Development of Albumin Analyzer with Whole Blood and Application to Telemedicine for Patient Nutrition Management in Home Health Nursing.

Albumin level is q significant indicator of patient nutritional status. However, Point of Care Testing (POCT) devices and telemedicine system that nurses can operate easily in-home medical care is not developed. The aim of this work is the development of a POCT device for Albumin level and application to a telemedicine support system. The operability of our system was simple and easy for the nurse or patient. We believe our method is useful for Nutrition Support Team activities in-home medical care.

Detection Algorithm for Inadequate Blood Specimens Due to Contamination with an Infusion Solution in the Clinical Chemistry Tests: Prevention of Incidents by Blood Draw Error.

The aim of this work is to study the influence of contamination with infusion in clinical chemistry tests and to design an algorithm for detection of inadequate blood specimen. We show that panic value of postassium (K+)/ glucose (GLU) or decrease of total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), urea nitrogen (BUN), uric acid (UA), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), total cholesterol (T-CHO), and calcium (Ca) is an index of contamination of drip infusion solution. Through a clinical study, we show that our algorithm is useful for preventing adverse medical errors.

An electron microscopic study of the surface structures and hemadsorption on chick embryo cells infected with rabies virus.

Characteristic alterations at the surface of chick embryo cells infected with the HF-TC strain of rabies virus and the binding sites of hemadsorption were studied employing both scanning and transmission electron microscopes. The initial alteration of the cell surface structure revealed by scanning electron microscopy was an appearance of elongated and reticulated microvilli on the 2nd day after virus inoculation. On the 3rd day, numerous bullet-shaped virions could be seen budding as single, tetrapod-like structures and as radial projections both from the perikarya and microvilli. Thereafter, elongation of microvilli, formation of numerous blebs in various sizes, disappearance of filopodia, and rounding up of infected cells were observed as characteristic cytopathic effects by rabies virus infection. The attachments of goose erythrocytes to the infected cells occured in two forms. The one was adsorption of erythrocytes to the cell surface involving microvilli and filopodia in the absence of detectable virus, and the other was adsorptio n of erythrocytes to the virus particles budding from cell surface. The former could be seen from the early stage of infection through the end of observation period, while the latter was observed only on and after the 3rd day after virus inoculation. These findings were also confirmed with transmission electron microscopy.

Reverse plaque formation by hog cholera virus of the GPE-strain inducing heterologous interference.

A simple and rapid plaque procedure was developed for the assay of hog cholera virus (HCV) of a particular strain, GPE-, based on its intrinsic interference with vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) on the primary swine testicle cells and on an established swine kidney cell line; the procedure is called the reverse plaque formation (RPF) method. The plaques were produced as colonies of HCV-infected cells which were VSV-sensitive, disintegrated cell sheet. These plaques became visible after 15 to 20 h of superinfection with VSV done 2 days after an initial inoculation of the GPE- strain. The plaque formation was inhibited by a specific antiserum against HCV. All cells within the plaque had HCV antigen detectable by fluorescent-antibody staining. The variations of reverse plaque count were low enough to permit virus titration. The relationship between virus concentration and the number of plaques was essentially linear. The titer measured by the RPF method was a little higher than that of the tube culture interference method.

Use of the hemadsorption phenomenon for determining virus and neutralizing antibody titers of rabies.

Chicken embryo cells infected with the HEP Flury strain of rabies virus adapted to tissue culture produced a hemadsorption (HAD) phenomenon by using goose erthyrocytes. The optimal conditions for HAD included the incubation of cell cultures at 37C for 3 days after virus inoculation, the use of a 0.4% suspension of goose erythrocytes in phosphate buffer adjusted at pH 6.2, and adsorption of erythrocytes at 4C. This phenomenon was inhibited with anti-rabies serum. Virus titer obtained with the HAD technique was almost the same as with the fluorescent antibody technique or the intracerebral inoculation of suckling mice. Results of the neutralization test by using the HAD technique could be easily determined 3 days after inoculation of chicken embryo cells with the mixture of 100 mean tissue culture infective doses of virus and diluted serum. The neutralizing antibody titers coincided with those obtained in mice.