Primary aldosteronism (PA), also known as Conn's syndrome, is common and has a significantly higher cardiovascular risk profile than sex-, age-, and BP-matched patients with essential hypertension. PA is now considered a major public health issue, which requires a...
Gout is a common clinical disease and, furthermore, it is readily treatable and managed by the long-term use of urate lowering medication. Gout, the clinical syndrome, needs to be distinguished from hyperuricaemia which refers to the increased levels of serum urate. ...
Immune-mediated diabetes is characterized by the presence of circulating specific antibodies against the pancreatic islets such as glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies (GADA), islet antigen-2 autoantibodies (IA-2A), or zinc transporter-8 autoantibodies (ZnT8A)....
Cord blood gas analysis is considered the gold standard for the determination of intrapartum foetal hypoxia. It provides an objective retrospective method for continuous quality improvement in the management of foetal acid-base abnormalities. It is also sensible to...
Please take note of the platform change for 24 hour urine cortisol analysis.This test will now be performed on the Abbott Architect immunoassay platform and will result in a change in reference interval to: 24 hr urine cortisol reference interval: 11.8 - 485.6...
The autoimmune liver diseases include the triad of Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH), Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). These conditions represent perhaps only 5% of all liver diseases, although the true prevalence in South-Africa is...
The porphyrias arise from enzyme defects in the haem biosynthetic pathway. Accumulation of the precursors (ALA and PBG) lead to acute neurovisceral attacks, marked by severe abdominal pain and autonomic neuropathy, which may progress to a potentially fatal motor...
Procalcitonin (PCT) is a 116 amino acid peptide precursor of calcitonin. In the absence of infection, it is produced at very low levels in a few highly selected tissues. However, at the onset of infection bacterial factors and host inflammatory cytokines...
Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a serious complication of diabetes mellitus, and consists of the biochemical triad of ketosis, hyperglycaemia and acidaemia. DKA usually occurs as a result of an absolute or relative insulin deficiency and an...
Serum Free Light Chains - An Essential Test in Myeloma. Multiple Myeloma (MM) is the 2nd most common haematological malignancy. Serum free light chain (s-FLC) testing now forms an integral part of the management of MM. The serum levels of free light...