On-Demand Urine Analyzer

A lab-on-a-chip was developed that is capable of extracting biochemical indicators from urine samples and generating their surface-enhanced Raman spectra (SERS) so that the indicators can be quantified and identified. The development was motivated by the need to monitor and assess the effects of extended weightlessness, which include space motion sickness and loss of bone and muscle mass. The results may lead to developments of effective exercise programs and drug regimes that would maintain astronaut health. The analyzer containing the lab-on-a- chip includes materials to extract 3- methylhistidine (a muscle-loss indicator) and Risedronate (a bone-loss indicator) from the urine sample and detect them at the required concentrations using a Raman analyzer. The lab-on- a-chip has both an extractive material and a SERS-active material. The analyzer could be used to monitor the onset of diseases, such as osteoporosis

Intra-spinal epidural leakage of bone cement during vertebroplasty of an osteoporotic vertebral fracture: case report and review of literature

Vertebral fractures are one of the most common complications of osteoporosis. Prolonged and intractable pain leads to immobilization and significant morbidity. Vertebroplasty is designed primarily to relieve pain, and the procedure is considered when osteoporotic vertebral fracture does not respond to a reasonable period of conservative care. Vertebroplasty has a low complication rate with most common complication being adjacent vertebral body fracture and rare complication due to extra-vertebral cement leakage causing nerve root compression or pulmonary embolism. We report a case of 55 year old lady with osteoporotic D12 wedge compression fracture subjected to vertebroplasty resulting in intraspinal cement leakage noticed intra-operatively. Patient underwent immediate decompression, cement extraction and posterior instrumentation. Postoperative course was uneventful

How long does treated supracondylar humerus fracture in children take to recover elbow range?

Background: Our goal was to address requirement of physiotherapy after treatment of supracondylar humerus fractures in children and evaluate result of casting on elbow without injury using control group of distal forearm fractures.Methods: 57 cases of supracondylar fractures were included in this retrospective study and compared with group of 54 children with distal forearm fractures treated with long arm casting for 28 days. Passive elbow ROM was checked with goniometer on day of cast removal, 2 weeks later, and then every month until the elbow ROM returned to 95% ROM (ROM-95) of uninjured side. No physiotherapy was given.Results: Average time in cast for supracondylar fracture group was 31.8 days and distal forearm fracture group was 32.4 days. The elbow total flexion angle reached a plateau of 139 degrees at 1month after cast removal whereas forearm group required less than 2 weeks. Total rotation ROM required half the time to reach 139 degrees in forearm group. From the paired t test it took more time for pronation to recover than supination in supracondylar fractures. In supracondylar group there was positive correlation between casting period and recovery period of ROM-95 elbow extension (p=0.021) and days of casting (p=0.021) and ROM-95 flexion recovery period. There was no statistically significant impact between casting and recovery period in other directions and recovery of ROM-95 & F-ROM and the subclassification and type of treatment of individual fractures.Conclusions: Lessons learned: thorough assessment of elbow function post cast removal, lack of need of physiotherapy in management protocol and elbow stiffness is related to initial injury and associated treatment not merely immobilisation

Multi-layer Tablet: Current scenario and recent advances

The purpose of this article on tableting of multiple Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in the single oral solid dose in the form of Fixed Dose Combinations (FDCs), that focused on therapeutic justification, designing, its practical approach, summarize the problem encountered and parameters to be considered during development. This will help budding formulation development scientists working on generic development as such types of formulation is current need in various disease conditions. Looking to the necessity of medical practitioners, ultimately generic pharmaceutical companies taking interest in development of such formulation with correct medical justification due to various health problem not only in India but also globally. FDCs are highly popular in the Indian pharmaceutical market and also have been seen in the last few years. Presently very few generic companies are working on FDCs in the form of multilayer tablets resulting into small numbers of formulation in the market yearly

Measurements of Bicarbonate in Water Containing Ocean-Level Sulfate Using a Simple Multi-Pass Optical Raman System

The concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon in the oceans at depths of a few meters to thousands of meters is a critical parameter for understanding global warming. The concentration is both pH dependent and depth dependent. Current analysis that employs pH meters must account for several other parameters, such as salinity, temperature, pressure, and the dissolved carbon’s form, carbon dioxide, bicarbonate, or carbonate. Recently, Raman spectroscopy has been used to measure these forms directly in water at ~1000 ppm, which is unfortunately insufficient for typical ocean concentrations, such as ~115 ppm bicarbonate near the surface. Here, we employed a simple multi-pass optical system, a flat mirror to reflect the laser back through the sample, and a concave mirror opposite the entrance slit that effectively doubled the laser power and the collected Raman photons, respectively. This multi-pass optical Raman system with a 1.5 W, 532 nm laser was used to measure 30 ppm bicarbonate in water that contained 2650 ppm sulfate to simulate ocean water, a bicarbonate concentration well below that near the ocean surface. Furthermore, spectral analysis employed the bicarbonate C=O symmetric stretch at 1360 cm−1 instead of the C–OH stretch at 1015 cm−1 to avoid the intense, overlapping sulfate SO4 symmetric stretch at 985 cm−1. The calculated standard deviation of ~5 ppm for the described approach suggests that accurate measurement of bicarbonate in situ is possible, which has been, heretofore, either calculated based on pH or measured in a lab

High efficiency sol-gel gas chromatography column

A capillary column (10) includes a tube structure having inner walls (14) and a sol-gel substrate (16) coated on a portion of inner walls (14) to form a stationary phase coating (18) on inner walls (14). The sol solution used to prepare the sol-gel substrate (16) has at least one baseline stabilizing reagent and at least one surface deactivation reagent resulting in the sol-gel substrate (16) having at least one baseline stabilizing reagent residual and at least one surface deactivating reagent residual. A method of making the sol-gel solution is by mixing suitable sol-gel precursors to form the solution, stabilizing the solution by adding at least one baseline stabilization reagent, deactivating the solution by adding at least one surface deactivation reagent to the solution, and reacting the solution in the presence of at least one catalyst

Detection of codeine and fentanyl in saliva, blood plasma and whole blood in 5-minutes using a SERS flow-separation strip

A rudimentary flow strip, based on SERS, was developed and used to measure drugs, such as fentanyl, in saliva, plasma, and blood. Fully developed, the strip could be used with hand-held Raman spectrometers as a simple, point-of-care drug analyzer.</p

Drug Stability Analysis by Raman Spectroscopy

Pharmaceutical drugs are available to astronauts to help them overcome the deleterious effects of weightlessness, sickness and injuries. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that some of the drugs currently used may degrade more rapidly in space, losing their potency before their expiration dates. To complicate matters, the degradation products of some drugs can be toxic. Here, we present a preliminary investigation of the ability of Raman spectroscopy to quantify mixtures of four drugs; acetaminophen, azithromycin, epinephrine, and lidocaine, with their primary degradation products. The Raman spectra for the mixtures were replicated by adding the pure spectra of the drug and its degradant to determine the relative percent contributions using classical least squares. This multivariate approach allowed determining concentrations in ~10 min with a limit of detection of ~4% of the degradant. These results suggest that a Raman analyzer could be used to assess drug potency, nondestructively, at the time of use to ensure crewmember safety