PathCare Labs reinforces evidence based medical practice

PathCare Laboratories Nigeria has been selected to represent Nigeria as part of an International Research Project that will redefine medical diagnosis carried out through blood testing in Africa.

This development, experts say, is geared towards strengthening the practice of evidence based medicine as normal values forms a basis for a physician or health professional to interpret a set of results for a particular patient.

In a interview with BusinessDay, Tolulope Adewole, research coordinator, PathCare Laboratories disclosed that the current normal values used to interpret blood tests conducted within the country were obtained from research carried out on a foreign population.

While this normal value may not necessarily represent exactly the situation of the Nigerian population, Adewole noted that with this new research, these ‘normal values’ will be determined, that will be a true representative of the Nigerian population.

“The normal range for a particular test result may differ based on the patient’s age, size, sex, ethnicity, or culture. For instance, Cholesterol levels are measured in milligrams (mg) of cholesterol per deciliter (dL) of blood. Below 200 mg/dL    is desirable, while 200-239 mg/dL is the borderline. This research will strengthen the practice of evidence based medicine by having a normal value for a Nigerian population.

“It is this set of “normal values” that will help to know if one is actually ill or not.  The study will be conducted on the Nigerian public between the ages of 18 and 65 years. Healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 65 years will be required for the research. Working closely with Tunji Soriyan, a professor, ethical approval was obtained via the Lagos University Teaching Hospital,” Adewole explained.

The study is being done with both local and international collaborators. These include Keisuke Ichihara, a professor from Teikyo UMC Japan and Rajiv Erasmus, a professor from Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Janette Wassung, Head, Quality Assurance, PathCare Laboratories, said that quality management is essential for research of this magnitude. Wassung stated that only laboratories with an internationally recognised Quality management system such as ISO 15189 accreditation can participate such a project, a reason why PathCare Nigeria was selected.

She also stated that similar studies are also being carried out in other countries such as the USA, South Africa, Kenya, Japan, Central Asia & the Far East.

According to Wassung, “It is critical to the success of this landmark project that only healthy persons are enrolled into the study, thus making people with the following health conditions ineligible as volunteers for the research. These include persons with high blood pressure, diabetes, any health conditions for which medication is currently taken or for which one has been hospitalized in the past 2 weeks as well as blood donors within 3 months and blood recipients”

Others who will not be admitted as volunteers for the study include people living with HIV/AIDS, carriers of chronic Hepatitis B or C; pregnant women or women that were in labour less than a year ago; persons with alcohol intake of more than five glasses a day, obese (body mass index of more than 35 kg/m2), underweight persons (body mass index of less than 18.5 kg/m2) and smokers who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day.

Interested volunteers will be expected to complete an Informed consent form and questionnaire after which their weight, height, abdominal circumference and blood pressure after which about 30mls of blood will be taken. These volunteers are to work into any PathCare facility from July 1 between 7am to 10am.

The participating volunteers will be given their comprehensive medical report after analysis free-of-charge which ordinarily will cost over N25, 000. A panel of tests to be analysed include lipid profile, thyroid functions, kidney function, liver function, blood sugar, iron status and much more.

This entire process Adewole disclosed should not take longer than 30 minutes per participant.

Alexander Chiejina