Multi-centre observational study of spurious hyperkalaemia due to EDTA contamination.

Background: A multi-centre observational study investigating the prevalence of spurious hyperkalaemia due to potassium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (kEDTA) contamination.

Methods: Serum EDTA was measured in anonymised serum samples with a serum potassium > 6.0 mmol/L collected over a one month period in five different hospital laboratories.

Effects of hormone replacement therapy on insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I, IGF-II and IGF binding protein (IGFBP)-1 to IGFBP-4: implications for cardiovascular risk.

Objective: Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women is controversial, with an elevated cardiovascular event rate for combined estrogen-progestogen but no adverse cardiovascular effect and possible cumulative benefit for estrogen alone. Here we measured the effects of differing estrogen/progestogen combinations on the insulin-like growth factor (IGF)/IGF binding protein (IGFBP) system which has been implicated in the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease, higher IGFBP-1 levels having been linked with a reduced cardiovascular risk.

Design: Oral conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) alone, or in combination with the increasingly androgenic progestogens medroxyprogesterone acetate, desogestrel or norethisterone, were given in a randomized triple crossover fashion to 35 healthy postmenopausal women.