Home and laboratory pregnancy-testing kits.

Home pregnancy test kits are more sensitive than many pregnancy kits used in laboratories or health centres. Nurses should know the sensitivity of the kit used in their centre or laboratory. A positive home pregnancy test should always be treated as the correct result until sufficient tests have been carried out to prove otherwise.     

More on: laboratory investigation of lupus anticoagulants: mixing studies are sometimes required

See also Favaloro EJ, Bonar R, Zebeljan D, Kershaw G, Marsden K. Laboratory investigation of lupus anticoagulants: mixing studies are sometimes required. J Thromb Haemost 2010; 8 : 2828–31.     

临床与实验室共同努力 提高抗感染水平

提高临床抗感染疗效的关键是正确诊断,包括感染的诊断、病原菌的诊断和耐药性的诊断.面对日益复杂的病原菌和耐药性,临床与实验室应加强合作与交流,共同努力提高病原菌的诊断水平,正确报告和解读微生物检验报告,阐明细菌耐药机制,积极探索多重耐药菌的治疗方法;同时充分利用炎性指标的指导价值,努力提高抗感染水平.     

加强医学实验室生物安全的科学管理

医学实验室工作人员在日常工作中检测的各类标本中可能含有一种甚至几种致病微生物,这些病原微生物对操作者和环境具有潜在的生物危害,对公共卫生防控和人员健康产生了很大影响和威胁,生物安全已成为全球关注的重要公共卫生问题.加强医学实验室生物安全的科学有效管理,以下几方面工作均不可忽视:(1)开展实验室生物风险评估;(2)实施实验室合理布局流程;(3)配备生物安全设施设备;(4)建立生物安全管理文件;(5)加强人员安全防护;(6)严格标本与医疗废物管理.     

Macrophages are required for neonatal heart regeneration

Myocardial infarction (MI) leads to cardiomyocyte death, which triggers an immune response that clears debris and restores tissue integrity. In the adult heart, the immune system facilitates scar formation, which repairs the damaged myocardium but compromises cardiac function. In neonatal mice, the heart can regenerate fully without scarring following MI; however, this regenerative capacity is lost by P7. The signals that govern neonatal heart regeneration are unknown. By comparing the immune response to MI in mice at P1 and P14, we identified differences in the magnitude and kinetics of monocyte and macrophage responses to injury. Using a cell-depletion model, we determined that heart regeneration and neoangiogenesis following MI depends on neonatal macrophages. Neonates depleted of macrophages were unable to regenerate myocardia and formed fibrotic scars, resulting in reduced cardiac function and angiogenesis. Immunophenotyping and gene expression profiling of cardiac macrophages from regenerating and nonregenerating hearts indicated that regenerative macrophages have a unique polarization phenotype and secrete numerous soluble factors that may facilitate the formation of new myocardium. Our findings suggest that macrophages provide necessary signals to drive angiogenesis and regeneration of the neonatal mouse heart. Modulating inflammation may provide a key therapeutic strategy to support heart regeneration.     

Care of the bereaved when postmortems are required

There are two kinds of postmortem--those undertaken by coroners and those undertaken in hospitals. The rules for consent depend on the kind of postmortem, and families must be offered much fuller information than before the Alder Hey Inquiry. As a result, nurses need to be clear about what is involved in a postmortem so that they can support families in asking the right questions and understanding the consent issues involved.     

Experience in using the LABType SSO reagent kits in the practice of a HLA typing laboratory

HLA was typed from HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-DRB1 loci (to the second place) in 443 patients, by applying the LABType SSO reagent kits (One Lambda, USA). The findings were analyzed using the software Arlequin version 3.1. There were no deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg law. Overall, the authors identified 16, 27, and 13 allelic variants ofHLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-DRB1 loci, respectively. There were also 4 most common haplotypes of HLA-A-B-DRBII: HLA-A *03-B*35-DRB1 *01 (4.29%), HLA-A *01-B*08-DRBl *03 (3.5%), HLA-A*03-B*07-DRBI *15 (3.37%), and HLA-A *02-B*07-DRBI *15 (2.93%).