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Biomedical subjects

Gurdeep S Dhatt

Publications and source records attributed to Gurdeep S Dhatt.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Evaluation of HbA1C results in an external quality assessment scheme in South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Measuring HbA1c blood levels allows us to assess average glycaemia in individuals during the preceding 6-8 weeks. There is a clear association between increasing risk of complications with higher HbA1c values and a significant risk reduction of the complications with lower HbA1c values. METHODS: The performance of South African laboratories in an External Quality Assurance scheme for HbA1c is reported. CONCLUSIONS: A number of laboratories and methods do not meet the required analytical standards. South African laboratories should adopt measures similar to other regional and national initiatives to significantly improve laboratory performance and bring about harmonization of HbA1c assays.

Blood Chemical Analysis↗

Biological variation in sweat sodium chloride conductivity.

BACKGROUND: Sweat conductivity, which is equivalent to sweat NaCl concentration, is used as a screening test to identify possible cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. No data exist on the biological variation of this variable and the influence it may have on the interpretation of sweat testing. The aim of this study was to determine the components of biological variation for sweat sodium chloride conductivity and to apply biological variation parameters in the interpretation of sweat conductivity. METHODS: Sweat conductivity was determined once a week for 5 consecutive weeks on 15 healthy volunteers, 20 healthy infants and 20 known CF patients. RESULTS: The analytical coefficient of variation (CV(A)) was 1.15% for the high-level control material, with a value of 123 mmol/L, and 1.32% for the normal-level control material with a value of 40 mmoL/L. The within-subject (CV) and between-subject (CV(G)) biological variations were 12.0% and 30.0%, respectively, for healthy controls; 18% and 20% for healthy infants; and 7.3% and 6.5% for CF patients, respectively. Using the CV(A), CV(G) and CV(I), the 95% reference ranges were determined for the above-mentioned three groups. The calculated 95% ranges for the healthy babies and CF patients were 18-60 mmoL/L and 96-144 mmoL/L. CONCLUSIONS: Our data support a decision level of > 60 mmoL/L for confirmatory CF testing. A lower decision level will result in an unacceptable high rate of unnecessary confirmation testing.

Adolescent↗