Schilling test (medicine) and Burbidge, (Eleanor) Margaret (sh)

Schilling test (medicine)

schilling test
<investigation> This test measures the amount of vitamin B12 in the urine after ingesting a dose of B12. This test evaluates vitamin B12 absorption. The cells in the stomach produce a substance known as intrinsic factor. This substance combines with B12 to allow absorption in the distal ileum. The patient is given a small dose of radioactive B12 which can then be detected in the patients urine. Pernicious anaemia is the clinical result of B12 deficiency. Conditions that can result in an abnormal Schilling test include: deficiency of intrinsic factor, malabsorption or the development of an antibody to intrinsic factor. The Schilling test can be performed with or without administration of intrinsic factor to determine what the underlying cause for pernicious anaemia. Laxative use, renal insufficiency and hypothyroidism can all interfere with the results of this test.

Burbidge, (Eleanor) Margaret (sh)

orig. Eleanor Margaret Peachey

born Aug. 12, 1919, Davenport, Cheshire, Eng.

English astronomer.

She served as acting director (1950-51) of the Observatory of the University of London. In 1955 her husband, Geoffrey Burbidge (b. 1925), became a researcher at the Mount Wilson Observatory, and she accepted a research post at Caltech. She later joined the faculty at UC-San Diego, briefly serving as director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (1972-73). Jointly with her husband, she made notable contributions to the theory of quasars and to the understanding of how the elements are formed in the depths of stars through nuclear fusion (nucleosynthesis).

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