Thesis (MTech (Medical Technology))--Cape Technikon, 1992. / As early as 1822 it was discovered that treating a patient, who
had a macrocytic anaemia, with a diet containing liver, a rich
source of folic acid (folacin), brought about an excellent
haematological response.
extract, a source of
The same happened in 1851 when a yeast
vitamin B12 (cobalamine), corrected a
megaloblastic anaemia. It is well known that a lack of either one
or both of these vitamins is responsible for a megaloblastic
anemia which has been shown to be hematologically
indistinguishable yet requires different treatment to correct.
It is therefore important to make a correct diagnosis as to the
cause of the illness in a megaloblastic anaemia by the
measurement of vitamin B12 and folate levels. Various laboratory test methods were developed over the past 20
to 30 years and through constant improvement culminated in the
current radio immune assay (RIA) technique used for the
measurement of vitamin B12 and folate values. This method has
many advantages over the microbiological method that preceeded
it, but is still dependent on normal values or reference ranges.
These reference ranges, supplied with each test kit, are
obtained from a white American population and are probably only
applicable to the white South African population.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/2256 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Cloete, Henny |
| Contributors | Truter, E. J., Steytler, J. G., Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences. Dept. of Biomedical Sciences. |
| Publisher | Cape Technikon |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | af_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/ |
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