Annual Report on External Quality Assessment of Immunoassay Subcommittee in Korean Clinical Laboratory Survey (2004) / 임상검사와정도관리

Two trials of external quality assessment were performed in 2004 as previous year. Thirteen test items of immunoassay with ten control materials were surveyed. The response rate of external quality assessment for Immunoassay Subcommittee were 94.4% and 98.6%. Ten control materials were consisted of 8 home-made pooled sera and 2 commercial control sera (LyphoCheck, BioRad, USA). The results are summarized as follows. 1. Laboratories participating in external quality control program of immunoassay were 259 laboratories and the response rate were 94.4% and 98.6% in 2004. 2. Chemiluminiscence immunoassay autoanalyzers were most widely used in the field of immunoassay testing. 3. A new test item CA125 was introduced in this year from the second trial of external quality survey. 4. Still some test items show big variations of the test results of the same control material according to autoanalyzers. The quality of the participating laboratories seems to be thought being continuously improved. And, some new methods of the statistic analysis and some standardization protocols were considered to be introduced in the surveillance systems.

Annual Report on External Quality Assessment of Immunoassay Subcommittee in Korea (2003) / 임상검사와정도관리

Two trials of external quality assessment were performed in 2003. Thirteen test items of immunoassay with ten control materials were surveyed. The response rate of external quality assessment for Immunoassay Subcommittee were 93.8% and 92.8%. Ten control materials were consisted of 8 home-made pooled sera and 2 commercial control sera. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Laboratories participating in external quality control program of immunoassay were 259 laboratories and the response rate were 93.8% and 92.8% in 2003. 2. Chemiluminiscence immunoassay autoanalyzer was now widely introduced comparing to previous years and now it is the most popular analyzer in the field of immunoassay testing. 3. Still some test items show big variations of the test results of the same control material according to autoanalyzer. Generally the quality of the participating laboratories seems to be thought being improved. And in the following years, new planning of the statistic analysis and some standardization protocols could be introduced.

The Change of Pulmonary Artery Pressure in Graves'Disease Before and After Treatment / 대한내분비학회지

BACKGROUND: Exertional symptoms, dyspnea and impaired effort tolerance are common in patients with Graves' disease. Proposed explanations include: high-output left heart failure, ineffective oxygen utilization and respiratory muscle weakness. In addition, pulmonary hypertension has also been reported in patients with Graves' disease. A high prevalence of hypothyroidism and positive thyroid autoantibody were also observed in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Therefore, the pulmonary artery pressure in patients with Graves' disease was evaluated. METHODS: Two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiographic examinations (Hewlett Packard Sonos 2500) were performed to determine the pulmonary artery (PA) pressure in 26 Graves' disease patients, both before and after treatment (23 patients with propylthiouracil and 3 with RAI), and in 10 euthyroid controls. The changes in the PA pressure after treatment were evaluated in 13 patients with Graves' disease, who became euthyroid after treatment. RESULTS: The pulmonary artery pressure was increased in the untreated Graves' disease patients compared to the normal controls (23.5+/-2.32 vs. 29.6+/-10.3 mmHg). 38.5% of the Graves' disease patients (10/26) showed pulmonary arterial hypertension (PA>30 mmHg) and the serum TBII levelwas higher in the Graves' disease patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension than in those with normal PA pressure (P<0.05). In the Graves' patients who became euthyroid after treatment, the PA pressure was significantly decreased. CONCLUSION: 38.5% of the untreated Graves' disease patients showed pulmonary arterial hypertension, and the pulmonary artery pressure was significantly decreased in those who became euthyroid after treatment. The pathogenesis and clinical importance of pulmonary arterial hypertension in Graves' disease requires further studies.

Annual Report on External Quality Assessment in Immunoassay in Korea (2002) / 임상검사와정도관리

Two trials of external quality assessment were performed in 2002. Thirteen test items of immunoassay with eight control materials were surveyed. The response rate of external quality assessment for Immunoassay Subcommitee were 94.3% and 94.5% in each trial. Eight control materials were consisted of 6 home-made pooled sera and 2 commercial control sera. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Laboratories participating in external quality control program of immunoassay were 233 to 241 laboratories and the response rate were 94.3% and 94.5% in 2002. 2. Chemiluminiscence immunoassay autoanalyzer was widely introduced comparing to previous years and now it is the most popular analyzer in the field of immunoassay testing. 3. Still some test items show wide variations of the test results of the same control material. But, generally the quality of the participating laboratories seems to be thought being improved.