Salivary testosterone changes during oral glucose tolerance tests in overweight and obese men - Postprandial or circadian variation?

Background: Serum total testosterone (T) decreases postprandially. Postprandial salivary testosterone (SalT) responses, however, have not been studied. We report on the effect of glucose ingestion on fasting SalT concentrations.

COVID-19 seroprevalence after the first UK wave of the pandemic and its association with the physical and mental wellbeing of secondary care healthcare workers.

Objectives: To determine the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody status amongst healthcare workers (HCWs) working through the first wave of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. To examine the association of seroprevalence and self-reported COVID-19 symptoms with occupation, sex, and ethnicity; and how these factors were associated with physical and mental wellbeing.

Design: Single-centre cohort study.

Diagnostic performance of serum calprotectin in discriminating active from inactive ulcerative colitis in an outpatient setting.

There are limited and conflicting data on the value of serum calprotectin (sCp) in discriminating active from inactive disease activity in ulcerative colitis (UC). Faecal calprotectin (fCp), sCp, serum C-reactive protein (sCRP) and platelets were compared in patients with UC who had clinically active (n = 29) and clinically inactive (n = 42) disease. Serum calprotectin was measured with Bühlmann (BMN sCp) and Immunodiagnostik (IDK sCp) assays.

Utility of plasma NGAL for the diagnosis of AKI following cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The objective of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of plasma neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (pNGAL) for the early diagnosis of acute kidney injury (AKI) in adult patients following cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Electronic databases and other resources were systematically searched for relevant studies. Risk of bias was assessed using the Quality Assessment for Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2) tool.

Conflicting effects of haemolysis on plasma sodium and chloride are due to different haemolysis study protocols: A case for standardisation.

Background: Haemolysis has been reported as having a positive, negative or no effect on plasma sodium (PNa) and chloride (PCl). We investigated the haemoltytic effect of different haemolysis protocols on PNa and PCl using modelling and laboratory experiments.

Methods: In a modelling experiment, percentage change and recovery due to dilution in routinely () haemolysed samples were compared against shear stress haemolysis and samples spiked with haemolysate from whole blood freeze-thaw, packed cells freeze-thaw and osmotic shock protocols.

Samples spiked with pituitary-derived thyroid-stimulating hormone may disguise the extent of differences between thyroid-stimulating hormone assays.

Background: A large discordance in the diagnosis and potential management of hypothyroidism using Abbott and Roche thyroid assays has been reported recently. The difference in Abbott and Roche thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) results in these studies was larger than anticipated from the external quality assessment (EQA) reports.

Methods: Abbott and Roche TSH method means in UK NEQAS for thyroid hormones distributions 430 to 454 were compared against the amount of TSH spiked.

High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I: is ethnicity relevant?

Aims: To evaluate 99th percentile upper reference limits (URLs) and investigate ethnic differences for the Abbott Architect high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) in a middle-aged to elderly cosmopolitan population.

Methods: In subjects without cardiovascular disease and after outlier exclusion, data on hs-cTnI from 149 white men, 150 white women, 150 South Asian (SA) men and 150 SA women in their sixth, seventh and eight decades were analysed. Each ethnicity-gender-decade subgroup consisted of 50 patients except white men in their sixth decade (n=49).

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression - The value of salivary cortisol and cortisone in assessing hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal recovery.

Background: The 0.25 mg short synacthen test is used to assess recovery from hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal suppression due to chronic glucocorticoid administration. We assessed the potential role of salivary cortisol and cortisone in predicting hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function using the short synacthen test as the gold standard test.

Multicenter Evaluation of a High-Sensitivity Troponin I Assay and Verification of an Early Rule-Out Algorithm.

Background: The objectives of this study were to independently evaluate the analytical performance of the STAT high-sensitivity troponin I (hs-cTnI) assay on a recently launched and CE-marked integrated chemistry and immunoassay system, confirm acceptable performance of the assay in line with The Third Global MI Task Force recommendations, and confirm suitability of the assay for continued use of an early rule-out algorithm for acute coronary syndrome at our Trust.

Methods: A multicenter evaluation of the analytical performance characteristics of the hs-cTnI assay on the Abbott Alinity ci series was performed in 5 clinical laboratories across Europe. Comparison studies were performed vs the existing Abbott ARCHITECT hs-cTnI assay.

Analytical Performance of 10 High-Volume Clinical Chemistry Assays on the Alinity c System.

Background: Early access for routine testing with the Alinity c clinical chemistry system (Abbot Laboratories) presented the opportunity to characterize the analytical performance of multiple analytes across clinical laboratories in Europe.

Methods: A total of 8 laboratories from 7 European countries evaluated 10 high-volume chemistry assays on the Alinity c system for imprecision, linearity, and accuracy by method comparison to the routine ARCHITECT (Abbott Laboratories) method.

Results: Within-run precision was less than 4% coefficient of variation (CV), with total imprecision less than 5.

The acetaminophen metabolite N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI) inhibits glutathione synthetase in vitro; a clue to the mechanism of 5-oxoprolinuric acidosis?

1. Metabolic acidosis due to accumulation of l-5-oxoproline is a rare, poorly understood, disorder associated with acetaminophen treatment in malnourished patients with chronic morbidity. l-5-Oxoprolinuria signals abnormal functioning of the γ-glutamyl cycle, which recycles and synthesises glutathione.