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Una Health Ltd
Document Control
Author: E. C. Hamer
UH-POC-TM-2 Revision 1
Date of Issue 26.04.10
Photocopied versions & handwritten amendments of this document are not controlled
Page 9 of 54
Printed 27 April 2010
CLINICAL BACKGROUND
(All information, instructions and pictures referring to the
Reflotron® Plus Analyser and Reagent Test strips are
taken from the Roche/Diavant website and courtesy of E C Hamer BSc(Hons), MSc, FIBMS.)
With the 17 clinical-chemical parameters detectable by the available Reflotron®
®
Test Strips, the most important indications in primary care are covered for such
health problems as diabetes, lipid disorders, kidney diseases, muscle diseases,
anaemia, liver diseases, pancreatitis, gout, and bone disorders.
Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP)
The main indications for determination of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) are suspicion
of cholestatic liver disease, bone disease and skeletal involvement of other primary
diseases. In most cases other additional tests are needed to differentiate the cause
of abnormal ALP values
Amylase
α
-Amylase
is mainly formed in the parotid gland and the pancreas. Under normal
conditions serum amylase consists of about 40 % pancreatic amylase and 60 %
salivary amylase. Elevated serum α
-Amylase levels are most often seen in
pancreatitis, so a
α
-Amylase determination is primarily carried out for diagnosis and
therapeutic monitoring of acute as well as of chronic pancreatitis.
Pancreatic Amylase
The real diagnostic value of the pancreatic amylase - in contrast to total amylase - is
its usefulness in screening for pancreatitis because of the very high sensitivity and
specificity of the test
Bilirubin
Bilirubin is a yellow-brown bile pigment which is responsible for the yellow-brown
colour in serum. Bilirubin is a substrate that is mainly produced during the
degeneration of haemoglobin in the liver-spleen system. There are two kinds of
bilirubin. The first one is bound to albumin, and called “unconjugated” or indirect
bilirubin. The second type of bilirubin is, in contrast to the first, conjugated with
glucuronic acid and therefore known as “conjugated” or “direct bilirubin”. This
conjugation takes place in the liver cells. Therefore the differentiation allows
conclusions to be made about the origin of bilirubin.
Jaundice occurs when the bilirubin concentration rises above approximately 2 mg
per 100 ml serum. The most common forms of are characterised by an increase of
conjugated bilirubin.