Development of chick embryos exposed to 20mT magnetic fields

There is an increasing interest in the use and practice of magnetic devices in clinical alternative medicine, research and industry. In this work, the development of red blood cells [RBCs] of chick embryos exposed to 20,000 micro T alternating pole magnet was investigated. It was noticed that RBCs of the embryos that have been exposed for 5 days exhibited marked deformations especially their membranes and the whole morphology. However, RBCs of the embryos which had been exposed to the applied magnetic fields for 5, 10, 15 - days and those that directly hatched, did not show clear changes in blood films photographed, but the result of osmotic fragility of RBCs of the embryos which directly hatched have shown changes in the membrane permeability. It was suggested that RBCs have more tolerance during the development stages. This has been concluded from the facts that the RBCs did not exhibit any changes in the shape, even though in reality there are changes in the membrane permeability. One can infer that changes have occurred in the membrane, even though they have not been revealed physically in the blood photographs

What in the percentage of dysmorphic red blood cells in diagnosis of nephronal hematuria?

Hematuria indicates the presence of an abnormal amount of red blood cells [RBCs] in the urine. The causes of hematuria are multiple and its investigation is crucial. One of the methods for differentiating between nephronal and non-nephronal hematuria is estimation of the percentage of dysmorphic RBCs in the urine. In this cross-sectional prospective study, the data showed that the presence of 25% dysmorphic RBCs in the urine were diagnostic with a sensitivity of 92.5% and a specificity of 83.3%. Furthermore, the utility of diagnostic values of dysmorphic RBCs under light microscopy were compared with those under standard phase contrast microscopy. Results showed that there was no significant difference in the diagnostic accuracy between these two methods. In conclusion, a single, clinically relevant threshold percentage [25%] is now defined with acceptable sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, the results showed no significant difference in the diagnostic efficacy of light microscopy versus phase contrast in the diagnosis of dysmorphic hematuria

Estudos sobre a preservaçao dos eritrocitos, III. Remoçao dos leucocitos / Studies on preservation of red blood cells III. Removal of leukocytes.

Coletou-se sangue venoso humano de doadores saudaveis e submeteu-se a tecnicas convencionais de filtraçao em colunas de celulose (algodao hidrofilo), com a finalidade de se remover a fraçao leucocitaria contaminante. Como os leucocitos podem ser agentes promotores de hemolise em suspensoes de eritrocitos, visou-se a obtençao de amostras com baixa concentraçao de leucocitos e com minimas alteraçoes morfo-fisiologicas. Os resultados obtidos foram satisfatorios: conseguiu-se a remoçao de 93,1 a 96,5 por cento dos leucocitos e obtençao de 98,0 por cento dos eritrocitos na forma de discocitos.