Implementation of POCT in the diabetic clinic in a large hospital.

Aim: Point-of-care testing (POCT) is gaining renewed interest, especially in resource-limiting primary health care, due to rise in prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases hence POCT needscontinuous appraisal.

Methods: Random glucose and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) were measured in 104 diabetic patients using standard laboratory multichannel analyzer 917. The utility of venous blood compared to capillary blood in measuring HbA1c was evaluated in a subset of 20 patients using a POCT device, DCA Vantage.

Erythrocyte morphology in metabolic syndrome.

The study of erythrocyte morphology is of great importance in the field of hemorheology as the deformability of the circulating cells has a fundamental influence on the rheological properties of the blood. Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia and obesity (mostly central obesity) are the major components of metabolic syndrome. In this review, we focus on the changes in erythrocyte morphology in different components of metabolic syndrome and also discuss the erythrocyte morphology in regards to oxidative stress - a common state of chronic diseases.

Prevalence of anemia and risk of adverse bleeding effect of drugs: implication for therapy.

This study aimed to evaluate the progress in reduction of prevalence of anemia in rural Australia. It also investigates the prevalence of hypoviscosity in anaemia with a view to determine the fraction of anaemic patients at risk of drug-inducible exacerbation of anemia. Archived clinical pathology data (N = 130, 354) for the period of 1999 to 2008 were utilized.