ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: In the United States, minimum standards for quality control (QC) are specified in federal law under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment and its revisions. Beyond meeting this required standard, laboratories have flexibility to determine their overall QC program. METHODS: We surveyed chemistry and immunochemistry QC procedures at 21 clinical laboratories within leading academic medical centers to assess if standardized QC practices exist for chemistry and immunochemistry testing. RESULTS: We observed significant variation and unexpected similarities in practice across laboratories, including QC frequency, cutoffs, number of levels analyzed, and other features. CONCLUSIONS: This variation in practice indicates an opportunity exists to establish an evidence-based approach to QC that can be generalized across institutions.
Subject(s)
Academic Medical Centers/standards , Chemistry, Clinical/standards , Clinical Laboratory Services/standards , Immunochemistry/standards , Quality Control , Humans , Laboratories/standards , Surveys and Questionnaires , United StatesABSTRACT
This study investigated whether D,L-cis-2,3-Pyrrolidine dicarboxylate (D,L-cis-2,3-PDC), a new glutamate analogue, alters glutamate binding to cerebral plasma membranes and whether N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are involved in the convulsant effect of this compound. D,L-cis-2,3-PDC reduced sodium-independent [3H]-L-glutamate binding to lysed membrane preparations from adult rat cortex and had no effect on sodium-dependent glutamate binding. Intracerebroventricular administration of D,L-cis-2,3-PDC (7.5-25 nmol/5 microl) induced generalized tonic-clonic convulsions in mice in a dose-dependent manner. The coadministration of MK-801 (7 nmol/2.5 microl), with D,L-cis-2,3-PDC (16.5 nmol/2.5 microl), fully protected the animals against D,L-cis-2,3-PDC-induced convulsions, while the coadministration of DNQX (10 nmol/2.5 microl) increased the latency to convulsions but did not alter the percentage of animals that had convulsions. These results suggest that D,L-cis-2,3-PDC-induced effects are mediated predominantly by NMDA receptors.