Evaluation of Performance Including Interference Tests of Diasys Reagents on Hitachi 747 Analyzer / 대한임상병리학회지

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the analytical performances of Diasys reagents manufactured by Diasys Diagnostic Systems (Holzheim, Germany) with Hitachi 747. METHODS: We evaluated AST, ALT, ALP, gamma-GT, calcium, and glucose. Only two tests were adapt-ed to different methods from the current ones: the photometric test using the arsenazo III for calci-um, the kinetic colorimetric test according to Szasz/Persijin using l-gamma-glutamyl-3-carboxy-4-nitranilide as a substrate for gamma-GT. Precision, interference, linearity, and method comparisons were evaluated by NCCLS guidelines. RESULTS: The coefficient of variation (CV) of total precision was less than 6.8% in all items. Preci-sions and linearities of all items were acceptable. Correlation coefficients were more than 0.9884 and all items showed excellent agreement compared to the current reagents in the reportable range. We could not find any significant interference for six test items up to 750 mg/dL triglyceride, 50 mg/dL hemoglobin, and 20 mg/dL bilirubin, except that the latter ALT showed a negative bias by more than 5 mg/dL of bilirubin. CONCLUSIONS: Diasys reagents showed high precision, linearity and correlation in comparison to the current reagents. So we conclude that these reagents are good for routine clinical use with Hitachi 747.

Bone Marrow Involvement of Primary Mediastinal Germ Cell Tumor: A Case Report / 대한임상병리학회지

A variety of solid tumors can metastasize to bone marrow. In rare cases actual circulating neoplastic cells can be identified, accounting for usually only a low proportion of total white blood cells. It is well known that hematologic malignancies are often associated with mediastinal germ cell tumors, but huge tumor cell burden resulting in leukemia-like presentation is a very rare manifestation. We report here a case of malignant germ cell tumor with leukemia-like infiltration of bone marrow. A 19-year-old man was admitted for dyspnea for several months. Computer tomographic scan revealed that he had a huge mass at anterior mediastinum with a large amount of pleural effusion. His pleural fluid had many numbers of large, pleomorphic atypical cells. Peripheral blood also contained atypical cells with similar morphology. On bone marrow biopsy, diffuse infiltration of tumor cells were noted suggesting acute leukemia, but immunophenotyping ruled out the possibility of hematologic malignancy. His serum alpha-fetoprotein and beta-human chorionic gonadotropin levels were markedly elevated, which was consistent with the diagnosis of primary germ cell tumor. Cytogenetically the tumor cells showed hyper-triploidy. After induction chemotherapy with cisplatin, etoposide and bleomycin, the size of the tumor was regressed and the patient's symptoms were improved.