Some Practical Applications of Paper Electrophoresis.

Due to the increased interest in electrophoresis as a clinical tool for diagnosis , it seems evident that an attempt should be made to obtain equipment for use in the small hospital. The cost of commercially produced equipment prohibits the use of the electrophoretic procedure in the small hospital unless some method employing the basic theories can be found at lower cost. This paper attempts to show how a small hospital will have the essentials f or this procedure at a cost of one-tenth of the commercially produced equipment. The completed electrophoretic patterns may then be sent to a larger hospital which may have an 11 An.alytrol11 or some other densitometer for obtaining the percentage of the serum albumin and globulins. The graphs can then be interpreted and sent back to the small hospital for diagnosis. During the summer of 1956 the writer observed the equipment in use at the Naval Medical Hospital , Bethesda, Maryland. The results of the equipment there were compared to the results of this present investigation. The separation obtained at Hays corresponded so closely to that at the naval Hospital, that the results of this investigation may be considered valid. The present investigation was conducted at the St. Anthony Hospital at Hays , Kansas. It was designed to check the relative accuracy of an improvised instrument with an expensive commercial model, and to verify the use of such an instrument as a diagnostic tool