ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Lead protective gloves are widely used to attenuate scattered radiations during fluoroscopic-guided medical procedures, thereby reducing hand exposure to radiation. AIMS: To determine whether lead-containing gloves present a risk of metal leaching onto the operator's skin, particularly due to the presence of sweat. METHODS: Artificial sweat of varying acidity was introduced into two types of commercial gloves containing lead. The level of lead in the sweat was then assessed after different exposure times. Electron microscopy was used to observe the morphology of the glove layers. RESULTS: Lead was detected in artificial sweat during each contact test on two different types of gloves. The concentration of lead increased with the acidity of the sweat, and the contact time. Gloves with a protective lining transferred less lead into sweat, but it was still present at significant levels. (i.e. few milligrams of lead per glove after one hour contact). CONCLUSIONS: Fluoroscopy operators should be aware of the risk of leaching of lead ions when using lead gloves under intensive conditions, although the potential harmfulness of lead ions leached into the glove remains essentially unknown.
Subject(s)
Gloves, Protective , Sweat , Humans , IonsABSTRACT
Owing to the great potential of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) for nanomedicine, large efforts have been made to better control their magnetic properties, especially their magnetic anisotropy to provide NPs able to combine imaging by MRI and therapy by magnetic hyperthermia. In that context, the design of anisotropic NPs appears as a very promising and efficient strategy. Furthermore, their bioactive coating also remains a challenge as it should provide colloidal stability, biocompatibility, furtivity along with good water diffusion for MRI. By taking advantage of our controlled synthesis method of iron oxide NPs with different shapes (cubic, spherical, octopod and nanoplate), we demonstrate here that the dendron coating, shown previously to be very suitable for 10 nm sized iron oxide, also provided very good colloidal, MRI and antifouling properties to the anisotropic shaped NPs. These antifouling properties, demonstrated through several experiments and characterizations, are very promising to achieve specific targeting of disease tissues without affecting healthy organs. On the other hand, the magnetic hyperthermia properties were shown to depend on the saturation magnetization and the ability of NPs to self-align, confirming the need of a balance between crystalline and dipolar magnetic anisotropies.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to establish reference intervals for prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial prothrombin time (aPTT) in healthy rabbits using two different point-of-care analysers (Idexx Coag DX and MS Quick Vet Coag Combo). These intervals would be useful in the diagnosis of coagulopathies and in the determination of coagulation status in critical patients. We are unaware of reports of coagulation values in pet rabbits. Blood samples were analysed from 81 clinically healthy pet rabbits under three years of age (49 females and 32 males). The reference intervals were as follows (non-parametric method for the MS Quick Vet Coag Combo and Box-Cox Robust method for the Idexx Coag DX, p<0.05 limit for statistical significance): PT (MS Quick Vet Coag Combo)=N=33, 17.2-28.5; PT (Idexx Coag DX)=N=48, 10.0-14.8, aPTT (MS Quick Vet Coag Combo)=N=33, 103.2-159.2 and aPTT (Idexx Coag DX)=N=48, 104.2-159.1. PT was significantly longer using the MS Quick Vet Coag Combo. aPTT was significantly shorter with the MS Quick Vet Coag Combo. On each type of analyser, there was no significant difference between sexes and blood sampling sites. A significant difference was present for the use or not of anaesthesia with the MS Quick Vet Coag Combo analyser. This study on healthy pet rabbits will be useful in point-of-care diagnosis of coagulopathies.
