Fatty acid Metabolism Notes (Part 1)

Fatty acid catabolism includes the complete oxidation (β oxidation) of fatty acid to yield acetyl CoA which has different fates. Fatty acids are hydrocarbons with energy of complete oxidation (about 38 kJ/g) more than twice that for the same weight of carbohydrate or protein. To overcome the stability of C-C bonds in a fatty acid, the carboxyl group at C-1 is activated by attachment to coenzyme A, which allows stepwise oxidation of the fatty acyl group at the C-3, or β position – hence the name β oxidation.

Wider Waistline May Mean Shorter Lifespan

Having a big belly means big trouble when it comes to your health, researchers warn.

They analyzed data from 11 studies that included more than 600,000 people worldwide and found that people with large waist circumferences were at increased risk of dying younger and dying from conditions such as heart disease, lung problems and cancer.

Men with waists of 43 inches or more had a 50 percent higher risk of death than those with waists less than 35 inches. This equated to a three-year lower life expectancy after age 40, according to the study.

Women with waists of 37 inches or more had an 80 percent higher risk of death than those with waists of 27 inches or less, which equated to a five-year lower life expectancy after age 40.

The larger the waist, the greater the risk, the researchers said. For every 2 inches of increased waist circumference, the risk of death increased 7 percent in men and 9 percent in women, according to the study, which was published in the March issue of the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Although the review found an association between larger waist size and risk of death at a younger age, it didn't prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

The link between a big belly and increased risk of death was seen even among people whose body-mass index (BMI) was within the healthy range, the researchers found. BMI is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.

"BMI is not a perfect measure," study lead author Dr. James Cerhan, an epidemiologist at the Mayo Clinic, said in a journal news release. "It doesn't discriminate lean mass from fat mass, and it also doesn't say anything about where your weight is located. We worry about that because extra fat in your belly has a metabolic profile that is associated with diseases such as diabetes and heart disease."

When assessing patients, doctors need to consider both waist size and BMI.

"The primary goal should be preventing both a high BMI and a large waist circumference," Cerhan said. "For those patients who have a large waist, trimming down even a few inches -- through exercise and diet -- could have important health benefits."

Haemophilus influenzae infections in pregnant women

The journal of the American Medical Association recently published a paper about the Association of invasive Haemophilus influenzae infections in pregnant women and fetal results. The researchers studied British women who had an invasive h. influenzae infection (defined as the recovery of the organism from a normally sterile site). The researchers concluded that pregnant women had a greater risk of invasive infection than non-pregnant women, and these infections resulted in poor pregnancy results.
H. influenzae is a picky organism that grows on chocolate agar. Usually associated with respiratory tract infections, as the organism an encapsulated strain is, it can spread to other parts of the body and cause meningitis, sepsis, pericarditis and even urinary tract infections.
In terms of identification, h. influenzae are small, Gram-negative a a on microscopic examination. The opaque appear grayish colonies on chocolate agar. Since there are X and V factors to grow the organism on blood agar, appears only in the presence of an organism that hemolyzes of the blood (such as Staphylococcus aureus). In addition to the X and V requirements, h. influenzae ferments glucose, catalase positive.

Do you want to know more? The CDC has great information on this organism.

-Kelly Swails, MT (ASCP), is a professional, restore laboratory microbiologist and Web editor for Lab medicine.

View the original article here

Loading viruses

Occasionally some of our terminology in the health care sector has its own set of nuances. We combine words or word parts to give them more precise and clear meaning, and often make them a unique definition. Take for example, words like symptomology; chemotherapy; biotechnology; whether it's ever popular term genetic manipulation. Take for example some well used medical terms that become mainstream — as the term for a gazillion little of RNA components, all of which we throw and call "viral". Viral loads in laboratory conditions referred to above indicate, diagnostic criteria for the remission or the progress of disease, as is the case in Hepatitis or HIV/AIDS. But it now means a serious problem with your computer, or the latest cat-video gone rampant on the internet. In my case, it recently indicated a personalized upper respiratory infection from Central Asia!

Travel has its ups and downs, and at the end of two weeks of wonderful training and interaction with our colleagues in Kyrgyzstan, I succumbed to a "load of virus" — and the drudgery of dealing with it while tight in the aisle seat of airplanes, passing time wandering during layovers in foreign terminals, hopping in lines and customs passport checks. With almost 36 hours of travel for me, I plowed through it all in the fog of decongestants and analgesics and tried desperately not to sneezes or coughs — which only made it worse. I'm certainly not the first, nor the last person on the planet to catch a cold, but I was certainly among the most miserable!

Now that the worst is behind me and my diagnosis only a "horse" and not a "zebra", I'd be interested in your opinion ... is a cold considered as "a catch" viral load or simply just "load a virus"? Just maybe we have a new and even more descriptive term for uploading seasonal cold and flu! Let me know what you think on bsumwalt@pacbell.net and who knows, maybe our new twisted term actually "go viral."

-Beverly Sumwalt, MA, MT (ASCP) DLM, CLS, ASCP is a Global Outreach volunteer Consultant.

View the original article here

Failure is always an option

I had some fun this April Fool's day and sent several emails that said that we failed some surveys CAP. I know I am evil, but sometimes you have to have some fun! The responses were interesting in that everyone else with failure. Show me someone who has never managed and I'll show you someone who does not know how to react as soon as they do. It is inevitable. We try to never experience it but we will and it's how you respond that sets people apart.

I am proud and speak of my failures regularly because it gives people power to know that they are not alone. In my career I have been involved in a disturbance of the total hospital and had to work my way back up the ladder. It is through these failures that we learn the most about ourselves and about situations. When I just got out of school I used to think that experience was not that important. I thought, "I have learned what I need to know at school, I have a supervisor now!" I'm in the second half of the first ten years of my career and have learned that every situation that knowledge is experience. That knowledge will I take in the second and third decades of my career. Both the successes and failures will help me as I move forward.

Experience is gained by these situations and it is up to the people involved with them or about forgetting and vulnerable to repeat. As leaders, we are sometimes under pressure to work or move forward with options that our choices should not, but we need our employees to buy and run. These guidelines usually given by a few pay grades above should be followed, so that if you fail you can show that you followed their guidelines. You do not want to be seen as someone who is resistance against change or someone who will be an obstacle. This you only get more headache and possibly affect your progress in the future. This being said always state your concerns, as well as the current ideas that a better option. You don't want to stop when the most important.

I've always learned more from my failures than I have of my successes. During an interview a CEO once told me, "you want to make your big mistakes in the beginning of your career because the higher you are the less forgiving people of the big ones." We make our mistakes during a constant quest to be the so-called "polished professional." When we go to the higher ranks of the reward should a failure we can see coming a mile away and can safely get out of the way. Successes come with great planning and a dump truck full of experiences. Remember, failure is always an option.

-Matthew Herasuta, MBA, MLS (ASCP) CM is a medical laboratory scientist who works as a generalist and serves as the blood bank and General supervisor for the regional hospital of Euclid in Cleveland, OH.

View the original article here