New blood test for body diseases.pdf

Media

Part of Panorama

extracted text: the American leaders, as I stated previously, would not have been so apprehensive about improving them. It is high time that we should es tablish a system of educa tion suitable to us as a dis tinct people, with limited financial resources, with problems peculiar to our own conditions. We should not forget, however, that in many * * ways education is universal in character. Therefore, we need to discover and to learn whatever is good in the edu cational ideas of other coun tries; then we should import them, if necessary, not, how ever, through a system of adoption but through a pro cess of adaptation. Thus we may be able to enrich and develop our own. * NEW BLOOD TEST FOR BODY DISEASES A simple blood test for diseases of the heart, liver and other body organs based on the iden tification of enzyme “fingerprints” was described at a recent meeting of the American Chemical So ciety. The test depends on LDH (lactic dehydro genase), an enzyme that regulates several im portant chemical processes in the body, accord ing to medical authorities. LDH occurs in five distinct forms caled isoenzymes, which appear in different proportions in different organs. Clinical tests indicate that when an organ is damaged it releases enzymes into the blood stream. “impress ing its LDH isoenzyme pattern on the blood, like an identifiable fingerprint,” the authorities ex plained. Blood tests can. therefore, serve to identify an injured organ, and they are especially suitable for the detection of heart and liver damaae be cause these LDH patterns differ markedly in their resistance to heat. A larae amount of LDH destroyed by heatinq a sample of the blood se rum at a relatively low temperature indicates li ver disease while a large proportion of lactic de hydrogenase stable at a relatively high tempera ture indicates heart damage. 16 Panorama
Rights