ATTACHMENT WEEK XII

Warm greetings to all once again!

It’s now the 12th week of attachment and time is really flying past isn’t it? Projects to rush, experiments to conduct, reports to start… Alright, shan’t dig into the wound already.

Anyhow, I’ve been posted to a hospital located somewhere in the central area just a week ago and have finally got to start my SIP proper. I must say that it’s a definite pleasure to be waking up everyday to head to work for the colleagues there are genuinely warm and nice, and patient and caring, and practically just like another family away from home. Great guidance has been provided by respective colleagues and supervisor in the various fields and areas of which I have been involved in thus far, and I have really benefited much from just these two weeks of experience. All things aside, much work still has to be completed, and somehow my colleagues have been able to blend in the aspect of being professional with their work pretty neatly with the social aspect. My respect is with these guys, period.

In the lab, there isn’t any clear boundary for the respective sections (for example: Micobiology, Haematology, Biochemistry etc). Instead, various areas with tables and respective machines atop would make up the respective “sections” (so you could imagine an office setting with groups of tables together except that these have machines and papers and equipment and on the tables as well). However, it is unbelievably well-organized and rather up-to-date with the current technology and methods. That said, in just a few walking paces, you could easily make it past a few “sections”. Thus, although I might have been officially posted to a specific section for a week, I could still bob around to the neighboring section (or table) to stick my hand around in my free time (for example, when there is no sample to process in the section I’ve been posted to). Hence, quite a few “sections” could be covered in just one day of work.


MICROFLUIDS

This week, I’ve been involved in a section called “Microfluids”. Back in TP, we’d probably be more familiar with it as Clinical Chemistry for it deals with the sampling of urine, stools, sputum, swab etc samples. That said, I shall be sharing on fecal occult blood testing.

OC-LIGHT©

The lab uses a kit called OC-LIGHT© to help as a screening process (screening meaning non-confirmatory/ non-conclusive, as in just an aid in the diagnosis) for asymptomatic gastrointestinal bleeding. Thus, other diagnostic procedures would have to be used (for example, proto sigmoidoscopy examination and barium enema) for conclusive results. However, this kit is used as it is useful for screening out negative samples and thus save crucial time and resources from the unnecessary screening of all samples with confirmatory methods (confirmatory methods are usually more tedious and expensive to carry out). The kit is suitable for patients with the following signs and symptoms - hemorrhoids, diverticulitis, colorectal cancer, ulcerative colitis, these of which give rise to abnormal bleeding thus found in the stool samples.

PRINCIPLE

The principle of the test is based on immunological detection of human Hemoglobin (Hb) A0 in feces. In other words, antibodies specific against human Hb play the main role in the immunochromatographic reaction. Thus, dietary restrictions are not a must before the test. This is a major advantage when compared to other similar fecal occult blood test such as. For instance, the stool guaiac test uses the peroxidase-like ability of hemoglobin to oxidize a chromagenic material in the presence of H2O 2. Thus, unlike that of OC-LIGHT, hemoglobin even from a patient’s diet would easily cause a false positive reaction to occur as it is not specific for human hemoglobin as the reaction is not specific to human hemaglonbin.

A positive result would see the buffered hemoglobin reacting with the antibodies on the test strip, thereby resulting two blue lines. However, a negative result would cause only a single blue line to appear(the control) as is seen to the left.

SPECIFICITY

This method has been tested on these types of hemoglobin - beef, pork, goat, sheep, chicken, pigeon and horse. All tests had turned up negative results. Thus, these foods in an individual’s diet would not interfere with the results.

PROCEDURE/ METHOD

1. Dilute the fecal sample with the buffer (provided in the kit) to stabilize the hemoglobin.

2. Remove the green cap with attached collection end.







3. Collect sample by stabbing into the feces at various places.










4. Return the cap and attached collection end to the bottle.









5. Tighten the cap securely and shake the vial vigorously.



6. Position sampling bottle with the green cap down.



7. Remove white cone nozzle.













8. Insert strip into the sampling bottle from the “dip” side.










9. Read the results in 5 minutes.


Alright, that’d be all for this entry. Thanks all for reading!

Alexander Soo TG02
0608122H