[Value of various hematologic indexes proposed for identifying healthy carriers of the beta-thalassemic trait]. / Considerazioni sul valore di alcuni indici ematologici proposti per identificare il portatore sano del trait beta-talassemico.

The results of a screening for beta-heterozygous thalassemia conducted on 999 school-boys aged from 11 to 13 are the following: 7.5% of the subjects were taker of the thalassemia trait; 74 subjects over 75 with beta-heterozygous thalassemia had "Mean Corpuscolar Volume" (MCV) values below 70 fl. The results of the subjects with globular volume less than or equal to 79 fl (with or without beta-thalassemia) were used to compare the diagnostic accuracy of beta-thalassemia for the hematological indexes of England-Fraser, Mentzer, Shine-Lal and the MCV estimations. This comparison has shown better results in terms of sensibility and specificity for MCV with respect to the other indexes. A more extensive application of the study could be convenient in order to evaluate if the MCV level of 70 fl is effective to discriminate between beta-thalassemia and non thalassemic microcytosis.

[Protein assay for cellular receptors of steroids: a critical study of the technic with Coomassie-blue]. / Dosaggio delle proteine nella determinazione dei recettori cellulari degli steroidi: studio critico della tecnica con Coomassie-blue.

The Coomassie-Blue method for protein determination is the EORTC uniformed technique for steroid receptor assay in tumor tissues. Many quality control trials have shown unacceptable interlaboratory variation coefficients for protein determination in steroid receptor assay. The objective of this study is to check the critical parameters of the method. The authors propose some suggestions on stability of dye-protein complex, ionic strength and temperature influence to improve the accuracy of the method.