Biological variability and reference intervals for total plasma homocysteine.

We determined the intra-individual biological variability of plasma homocysteine in 20 healthy subjects. The intra-individual coefficient of variation was relatively low (8.3%), indicating that a single measurement can be used to characterize the average homocysteine concentration.

Genotyping as a diagnostic aid in genetic haemochromatosis.

Background: Two mutations in a newly described gene, HFE, have been proposed as genetic markers for the inherited iron overload disease, genetic haemochromatosis.

Methods: We assessed the frequency of both mutations in a cohort of genetic haemochromatosis patients and compared these with a control population. The patients were genetic haemochromatosis patients from Western Australia whose diagnosis met strict criteria for phenotypic expression.

Cardiac troponin I should replace CKMB for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction.

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) has been reported to be a highly specific marker for cardiac injury. We investigated the performance of this assay in patients admitted to a coronary care unit for suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI), patients with extensive skeletal muscle damage, marathon runners and as a routine diagnostic test over a four week period. cTnI proved to be as sensitive a marker for AMI as creatine kinase/MB isoenzyme (CKMB) in patients admitted to the coronary care unit.

An audit of 267 consecutively excised mammographically detected breast lesions 1989-1993.

Pathology reports and slides were reviewed from 267 mammographically detected impalpable breast lesions, excised after hookwire localisation. There were 182 benign and 85 malignant lesions (benign to malignant ratio of 2.1:1).

Lead poisoning in an electrician: a bad substitute for a bad habit.

An electrician presented with a four-month history of unexplained abdominal pain and constipation, which had prompted four hospital admissions and numerous investigations. Blood-film results suggested lead poisoning, and an occupational history revealed that he had chewed about a metre of electrical cable (which contains lead) daily for 10 years as a substitute for smoking.

The pathology of hanging deaths in Western Australia.

We present here the results of a prospective study of the pathology of 233 fatalities due to hanging in Western Australia (WA). The deaths occurred during the 5 year period 1988-92. Post mortem examination of these cases was undertaken according to a standardised protocol by forensic pathologists of this office.