Jan 13, 2020 | Chemical Pathology, Obstetric and Neonatal care
Cord blood gas analysis is considered the gold standard for the determination of intrapartum foetal hypoxia. It provides an objective retrospective method for continuous quality improvement in the management of foetal acid-base abnormalities. It is also sensible to...
Jan 7, 2020 | Chemical Pathology, Knowledge Hub
Please take note of the platform change for 24 hour urine cortisol analysis.This test will now be performed on the Abbott Architect immunoassay platform and will result in a change in reference interval to: 24 hr urine cortisol reference interval: 11.8 – 485.6...
Nov 4, 2019 | Autoimmune, Chemical Pathology
The autoimmune liver diseases include the triad of Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH), Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). These conditions represent perhaps only 5% of all liver diseases, although the true prevalence in South-Africa is...
Oct 31, 2019 | Chemical Pathology
The porphyrias arise from enzyme defects in the haem biosynthetic pathway. Accumulation of the precursors (ALA and PBG) lead to acute neurovisceral attacks, marked by severe abdominal pain and autonomic neuropathy, which may progress to a potentially fatal motor...
Mar 19, 2019 | Chemical Pathology, Gastrointestinal
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...
Oct 15, 2018 | Chemical Pathology, Knowledge Hub
Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a serious complication of diabetes mellitus, and consists of the biochemical triad of ketosis, hyperglycaemia and acidaemia. DKA usually occurs as a result of an absolute or relative insulin deficiency and an increase in...
