Palliative care at home: general practitioners working with palliative care teams.

Home care is the preferred option for most people with a terminal illness. Providing home care relies on good community-based services, and a general practice workforce competent in palliative care practice and willing to accommodate patients' needs. Structured palliative care training of general practitioners is needed at undergraduate and postgraduate level, with attention to barriers to teamwork and communication.

Comparison of serum sodium and chloride results for Flame IV-Auto Analyzer II, SMAC, Ektachem 400, and Nova 4 clinical analyzer systems.

We determined serum Na+ and Cl- results using Technicon's Flame IV-Auto Analyzer II (FLIV/AAII) system and Kodak's Ektachem 400 clinical analyzer. Our objective was to determine whether Na+ and Cl- results from these analyzers were sufficiently similar to report to clinicians without reference to the system used for the determination. Method precision of the two systems for Na+ results was comparable; whereas Ektachem 400 Cl- results were more imprecise than those determined using the FLIV/AAII, Ektachem Na+ results showed lower correlation with the FLIV/AAII (r = 0.

Comparison of precision for the Kodak Ektachem 400 and Technicon AutoAnalyzer II creatinine methods.

We have evaluated the precision of the Ektachem 400 thin film enzymic creatinine method and compared it to that obtained for an AutoAnalyzer II (AAII) picric acid procedure. The results of the study show that the Ektachem method yields imprecise creatinine values over the low concentration range (40-240 mumol/L). Run-to-run precision estimates at a creatinine concentration of 225 mumol/L (by AAII) yielded CV's of 9.

Continuous-flow enzymic determination of serum total and high density lipoprotein cholesterol using microlitre sample volumes.

We determine serum total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) using a modified Technicon Auto Analyzer II-BMC enzymic system. The method uses 25 microL of sample (serum or supernate) for cholesterol determinations. Pooled serum which was calibrated indirectly against CDC's Abell-Kendall method was used for standardization.

Continuous-flow enzymatic determination of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

A simple, sensitive, and precise continuous-flow (Technicon Auto Analyser II) method using enzymic reagents to measure high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in the supernatant of serum treated with heparin-manganese reagent is described. 1. The sensitivity of the system was improved by increasing the flow rates of both sample and re-sample manifold lines to 0.

Continuous-flow enzymatic determination of total serum cholesterol and method standardization with CDC-calibrated pooled sera.

We compared Boehringer Mannheim's enzymatic kit for the continuous-flow (AutoAnalyzer II) determination of serum cholesterol with Technicon's N-24a extraction method. Results for patients' samples analyzed by the enzymatic method were higher than those by the comparison method. To evaluate accuracy in the cholesterol determinations, we enrolled the enzymatic method into the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Lipid Standardization program.

A comparison of serum electrolyte results by the Flame III Auto-Analyser and a Flame IV Auto-Analyser which utilises curve regeneration with a data acquisition system.

Results obtained with a Technicon Flame Photometer Model IV Auto-Analyzer, which utilizes curve regeneration in conjunction with a mini-computer for the continuous-flow determination of serum electrolytes, is presented. The system, featuring optimal flow conditions, subjects sample peaks to a mathematical treatment to effectively remove exponential deformation. The evaluation, undertaken after 2 months of operation in the routine clinical laboratory, utilizes the Flame Photometer Model III as the "referee" procedure.

Application of curve regeneration to the determination of electrolytes by the Flame IV Auto-Analyser using a mini-computer.

Curve regeneration is applied to the continuous-flow determination of serum Na +, K +, Cl- and CO2 by the Flame photometer IV (Technicon Corp.). A Hewlett-Packard 2100 A mini-computer is used for data acquisition.

A comparison of serum electrolyte results by Technicon's Flame III and Flame IV AutoAnalyser system.

A comparison of Technicon's (Technicon, Tarrytown, N. Y., 10591) Flame III and Flame IV electrolyte Auto-Analyzer systems for the determination of Na+, K+, Cl- and CO2 in serum is described.

Curve prediction in automated analyses in routine laboratories.

1. The hydraulics of first- and second-generation AutoAnalyzers introduce lag and exponential deformations of the square wave signal expected from the colorimeter. These factors limit sampling rates by causing sample interaction.