Week 9

Hi All,

How's everyone doing? Its Week 9 of SIP, and it seems that we are almost halfway through there..just 11 more weeks to go! Fast as it seems to be, its like we just started SIP and I believe all of us are cracking our heads over MP.

So I am currently in Specimen reception department, which is actually a admin dept. So I aint gonna talk about admin stuff. What I will share will be Serology dept, the dept that I was in 2 weeks ago.

Basically, almost all companies now uses automated machines to assist us in our work. Technology is really wonderful in such a way that it does things for us, leaving with much, much lesser things to do. Most of the practical work that we learnt in school are not applied in labs, due to the fact that manual work are no longer utilised in labs.

IMMULITE 1000

Immulite 1000 is used to measure two types of hormones levels in our body - DHEA & HGH. Therefore, it consists of two components:

• Immulite DHEA-SO4


• Immulite IGF-1

Immulite DHEA-SO4 measures dehyroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-SO4), which is an adrenal sulfate in our body.

DHEA-SO4 is, in fact, a sulfated version of Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), a steroid hormone that is thought to be the 'superstar' of all hormones.

Thus, the concentration of DHEA-SO4 relates to the amount of concentration of DHEA, as DHEA-SO4 is 500 times more than DHEA.

You just need the patient's blood serum to do this test.

DHEA:

DHEA is a natural-occurring hormone that decreases with age. It is produced in the adrenal glands and it may be also possible to be derived from the testes. It is said to be the precursor of testosterone and oestrogen, as they share similar chemical properties. DHEA levels increases & peaks when one reaches adulthood, but drop as one starts to age after his 40s. Thus, many diseases which correlate with age also correlate with low levels of DHEA production.

Immulite IGF-1 measures insulin-growth factor (IGF-1) levels, which is stimulated to be produced by Human Growth hormone (HGH) itself.

HGH:

HGH is a hormone that is produced in the pituitary gland & released only when the hypothalamus 'signals' for it. HGH levels decreases as one gets older. It promotes growth in the young by mainly promoting cell growth and height increases during youth. HGH is highly significant in the body as it is thought to be associated with 'youth'. As HGH decreases, the ageing process increases.

Thus, the immulite system involves determining the top two hormones that are involved in ageing. As such, the system is used to predict whether the patient is :

• Suffering from growth disorder
• Taking pills to supplement growth
• Undergoing anti-ageing treatment

Principles:

The immulite 1000 system utilizes assay-specific, antibody, or antigen-coated plastic beads, as the solid phase, alkaline phosphtase-labeled reagent, and a chemiluminescent substrate. The coated bead, is found a proprietary plastic device, namely a test unit by Siemens.

Test unit

Antibody/antigen-coated Plastic bead

The test unit serves as a reaction vessel for the immune reaction, the incubation and even washing. The bead and sample's serum is first placed in a test cup, before being placed in the roller to enter the machine.

Sample Cups

Roller to place the sample cups, before entering the machine

After incubating the bead with the sample's serum and the alkaline phosphatase reagent, the reaction mixture is separate from the bead by spinning the Test unit at high speed on its vertical axis. The entire fluid contents (the sample, excess reagent and wash solution) is transferred to a coaxial waste chamber in the Test unit. The bead is left with no residual, unbound label. The amount of bound label is then quantiated with a dioxetane substrate that produces light. Light emission is measured by a Photomultiplier Tuve(PMT) and the results are calculated.

The results are given by values. There is a list of reference values for all age group by decades. However, there is no significant value for DHEA & HGH. Any value is acceptable, as deficiency or exceeding HGH & DHEA hormones does not cause any disease/harm to the body.

Any qns, feel free to ask me. I know its abit long, and lengthy. But I have no choice.

Lloyd Lam 0607775D