Procalcitonin (PCT) is a 116 amino acid peptide precursor of calcitonin. In the absence of infection, it is produced at very low levels in a few highly selected tissues. However, at the onset of infection bacterial factors and host inflammatory cytokines induce the...
Southern Africa has a very high background prevalence of HIV infection, making exposure risk both inside and outside the occupational setting high. The approach to occupational, sexual and other forms of exposure (bites, assaults, trauma, injecting drug use, etc) is...
Alternate or modified Westergren methods to measure erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) have been adopted by laboratories worldwide. These methods offer reduction in analysis time and improved operator safety. The iSED Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate analyzer is an...
Acute Viral Hepatitis is the most common cause of jaundice in pregnancy. HBV infection during pregnancy is usually mild, not associated with increased mortality or teratogenicity, and should not prompt consideration of termination. Acute HBV infection may lead to...
Pathcare Reference Laboratory has recently instituted a rapid blood culture ID technique where organisms from positive blood cultures can now be identified after about 4 hours from the time when the blood culture system flags the blood culture bottle as positive....
