodialyzed patients.

Carnitine supplementation in hemodialyzed patients was studied in a double-blinded, randomized, controlled trial in order to elucidate the effect of intravenous carnitine on renal anemia in patients treated with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO). Twenty stable hemodialysis (HD) patients received intravenous L-carnitine after each dialysis session in a dosage of 5 (N = 15) and 25 (N = 5) mg/kg, respectively, together with intravenous iron saccharate (20 mg/HD session) for four months and without iron for a further four months. Twenty patients received placebo instead of carnitine with an identical iron regimen.

"Ocean-to-Ocean Project": a transcontinental external quality assessment trial in clinical chemistry realized throughout Eurasia.

More than 800 diagnostic laboratories situated throughout the Eur-Asian continent--from the Pacific Coast up to the North Sea littoral--were involved in a common survey of External Quality Assessment (EQA). It consisted of the simultaneous measurement of up to 30 analytes of 'general' clinical chemistry using the same batch of control material. The laboratories were associated in four EQA institutions: SKZL (The Netherlands), OQUASTA (Austria), SEKK (Czech Republic) and BKKSystem (Community of Independent States).

Pregnancy-related changes of carnitine and acylcarnitine concentrations of plasma and erythrocytes.

Total-, free-, and acylcarnitine concentrations were determined in whole blood, plasma, and red blood cells of 88 women during pregnancy. Already in the 12th week of gestation the mean whole blood carnitine level was significantly (p < 0.01) lower than those of the controls.

[External quality assurance: a significant--and 25-year-old--element of quality management in the medical diagnostic laboratory].

An external quality assurance system in the medical diagnostic laboratory, which is an essential part of the modern total quality management (TQM) concept in the public health system, was established in Austria already 25 years ago. The development and the scope of this quality assessment system by the "Austrian Society for Quality Assurance and Standardization of Analyses in the Clinical Laboratory" (OQUASTA) are presented. The decreasing coefficients of variation of several parameters of the external quality assessment exercises demonstrate an increasing analytical precision and might be interpreted as an effect of this quality assurance system.