Serial tests

After acute PSVT is terminated, long-term preventive treatment is indicated if frequent episodes necessitate therapeutic intervention or if episodes are infrequent but severely symptomatic. Serial testing of antiarrhythmic agents can be evaluated in the ambulatory setting via ambulatory ECG recordings (Holter monitors) or telephonic transmissions of cardiac rhythm (event monitors) or by invasive electrophysiologic techniques in the laboratory. 

Monitoring Perform auditory function serial tests and monitor serum levels. When monitoring vancomycin serum levels, draw a peak concentration 1.5 to 2.5 hours after the completion of a 1-hour infusion and a trough concentration within 1 hour of the next scheduled dose. Peak levels are generally expected to be in the 30 to 40 mg/mL range and trough levels in the 10 to 15 mg/mL range. 

The changes of serum CK and its MB isoenzyme following a myocardial infarction are discussed in Chapter 44. Other cardiac conditions have been reported to increase serum CK and CK-MB in serum. These conditions include cardioversion, cardiopulmonary bypass and coronary artery bypass surgery, cardiac transplantation, myocarditis, pericarditis, and pulmonary embolism. Despite improvements, in the diagnostic performance and practicality of CK and CK-MB assays, there is no controlled cUnicai impact trial showing that these tests are effective for decisions to send a patient home or to the appropriate level of care of admission for patients with suspected acute cardiac ischemia, either as one-time or serial tests.For diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, it is now advantageous to use more cardiac-specific nonenzymatic tests, such as cardiac troponin I orT. 

The diagnosis of IGT and the more severe form of glucose intolerance (DM) is based on blood glucose levels because no more specific characteristic for the disorder exists. The distinction between IGT and DM is clouded by the fact that a patient s blood glucose level may vary significantly with serial testing over time under the same conditions of diet and activity. 

Uses serial testing of adding weights that may invalidate subsequent testing no control for speed of contraction or positioning minimal information available on the reliability and validity of this method... 

P.-Y. Yin, K.-C. Chang, G.-J. Hwang, G.-H. Hwang, and Y. Chan, "A Particle Swarm Optimization Approach to Composing Serial Test Sheets for Multiple Assessment Criteria, Educational Technology Society, vol. 9,2006,pp. 3-15. 

---