To compare between standard Westergren and modified microhaematocrit method for determination for erythrocyte sedimentation rate Study design: A laboratory method comparative study. Subjects: blood samples from 80 individual subjects. For each subject, two methods for erythrocyte sedimentation rate determination were performed. The first method was the Westergren method as a standard method and...

Five methods of assessing blood in urine were studied and compared: sedimentation count, hemacytometry, "Clini-lab" reagent strip and "N-Multistix" and "ChemStrip-8" dipsticks. The minimum sensitivity of two commercially available urine dip-stick procedures for blood was established. The study includes method association, assay variation among and within technologists, accuracy, precision, and ...

The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is still a widely used parameter for acute phase inflammation. Recently, new methods based on direct undiluted measurement of ESR in a standard EDTA tube have been developed. We evaluated the analytic performance of one of these new methods, the Ves-Matic Cube 200 (Diesse Diagnostica Senese, Siena, Italy), and compared it with several established Westerg...

In view of the results obtained by the determination of plasma viscosity by Harkness and others (1946) it seemed desirable to apply this method to the chronic rheumatic diseases, but owing to difficulties encountered in procuring the apparatus comparatively few tests had been made before the publication of similar trials by Cowan and Harkness (1947). In the latter paper erythrocyte sedimentatio...

OBJECTIVE The clinical effects of high dosage pulse glucocorticosteroid (GS) infusion as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) differ considerably between patients. The aim of the present study was to gain more insight into these differences in clinical response. METHODS Twenty-three RA patients (6 M/17 F) with treatment-resistant active erosive disease were treated with GS pulse therapy,...

The erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C reactive protein (CRP) were measured in 74 patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR)/giant cell arteritis (GCA) on presentation, in the first month of treatment, and at long term follow up (up to 177 weeks). Before treatment the ESR was raised (greater than 30 mm/h) in all cases and the CRP was raised (greater than 6 mg/l) in 49/55 cases. The ESR ...

A mass balance model for mercury in Lake Champlain was developed in an effort to understand the sources, inventories, concentrations, and effects of mercury (Hg) contamination in the lake ecosystem. To construct the mass balance model, air, water, and sediment were sampled as a part of this project and other research/monitoring projects in the Lake Champlain Basin. This project produced a STELL...

Edmund Faustinus Biernacki (1866-1911) was a Polish physician and philosopher of medicine. He described erythrocyte sedimentation, designed equipment to measure the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and applied it to clinical practice. His contribution to the development of one of the most commonly used medical laboratory tests is forgotten, and the test is attributed to other scientists.

Infection of the intervertebral space is a rare complication of operation on the disc (Ford and Key 1955). It occurred in five cases in a series of 650 operations for lumbar disc protrusion done by two of the authors of this paper--an incidence of 0-8%. Symptoms began between seven and twelve days after operation. After initial relief of the original sciatic pain, the patients developed severe ...