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Objective: To establish the in vitro screening method for determining what kinds of Chinese materia medica (CMM) and which main constituents in the medicine used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis can chelate with free iron ions (Fe3+) and evaluating the chelating strength. Methods: Based on the catalytic effect of Fe3+ on the spirolactam (nonfluorescence) to ring-open amide reaction (fluorescence), the catalytic spectrophotometric method was established to determine the free Fe3+ in the decoction of CMM, by adding a certain amount of iron ion and determinig the chelating level to evaluate the chelating strength of the constituents in CMM. Results: The chelating strength of kidney-tonifying CMM is stronger. The catalytic spectrophotometric method could be used to determine the free Fe3+ in the decoction of CMM and the linearity was good in the range of 1.68-22.4 mg/L, r = 0.999 0. The average recovery was between 90.45% and 104.11% with RSD < 5%. Conclusion: This method can be used to evaluate the chelating capacity of constituents in CMM with Fe3+.
RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To establish the method of cytological examination and the normal reference values for hypertonic saline solution-induced sputum of healthy children (age range from 5 to 15 years) with physical examination in Guangzhou.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>A total of 352 children, 5 to 15 years old, were enrolled from primary school and middle school in Guangzhou from January to December, 2010. All subjects completed a standardized questionnaire on the presence of respiratory, allergic symptoms and family history, the medical history and the physical examination was performed by doctors, lung function (forced expiratory volume at 1 s in predicted normal, FEV(1)%) was determined. There were 266 healthy children (137 males, 129 females) who were selected and undergone hypertonic saline solution induction of sputum, and cytological examination was performed. Hypertonic saline (5%) was nebulized and inhaled for 15 - 30 min. No expectoration within 30 min was defined as failure, and the procedure was terminated. The part of opaque and higher density sputum samples was detected by cytology. The proportion of neutrophils, lymphocytes, eosinophils, macrophages and monocytes was calculated. This study was approved by the institutional Ethics Review Committee of First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College. Informed consent was obtained from the legal guardians of all participants following a detailed description of the purpose and potential benefits of the study.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>There were 175 subjects' induced sputum specimens (175/266, 65.8%), non-qualified sputum samples were obtained from 16 of the subjects. The proportions of median (IQR) of lymphocytes were 0.012 (0.020), 95%CI were ranged from 0.015 to 0.022; neutrophils 0.207 (0.330), 95%CI 0.266 - 0.356 macrophages 0.761 (0.327), 95%CI 0.607 - 0.699; eosinophils 0.004 (0.019), 95%CI 0.013 - 0.022. There were no significant differences in proportions of cytological findings of female or male, different age groups and second-hand smoking or not (all P > 0.05). The incidence of adverse event was 4.40% (7/159).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The method and the preliminary data may be used for research, diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic cough and airway inflammation.</p>