I took a call from London Buses earlier. A woman had collapsed on a bus and the bus driver had found she was wearing a medical bracelet. The medical bracelet read “H. C. Elcotropnoresis”. Bear in mind this spelling came from an anxious bus driver across a radio to London Buses’ office to me, and may well be subject to Chinese Whispers. I had no idea what it meant and neither did anyone else in the room. My medical dictionary has not turned up any answers, and neither has Google. Does anyone have any ideas?
It did cross my mind that maybe it wasn’t a medical bracelet at all… maybe she was Greek and that was her name?
March 12th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
high current electrophoresis?
March 12th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Would that make any sense on a medical bracelet though?
March 12th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
electropnoresis comes up on google but not sure what it means.
I’ll have a look when I’ve slept.
March 12th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
Yes Mark it would.
Quote from the Oxford Medical Dictionary:
” Electrophoresis is widely used in the investigation of body chemicals, such as the analysis of different proteins in blood serum.”
It may not mean much to us ambo bods, but it may point hospital staff in the right direction.
Hope that helps
March 12th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Sounds far too complicated to me.
March 12th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Can’t think of anything medical that would fit. Almost certainly said electrophoresis, but not sure what it would mean.
March 13th, 2006 at 1:26 am
I’d bet it was something to do with:
EPNS Electro Plated Nickel Silver
:~)
March 13th, 2006 at 3:18 am
Electrophoresis is a kind of theraphy used in Pain Management (done by Anaesthesiologists)
If it was actually “Electrophoresis” the word we are dealing with she is probably a patient with a cronic pain of any kind.
I guess…
March 13th, 2006 at 4:02 am
My imput on this is that i think H.C means Haemaglobin C which is a trait in sickle cell anemia and the Electrophoresis is the test she needs when she gets to hospital to see her red blood cells so they can give her correct treatment.
I done a little bit of haematology nursing in my final year but im no expert.
March 13th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Yep I agree it is probably Haemoglobulin C Electrophoresis - the test they should do if she is admitted to hospital. I understand that medical bracelets can be used to inform the doctor of a condition or of a specific thing to look at when the patient presents…
Not entirely sure on that but then again I am only in my second year
March 13th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Cheers all - I’m a bit less in the dark now. It still seems strange that she would have the name of a medical test on her bracelet rather than what she actually suffers from, but at least I know what it probably said now!
March 13th, 2006 at 11:54 pm
If you’re very puzzled, I guess you could try ringing one of the organisations that makes the bracelets?
I don’t see why they would need to do electrophoresis if she was admitted to hospital, if she had sickle cell. How would that help? Sure, it’s used as a diagnostic test in the first instance, but I don’t think it’s of any value once a person has already been confirmed to have sickle cell.
It’s not like say a blood glucose test that could tell you something important about a person’s health even if you know they have diabetes. It would just tell you “they have sickle cell”, and is a highly roundabout way of getting to that compared to putting “Sickle cell” or “Sickle cell trait” on the bracelet.
March 15th, 2006 at 2:35 am
You might also want to Google for “heavy chain electrophoresis”, typically found as part of the phrase “myosin heavy chain electrophoresis”.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Haemoglobin C electrophoresis would tell clinicians the level of haemoglobin C present in her blood in place of ‘normal’ haemoglobin A. This would prove to be useful in deciding whether or not she would need transfusing or any other treatment to bring her levels of haemoglobin A back to normal. although as you say it does seem odd to have a bracelet which states the test needed in place of what is wrong with her. Maybe it was just some sort of freebie bracelet thing given away by some company who have something to do with machinery that tests for haemoglobinopathies. People will wear anythng providing its the right colour.
March 16th, 2006 at 10:34 am
Okay. Is that really something they’d do in an emergency situation faced with an unconscious or highly confused patient? (I really don’t know and am interested)
March 19th, 2006 at 1:47 am
e·lec·tro·pho·re·sis Pronunciation (-lktr-f-rss)
n.
1. The migration of charged colloidal particles or molecules through a solution under the influence of an applied electric field usually provided by immersed electrodes. Also called cataphoresis.
2. A method of separating substances, especially proteins, and analyzing molecular structure based on the rate of movement of each component in a colloidal suspension while under the influence of an electric field.
March 19th, 2006 at 1:52 am
electrophoresis to separate antigens and antibodies
March 19th, 2006 at 1:56 am
While Haemoglobin C Electrophoresis does sound most likely I think it is an unusual thing to put on a medicalert bracelet because Haemoglobin C is a very benign condition unless the person also has Sickle Cell disease (in which case a Sickle Cell Disease bracelet makes more sense).
I have no idea though what the bracelet means though.
Electrophoresis is a test which can be done on any liquid to determine the protein contents by weight and electrical charge. It is used to detect some kinds of cancers, types of hereditary anaemias, types of immune deficencies, multiple sclerosis and rarely some genetic disorders.
December 27th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
I can’t help thinking this bracelet is quite useless. Of the hundreds of medical professionals who read this site, a few have had guesses at its meaning, but nobody seems very sure about the meaning. So no doubt if she were to end up in A&E she would be met with the same puzzlement (worse, probably, because there woudn’t be as many medically trained people to discuss it as here).