title: [Ageing society and laboratory medicine].
abstract: An interest in the ageing process has increased greatly with increasing the population of the aged. The goal of this interest is to improve the quality of life(QOL) in the aged. In this paper, the presidential address "Ageing Society and Laboratory Medicine" at the 46th annual meeting of JSCP in Kumamoto'99 was summarized on the important research for ageing in the past decades. The paper presented was age- and gene-related changes, the latent variation of serum constituents and lipids abnormality in the ageing process. Concerning to the definition of reference value of healthy populations and the subjects who had no combined ailments, the reference interval of individuals(intra-personal), followed 5 years categorized by age, sex, and social conditions, gave a narrow range of variation than did a larger mixed populations(inter-personal). The reference intervals set would be a more sensitive reference than is the customary "normal range" for values occurring in inter-personal. Concerning to the study of the relationship between laboratory test and activity of daily living(ADL), the higher serum levels for TP, Alb, Hb, Glu, TC were observed in the higher ADL. The basic research techniques were also evaluated in the paper. The serum lipoperoxides were correlated with serum lipoprotein free radicals which caused atherosclerosis. The higher frequency of cerebral- and myocardial-infarction in the aged were observed in the higher serum LDL-C and lower serum level of arachidonic acid(AA), eicosapentaenoic acid(EPA), and AA/EPA ratio were observed in AMI patients with lower HDL-C groups than the healthy aged. Although Alzheimer(AD)'s disease had a progressive memory loss and immobile dementia and was reported the decrease of acetyltransferase activity in the brain, decrease of serum level of free choline, lyso-phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylcholine(PC) and sphingomyelin(SM)/PC ratio were observed in spite of keeping normal serum level of SM. The decreased serum levels of pseudocholin esterase and albumin, especially mercaptoalbumin were observed in the healthy aged with advancing age. The early diagnosis and prediction of prognosis for the latent ailments in the aged was stressed. As to the study of variations of serum protein levels in the healthy aged, variations of serum proteins were classified into three types, 1) mainly acute phase reactant proteins such as alpha 1AT increased with advancing age, 2) transporting proteins such an albumin decreased and 3) proteins with no significant variation these were useful proteins for the early finding of latent ailments. The higher increase of alpha 1AT/beta 2III in the healthy aged over 60 y.o. was suspected to become severe in near future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Kumamoto University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Okabe
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D010338:Pathology, Clinical; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D001798:Blood Proteins