Clinical laboratory technician

The most common route of exposure to NAC is (voluntary) inhalation through the respiratory tract. Although not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, it may be given intravenously in emergency situations. According to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health survey conducted between 1981 and 1983, over 30 000 workers in the United States are exposed to NAC on a daily basis. Over two-thirds of those people are inhalation therapists and clinical laboratory technicians, with the remaining majority in some type of medical profession. 

According to the National Occupational Exposure Study (NOES) conducted by NIOSH from 1981 to 1983, the following estimated number of workers were potentially exposed to Aroclors in the workplace 2,214 to Aroclor 1242 3,702 to Aroclor 1254 991 to Aroclor 1260 and 1,558 to Aroclor 1016 (NIOSH 1989). Occupational exposure to Aroclors occurs in miscellaneous workers in the transformer industry, noncellulose fiber industry, semiconductor and related industries, and in sawmills and planing mills. It also occurs in clinical laboratory technicians and technologists of general medical and surgical hospitals. The NOES database does not contain information on the frequency, concentration, or duration of occupational exposure to any of the chemicals listed. The survey provides estimations of the numbers of workers for whom potential exposure in the worlq)lace is an issue. Since this study was conducted from 1981 to 1983, it does not accurately represent current worlq)lace exposure to PCBs. 

The emergency room nurses are tending to the patient, who is unresponsive. A blood sample is taken, which is sent to Brianna, a clinical laboratory technician, who begins the process of analyzing the pH, the partial pressures of O2 and CO2, and the concentrations of glucose and electrolytes. 

Clinical laboratory technicians, also known as medical laboratory technicians, perform a wide variety of tests on body fluids and cells that help in the diagnosis and treatment of patients. These tests range from determining blood concentrations of glucose and cholesterol to determining drug levels in the blood for transplant patients or a patient undergoing treatment. Clinical laboratory technicians also prepare specimens in the detection of cancerous tumors, and type blood samples for transfusions. Clinical laboratory technicians must also interpret and analyze the test results, which are then passed on to the physician. 

New Chapter Opener describes the work and career of a clinical laboratory technician. 

Occupational exposure to 1,3-DNB and 1,3,5-TNB can occur when workers handle the compounds in explosives plants and other industries, such as dyestuffs, plastics, and rubber, that use these compounds during manufacturing processes. The National Occupational Exposure Survey (NOES), conducted by NIOSH from 1981 to 1983, estimated that 2,489 workers were exposed to 1,3-DNB in 41 businesses and health services (NOES 1991). The workers included in this survey were chemists (except biochemists), geologists, clinical laboratory technologists and technicians, and health aides (except nursing). 

L Kaplan and A Pesce, Clinical Chemistry—Theory, Analysis and Correlation (1989), C V Mosby (St Louis) A teaching text for medical technologists and laboratory technicians... 

We thank the British Technology Group and the Association of Anaesthetists for sponsoring the University Research Program, Professor G. Smith and Dr. C. Hanning of Leicester University, Department of Anaesthesia, for their joint interest and clinical results, and our laboratory technicians P. Keating and R. Cameron for careful preparations and assays. 

Design considerations must focus on the end-user and the place the sensor will be used physician, nurse, technician, or layman physician s office, clinical laboratory, critical care unit, or at home. This then defines the requirements for the instructions and any training material which must be included with the sensor. 

The drawbacks of discrete analyzers are their mechanical complexity and high cost of operation. Sample cups, disposable cuvettes, rotors, and prepacked reagents increase the cost of individual assays above the acceptable limit for the strained budgets of most clinical laboratories. In addition, these machines are seldom used outside the clinical laboratory, because they are designed to handle three dozen of the most frequently required clinical tests. The advantages of the discrete approach are the ability of some of these instruments to perform assays via random access—which allows sequential assay of diverse analytes at will—and the capability of stat operation, which yields the analytical readout within 5-10 min after the machine has been switched on and a sample has been inserted by a technician. 

The 14th of April, 1995, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). A 36-year-old laboratory technician checked into the medical clinic in Kikwit, complaining of a severe headache, stomach pains, fever, dizziness, weakness, and exhaustion [6]. 

There are also studies that comp)are sp>ectrophotometric and RP-HPLC determinations of iodine concentrations in urine (Bier et al., 1998). In the first one ammonium persulfate was used as an oxidant in the modified ceiic arsenite method. With the use of this sensitive method iodine concentrations can be determined in very small sp>ecitnens (50 pL). A Technicon Autoanalyzer II and a paired-ion-RP HPLC were the basic analytical equipment. The authors found that the precision of this optimized ammonium j ersulfate method yielded inter assay CVs of <10% for urinary iodine concentrations >10 pg/dL The detection limit was 0.0029 pg iodine. There was a high correlation between all three methods (r > 0.94 in any case) and the interpretation of the results was consistent. The authors suggested that the manual ammonium persulfate method could be performed in any routine clinical laboratory for urinary iodine analysis. Another benefit of the described methods is a p>ossibility to process a large number of samples with high accuracy and ininimal technician s time. 

Chemical laboratory technicians and associate laboratory workers are exposed to a great number of chemicals that cause irritant or allergic contact dermatitis, contact urticaria or skin burns. Laboratories that deal with biological specimens or laboratory animals, e.g., in hospitals, university clinical departments and pharmaceutical companies, share the hazards of chemistry laboratories however, human and animal tissue specimens, and laboratory animals contribute additional risks of contact urticaria and skin infections. Laboratory assistants are at greater risk of sensitization than workers in general. Also, the risk of skin infections is increased (Karjalainen et al. 1997)-... 

Quirce S, Olaguibel JM, Garcia BE, Tabar AI (1993) Occupational airborne contact dermatitis due to benzoyl peroxide. Contact Dermatitis 29 165-166 Rustemeyer T, Frosch PJ (1996) Occupational skin diseases in dental laboratory technicians. (I). Clinical picture and causative factors. Contact Dermatitis... 

Rustemeyer T, Frosch PJ (1996) Occupational skin diseases in dental laboratory technicians. (I). Clinical picture and causative factors. Contact Dermatitis... 

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