Consequently a team of researchers from leading indigenous Pathology Services Company, Pathcare Laboratories, have been selected by international partners from South Africa and Japan to be part of the Research Project that will redefine medical diagnosis carried out through blood testing among Nigerians.
The research project which kicks off soon woul enlist healthy members of the public between the ages of 18 and 65 as volunteers for the study.
In a statement signed by the Research Coordinator, Dr Tolulope Adewole , he noted that the current 'normal values' used to interpret blood tests conducted in the laboratories within the country were actually obtained from similar researches carried out on foreign population.
"This may not necessarily represent the exact situation of the Nigerian population, hence the need for this new study among our people, which would help us to know what exactly is acceptably normal among us and what is not", Adewole stated.
According to him, "with this new research, these "normal values" will be determined, and they will be true representation of the Nigerian population; it will equally strengthen the practice of evidence based medicine in the country.
"It is these set of "normal values" that will help us to know if one is actually ill or not; that is why the research study will be conducted on the Nigerian public between the ages of 18 and 65 years and among healthy volunteers", he said.
The study would involve local and other international partners from Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, UMC, Teikyo, Japan and Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Ethical approval for the study was said to have been obtained with the support of Consultant Pathologist, Dr Tunji Soriyan of the Pathology Department of LUTH
The Head, Quality Assurance, Pathcare Laboratories, Janette Wassung stated that Quality Management is essential for research of this magnitude, only Laboratories with an internationally recognised Quality management system such as ISO 15189 accreditation can participate such a project, which is why PathCare Nigeria was selected.
She also stated that similar studies are also being carried out in other countries, such as the USA, South Africa, Kenya, Japan, Central Asia and the Far East.
The successful outcome of the study is based on recruiting only healthy subjects which according to Wassung would mean, persons with certain disease condition such as High Blood Pressure; Diabetes and any other health conditions for which medication is currently taken; or any other health conditions for which one has been hospitalized within two weeks as well as Blood donors within 3 months and blood recipients are ineligible to participate.
Others who will not be admitted as volunteers for the study include, people living with HIV/AIDS, Carriers of chronic Hepatitis B or C; Pregnant women or women that were in labour less than a year ago; persons with alcohol intake of more than five glasses a day; Obese (body mass index of more than 35 kg/m2); Underweight persons (body mass index of less than 18.5 kg/m2) and smokers who smoke more than 20 sticks a day.
Interested volunteers will be expected to complete an Informed consent form and questionnaire after which their weight, height, abdominal circumference and blood pressure after which about 30mls of blood will be taken; Dr Adewole said,
Also, "participating volunteers will be given their comprehensive medical report after analysis free-of-charge which ordinarily will cost over N25, 000. A panel of tests that include Lipid Profile, Thyroid functions, kidney function, liver function, blood sugar, iron status and much more will be analysed. This whole process he disclosed should not take longer than 30 minutes per participant," Adewole noted.
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