Activity

Melatonin treatment reduced LDH release and neuronal apoptosis at various time points, markedly increased Akt phosphorylation in neuronal membrane, but significantly suppressed it in the cytoplasm of post-OGD neurons. Mechanistically, melatonin-induced Akt phosphorylation and neuronal survival was blocked by Wortmannin, a potent PIP3 inhibitor, exposing increased PI3K/Akt activation as a central player in melatonin-driven neuroprotection. Finally, PTEN knock-down through siRNA significantly inhibited PI3K/Akt activation and cell survival following melatonin treatment, suggesting that melatonin protection against ischemic brain damage, is at least partially, dependent on modulation of the PTEN/PI3K/Akt signaling axis.

We aimed to evaluate the analytical performance and clinical diagnostic accuracy of the SuperFlex point-of-care testing (POCT) high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) assay system.

The imprecision, the limit of blank, the limit of detection, the limit of quantitation, linearity and comparability were assessed as per the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Also, the 99th-percentile reference value and diagnostic accuracy were evaluated.

The reproducibility and total imprecision were 1.52-1.92% and 2.69-2.92%, respectively. Limit of blank and limit of detection were 1 ng/L and 1.8 ng/L, respectively, and limit of quantitation was 12 ng/L at 10% coefficient of variation (CV). The results met the requirements of linearity, and the correlation coefficient was 0.996. The SuperFlex POCT results had good agreement with those obtained by the Siemens Advia 2400. The CV% was 7.24% at the 99th percentile concentration (p99th) of 25.6 ng/L (95% confidence interval 22.0-33.3 ng/L) from 620 healthy subjects. The sex-partitioned CV% and p99th were 7.15% at 27 ng/L (males;

 = 308) and 7.35% at 24 ng/L (females;

 = 312), respectively (

 < 0.0001). The hs-cTnI detection rate of all observed healthy individuals from limit of detection to 99th was 82.57% by the SuperFlex POCT assay, 89.90% for the males and 75.48% for the females. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of diagnostic performance for acute myocardial infarction were 100%, 81.25%, 57% and 100%, respectively.

The SuperFlex POCT system showed the analytical performance characteristics required for enabling the clinical use of a hs-cTnI assay.

The SuperFlex POCT system showed the analytical performance characteristics required for enabling the clinical use of a hs-cTnI assay.

diagnostic bilirubin reagents based on oxidation with bilirubin oxidase or vanadic acid for total and direct-reacting bilirubin are widely used in Japan; however, their reactivity to unconjugated and conjugated bilirubin and delta bilirubin has not been completely disclosed by manufacturers. We used artificially prepared bilirubin materials to investigate the reactivity with four

diagnostic bilirubin reagents.

Porcine unconjugated bilirubin solution, chemically synthesized ditaurobilirubin solution, and chemically synthesized delta bilirubin solution were used as surrogates of naturally occurring unconjugated bilirubin, conjugated bilirubin, and delta bilirubin, respectively. The total bilirubin and direct-reacting bilirubin concentrations were measured by three bilirubin oxidase methods and one vanadic acid method, and the observed concentrations were compared with those obtained by the diazo-based reference measurement procedure.

The unconjugated bilirubin and delta bilirubin concentrations were slts vary depending on the reagents used.

We revealed the reactivity of IVD-TB and IVD-DB reagents to artificially prepared bilirubin materials, and their consistency with reference measurement procedure. The delta bilirubin data results vary depending on the reagents used.Background The revised national guidelines for analysis of cerebrospinal fluid for bilirubin in suspected subarachnoid haemorrhage (UK) provide an objective means of assessing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples to determine risk of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). The guidelines are intended for general use, but samples rendered uninterpretable due to the presence of the antibiotic doxycycline have been described. Here, further cases of antibiotic- based interference, and their implications, are presented.Methods An archival search of CSF spectra performed at Hallands County Hospital Halmstad was performed for the years 2011 and 2016- 2019 in an attempt to locate instances of interference. Each case of suspected interference was further investigated with in vitro reproduction experiments as a means of confirmation and assessment of potential clinical impact.Results A total of 10 cases of CSF curve interference were discovered 6 due to doxycycline, 3 due to metronidazole and 1 due to tetracycline. Interference due to the tetracycline class was revealed through in vitro experimentation to cause an apparent decrease in the sampleâs net bilirubin absorbance(NBA); the presence of xanthochromia on visual inspection was, however, conserved.Conclusions The problem of CSF absorbance curve interference might be more common than previously suspected. Due to the potential NBA- lowering effect of tetracyclines, the author recommends visual examination of CSF samples in every case.

Gestational TSH and FT4 reference intervals may differ according to assay method, but the extent of variation is unclear and has not been systematically evaluated. CNQX clinical trial We conducted a systematic review of published studies on TSH and FT4 reference intervals in pregnancy. Our aim was to quantify method-related differences in gestation reference intervals, across four commonly used assay methods, Abbott, Beckman, Roche and Siemens.

We searched the literature for relevant studies, published between January 2000 and December 2020, in healthy pregnant women without thyroid antibodies or disease. For each study, we extracted trimester-specific reference intervals (2.5-97.5 percentiles) for TSH and FT4 as well as the manufacturer-provided reference interval for the corresponding non-pregnant population.

TSH reference intervals showed a wide range of study-to-study differences with upper limits ranging from 2.33 to 8.30 mU/L. FT4 lower limits ranged from 4.40 to 13.93 pmol/L, with consistently lower reference intervals observed with the Beckman method.