Rapid determination of indapamide in pharmaceuticals and human urineusing square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric technique

Square-wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric method was selected for the investigation of the adsorbed Indapamide[INDP] drug in solutions of varying pH. A method has been developed for the ultra trace determination of INDP inpresence Cu[II], due to the strong adsorption of the Cu[II]- INDP complex at the surface of the HMDE andsubsequent reduction of the surface - bound complex. The observed data has been subjected to statistical analysis,which revealed high reliability and precision. A detection and quantitation limits of 2.9x10[-11]and 8.8x10[-11]mol/L[-1]respectively, were achieved in presence of 5.0x10[-7]mol/L[-1]Cu[II]. The proposed procedure is much simple, fast,more sensitive, reproducible and the calibration graph is linear over range 2.0x10[-12]-2.0x10[-7]mol/L[-1].Moreover, this method was successfully applied to the direct determination of INDP in pharmaceuticals and spikedhuman urine. No prior extraction step is needed in case of urine. The effect of some interferences [Mg[+2], glycine, Fe[+3],uric acid, starch, glucose and Na[2]CO[3]] was considered

Levels of Glycosylated haemoglobin in newly discovered Sudanese diabetics

Diabetes mellitus [D.M] is one of the most known chronic illnesses in the world. The exposure of blood to variable concentrations of glucose gives rise to variable levels of Haemoglobin [Hb] glycation, a non-enzymatic reaction. This phenomenon had led to the concept of measurement of glycosylated Hb as an indicator of glycemic control of diabetic patients; furthermore, it could be a diagnostic tool for the disease. The research aimed to measure the level of glycosylated Hb -designated HbA1c- in the newly discovered diabetics in Sudan. This was a retrospective case-control study, done at the Police Hospital and Bahri Diabetic Centre during the period from June 2011- October 2011. The populations of the sample were newly discovered Sudanese diabetics, in two age groups. Forty patients and forty controls were assessed via questionnaire, and venous blood to perform the test of HbA1c using Nycocard[copyright] machine. The mean of HbA1c in young diabetics was 10.0%, while that of old diabetics was 8.8%. There was no correlation between HbA1c and random blood glucose, body mass index, hypertension, or the duration of symptoms. HbA1c levels in newly discovered diabetics was found to be elevated, with significant difference between diabetics of less than forty, and above forty years of age.

One month outcome of ocular related emergencies in a tertiary hospital in Central Saudi Arabia

To investigate the number and characteristics of patients attending the Accident/Emergency [A/E] Department of a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, and to determine their route of referral, and pattern of ocular emergency cases. A retrospective study was carried out using the records and history of all patients attending the A/E at King Abdulaziz University Hospital [KAUH] in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in July 2010. Data collected included time of arrival, age, gender, source of referral, principal diagnosis, attending doctor, action taken, and discharge plan. A total of 1,412 patients were recruited in our study with an average daily attendance of 47 patients. A total of 863 [61%] patients were male, and their mean age was 28.2 years. The most frequent diagnosis in patients was trauma [382, 27%], followed by conjunctivitis [211, 14.9%], lids and lacrimal system [133, 9.4%], retina problems [51, 3.6%], glaucoma [30, 2.1%], neuro-ophthalmology [22, 1.6%], keratitis [20, 1.4%], uveitis [10, 0.7%], and episcleritis [5, 0.35%]. Most cases [77.5%] seen were self-referrals. Additionally, 712 [50.4%] of cases were considered as non-emergency, which are visiting the A/E for dry eye, chalazion, blepharitis, and allergy. Most cases seen at our ophthalmic A/E had non-urgent conditions that could be managed satisfactorily by trained ophthalmic assistants under supervision of an ophthalmologist

modified apache ii score for predicting mortality of variceal bleeding

Prediction of outcome of based on personal experience is subjective. There is a need for a method of prediction to suit our current state of practice. To evaluate a modified APACHE II system in predicting mortality in acute variceal bleeding. Prospective study conducted from June 2005 through September 2006 in the Ibn Sina Hospital Bleeding Centre ICU. Clinical and laboratory data for 102 patients were allotted a modified APACHE II score, a child-Pugh class and fed to SPSS to calculate predicted mortality. The mean [ +/- SD] age 49.2[ +/- 16.1] years. Male were 79[77.5%]. Patients with liver cirrhosis and periportal fibrosis were 75 [73.5%] and 27 [26.5%]] respectively. The mean predicted mortality was 22.8% while the actual mortality was 26.5% [27] patients. The mean modified APACHE II score among the deceased group was 19.04. Rate of deaths among liver cirrhosis patients was 12 [44.4%] with mean predicted mortality of 27.3%. Deaths among periportal fibrosis occur at mean modified APACHE II score 17.7 and mean predicted mortality of 20%. Seventeen patients had ICU stay >/= 4 days. Ten out of them died [58.8%]. Modified APACHE II score is effective in predicting outcome of patients with variceal bleeding. Score of >/= 15 points and long ICU stay are associated with high mortality

Gene expression of maspin and multidrug resistance MRNAs in Egyptian breast cancer

Objective: to evaluate the expression of C-erbB-2, TGF-beta1 in serum samples of breast cancer patients as compared to benign and control groups. Also to evaluate the expression of MDR-1 and maspin genes in breast cancer tissues as well as in benign breast diseases using PCR techniques

Settings: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, and Surgery Department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University

Subjects and Methods: in the present study, the expression of MDR-1 [multidrug resistance] gene and maspin [mammary serine protease inhibitor] gene were detected in breast cancer tissue as well as in benign breast diseases using PCR techniques. Serum C-erbB-2 and TGF-beta1 levels were also measured by ELISA techniques. Study groups comprised 19 healthy women; 20 benign breast disease patients and 41 breast cancer patients. Relation between different prognostic association and correlation between different studied parameters were assessed

Results: in the present work, the mean serum level of C-erbB-2 was significantly elevated while that of TGF-beta1 was significantly decreased in breast cancer patients as compared to normal healthy and benign groups. Significant negative correlation between serum C-erbB-2 and serum TGF-beta1 has been observed in the breast cancer patients. Statistical analysis by the Chi-square test showed that MDR-1gene was present more frequently in breast cancer group [51.2%] than in benign group [11%], while maspin gene was present more frequently in benign group [77.8%] than in breast cancer group [26.88]. Moreover, maspin gene expression showed an inverse relationship to histological grades and clinical stages of breast cancer. This indicates that the expression of maspin in breast tumor cells limits their growth and metastasis

Conclusions: our results showed that serum levels of C-erbB-2 were significantly higher in MDR-1 positive and maspin-negative tumors while serum levels of TGF-beta1 were significantly higher in maspin positive tumors only. In addition, we have found that the possibility of maspin positive tumors was more significantly frequent in MDR-1 negative tumors in breast cancer patients. Evaluation of these factors may improve the ability to identify and select breast cancer patients at high risk for poor prognosis and aggressive treatment and also it may have important implication concerning the overall biology of the breast