No abstract

Serum from 519 subjects attending a screening clinic and from the laboratory staff was used to study the influence of age, sex, body weight, social class, blood pressure, and smoking habit upon the concentration in serum of urea, uric acid, cholesterol, inorganic phosphate, total protein, calcium, and magnesium. Values for urea, uric acid, calcium, and magnesium were significantly higher in males. Age was a positive determinant of urea and cholesterol in both sexes, and of magnesium in females only. The correlation of uric acid with age was positive in females and negative in males, but in both sexes the correlation between uric acid and weight was strongly positive. Regression equations were developed to express the demographic and nondemographic contributions to the individual's blood chemistry values. From these, a set of demographically-corrected reference values were derived. When applied to a selected group of female hospital outpatients, these seemed to discriminate more accurately between subjects with and without disease than did conventional parametric limits.

During the six-month period under consideration, 2,104 forms were prepared, requesting attendance for admission of patients in the specialties of general surgery, gynaecology, E.N.T. surgery, and ophthalmology. This total does not include 25 patients whose notifications were cancelled before the intended day of admission; but it does include 50 patients who attended for admission as requested, and were sent home because they were unfit for operation or because no bed was available for them. The 2,104 forms concerned 1,904 patients, of whom 160 were sent for twice, and 20 were sent for three times during the study. Because others of the 1,904 may have been sent for once or more prior to the commencement of the study, no attempt was made to differentiate between patients according to the number of times they were offered beds. In the presentation of the results, the number of 'patients sent for' will be considered as 2,104. Of this total, 373 patients did not attend for admission, an overall non-arrival rate of 17T7 %. RESULTS Table I shows the distribution by age and sex of the patients concerned. The proportion who did 233 AGE AND SEX

No abstract