Clinical Laboratory Personnel—Is There a Shortage in California?

In a study of vacancy rates for laboratory personnel in California to determine if there is in fact a serious or critical shortage of qualified individuals in this group of allied health professionals, it was found that while the answer is still elusive, it would appear that although the shortage may be somewhat greater than normal it is not critical in most areas of the state.For most areas, the situation seems to have improved from 1966 to 1968. There are a few geographical areas, predominantly rural, where shortages of licensed personnel are critical. Vacancy rates also are higher in hospital laboratories. Recruitment difficulties in these situations may be related to insufficient incentives, including but not necessarily limited to salaries.Training in California laboratories may facilitate recruitment in specific instances, and may assume greater importance in the future as working conditions for health professionals continue to improve in other states. And finally, the use of laboratory assistants, aides, and clerks can materially assist the laboratory work, thereby freeing the licensed professional staff to accept responsibilities commensurate with the increasing sophistication of laboratory knowledge and practice.     

Lupus érythémateux systémique: avancées biologiques

La maladie lupique fait partie des maladies auto-immunes non spécifiques d’organes dont la définition est à la fois clinique et biologique.     

Sperm-zona pellucida interaction involves a carbonyl reductase activity in the hamster.

For successful fertilization to occur, the spermatozoa must transit through an egg-specific extracellular matrix or zona pellucida (zp) to reach and ultimately fuse with the oocyte plasma membrane. This process involves ligand-receptor recognition between the zp and the acrosomal cap of the sperm. The hamster sperm protein P26h, a receptor which is acquired during epididymal transit, has been suggested to act in sperm-zp binding. The cloning and characterization of the full-length cDNA-encoding hamster P26h revealed 85% identity with a porcine lung carbonyl reductase. To better understand the mechanism by which P26h interacts with zp proteins, we investigated carbonyl reductase activity during gamete interactions. In the present study, we show that specific inhibitors of carbonyl reductase such as diclofenac and phenylbutazone decreases sperm-zp binding without affecting the motility, progressivity or acrosome integrity of sperm. We also detected, and partly purified, carbonyl reductase activities from cauda epididymal sperm protein extract and this activity was associated with an enriched fraction of P26h. Removing P26h from the partly purified protein fractions by immunoaffinity chromatography led to the loss of carbonyl reductase activity. The findings that sperm-zp binding is blocked by carbonyl reductase inhibitors and that P26h is active in mature sperm suggest that P26h could play an important role in the fertilization process.     

Body Mass Index and Coronary Artery Disease in African-Americans

There are limited data available concerning the influence of obesity, a major cardiovascular disease risk factor, in relationship to coronary artery disease (CAD). This is of considerable importance to African-Americans since African-Americans have one of the world's highest CAD mortality rates coupled with the fact that obesity is extremely prevalent in this population. The present study assessed the relationship between body mass index and CAD in African-Americans undergoing coronary angiography. Eight hundred sixty-six available cardiac catheterization reports between the years 1983 through 1990 were retrospectively reviewed at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. CAD was prevalent in 59.6% and 41.2%, males and females, respectively. Among the males overweight and obesity were found in 22.4% and 20.9%, respectively, compared to 39.6% and 30.6% for females. An upside-down U-shaped relationship between BMI and CAD was found. The interpretation of this finding is that being overweight is associated with increased risk of CAD compared to the lean and obese.