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Biomedical subjects

D M Cowley

Publications and source records attributed to D M Cowley.

40 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1983

A radioimmunoassay of human prealbumin in body fluids.

Prealbumin (PA) was purified 35-fold from human serum and antibodies raised against it in rabbits. A 2-hour radioimmunoassay (RIA) using polyethyleneglycol (PEG) to separate bound and free PA was used to determine levels in body fluids. Using patient serum specimens the new method was compared with an electroimmunoassay (EIA) method and the regression equation obtained was: y = 1.13x - 9.91. The RIA and EIA methods compared favourably with respect to precision to practicability and economy. The RIA method seems especially suitable for large scale assays of PA and is 100 times more sensitive than EIA. Preliminary estimations of PA with the RIA method in plasma, cerebrospinal fluids, amniotic fluids, duodenal juices and urines were carried out. The results indicate that this method can be conveniently used to assay PA in body fluids where the protein is present in low concentration.

Amniotic Fluid↗
PubMed1983

Study of alanine aminopeptidase excretion as a test of gentamicin nephrotoxicity.

We studied the urinary excretion of the proximal tubular enzyme alanine aminopeptidase (AAP) by 38 patients who received gentamicin and by 45 similar control patients. AAP excretion by the control patients was highly variable. The pattern of AAP excretion distinguished patients with pre-renal and renal causes for increases in serum creatinine (SCr) but this can be done more simply with the urine to serum creatinine ratio. Peak AAP excretion did not reflect renal damage in oliguric patients and di not identify gentamicin patients with a renal cause for increases in SCr. The level of AAP excretion in the first three days of gentamicin treatment did identify the three patients with renal causes for an increase in SCr and was highest in a patient with symptomatic hypomagnesaemia due to impairment of proximal tubular function. We concluded that study of AAP excretion in normal volunteers receiving three-day courses of aminoglycosides is a valid screening test for nephrotoxicity but that AAP excretion is too non-specific to use in clinical practice.

Aminopeptidases↗