A direct radioimmunoassay for free progesterone in saliva.

The direct radioimmunoassay using iodinated tracer (125I-HIS-3CMO) has been developed for the determination of salivary progesterone of healthy volunteers with regular menstrual cycles. Lack of significant diurnal variation either in the follicular or luteal phase indicated that collections of saliva could be tailored to the need of individuals making the study somewhat easier. Salivary progesterone has shown to correlate significantly with free serum progesterone reflecting the unbound biologically active progesterone fraction in blood. Moreover, salivary progesterone concentration ranges are similar to those found in other studies. Our findings indicated that determination of progesterone in saliva could be used in place of serum or plasma. Since firstly, it is non-invasive, easy for sample collection and a stress-free technique. Secondly, it is much more accurate in prediction of corpus luteum function and ovulation than the basal-body temperature or endometrial biopsy or other clinical predictors currently in use. Finally, determination of daily salivary progesterone levels throughout the menstrual cycle may be advantageously employed as a non-invasive serial sampling technique for the assessment of corpus luteum and ovarian functions.

Serum lipid, lipoprotein-cholesterol and apolipoproteins A-I and B of smoking and non-smoking males.

Cigarette smoking is an important risk factor for coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease. Accordingly, we measured the serum lipid, lipoprotein-cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I, B in 128 cigarette smoking males and 67 non-smoking males. The total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol in smokers and non-smokers showed no statistical significance. The smokers had significantly higher serum triglyceride and VLDL-cholesterol levels (P < 0.001), but significantly lower HDL-cholesterol levels (P < 0.05) than non-smokers. The apolipoprotein A-I was significantly lower and apolipoprotein B was significantly higher in smokers than non-smokers (P < 0.001). Levels of lipid, lipoprotein-cholesterol were related to the number of cigarettes smoked per day. Triglyceride and VLDL-cholesterol levels were significantly higher in those who smoked > 20 cigarettes/day compared with those who smoked 10-20, < 10 cigarettes/day and non-smokers (P < 0.05). Those who smoked > 20 cigarettes/day had significantly lower HDL-cholesterol than those of non-smokers (P < 0.05). All three groups of smokers had significantly lower apolipoprotein A-I than non-smokers (P < 0.05), whereas, those who smoked > 20 cigarettes/day had significantly higher apolipoprotein B levels than those who smoked 10-20, < 10 cigarettes/day and non-smokers (P < 0.05).

Risk factors for cerebrovascular disease in urban community of Thailand.

Risk factors for cerebrovascular disease (CVD) were surveyed in an urban community of Thailand from October 1988 to May 1989. Two hundred and ninety males aged between 35-64 years were randomly selected from 2,605 households in Bangkok Noi area. Two hundred and seven subjects completed the study. The mean age was 47.7 (SD = 9.6) years and 157 subjects (75.8%) were manual workers. Smoking rate was 69.1 per cent. There were 27 subjects (13.0%) who had systolic blood pressure over 160 mmHg and 41 subjects (19.8%) who had diastolic blood pressure over 95 mmHg. Only 12 subjects (5.8%) had Body Mass Index (BMI) over 25. Blood chemistry determination of the study population revealed 9.8 per cent with blood sugar over 120 mg/dl, 29.5 per cent with hypercholesterolemia (cholesterol over 250 mg/dl), 23.8 per cent with hypertriglyceridemia (triglyceride over 175 mg/dl), and 20.2 per cent with low high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C below 35 mg/dl). Pearson correlation coefficients showed correlation of BMI with blood pressure and total cholesterol but lack of correlation between blood cholesterol level and age in our study. Blood pressure levels, however, correlated significantly with age.

Preparation of home-made lyophilized human serum for quality control in clinical chemistry.

Tested serum of donors from the Blood Bank unit of Siriraj Hospital was collected. Only negative hepatitis B-antigen determined by RPHA (reverse passive haemagglutination) method was selected. The sera were pooled as one pooled serum. Filtrations were performed after adjusting some biochemical constituents. To obtain lyophilized serum, the pooled serum was subjected to freeze-dry process. It was divided into aliquot of 5.0 ml in each vial, then quick freezed and dried in the lyophilizer. Precision of between-vial filling volume was studied. We found that the coefficient if variation was 0.01%. Reconstitution of the lyophilized serum before use was performed by adding 5.0 ml of distilled water to each vial. The coefficient variation of between-vial biochemical constituents was found to be less than 0.5%. The precision of 19 routine biochemical tests in these Home-Made lyophilized human serum were compared to those of 3 batches of well-known commercial control materials (ORTHO, MONITROL, VALIDATE). By F-test analysis, the coefficient variation of most biochemical tests in the Home-Made lyophilized human serum was not significant different from those of the commercial ones (P>0.05). The long-term consistency of the biochemical constituents was studied. In a duration of one year, from March 1985 to February 1986, three-month periods means and standard deviations were analyzed. The results showed no significant difference for these period of study (P>0.05). Since 1985, the Home-Made lyophilized serum has been used as internal control material in our Central Clinical Chemistry Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine Technology, Mahidol University in place of imported control serum. The external control evaluation was successfully reported by the International External Quality Control Assessment Scheme. (Birmingham UK) and the improvement of Overall Mean Running Variance Index Score (OMRVIS) is obviously seen in the graphic curve.