Determination of 210Pb, 210Po, 226Ra, 228Ra and uranium isotopes in drinking water in order to comply with the requirements of the EU 'Drinking Water Directive.

The European Union published in 2013 a new Drinking Water Directive with stricter requirements for measuring natural radioactivity. In order to adhere to this, a method for sequential separation of 210Pb, 210Po, 238U and 234U in drinking water was applied using UTEVA® and Sr resins. Polonium-210, 238U and 234U were quantified using alpha-particle spectrometry and 210Pb using liquid scintillation counting. Radium-226 and 228Ra were determined using 3M Empore Radium RAD Disks, and their quantification was done using a Quantulus™ 1220 liquid scintillation counter.

A comparative neutron activation analysis study of common generic manipulated and reference medicines commercialized in Brazil.

In this work, a comparative study of neutron activation analysis (NAA) was performed by the nuclear institutes: CDTN/CNEN-Brazil, CCHEN-Chile and the SCK.CEN-Belgium aiming to investigate some generic, manipulated and reference medicines largely commercialized in Brazil. Some impurities such as: As, Ba, Br, Ce, Co, Cr, Eu, Fe, Hf, Sb, Sc, Sm, Ti and Zn were found, and the heterogeneity of the samples pointed out the lack of an efficient public system of quality control.

Reference values for the five electrophoretic serum protein fractions in Caucasian children by capillary zone electrophoresis.

We report age-related reference intervals for capillary zone electrophoresis for children between 1 and 14 years of age.

Inhibition of acetylcholine esterase and choline esterase by benzethonium chloride and avoidance of the benzethonium chloride carry-over inhibitory effect.

It has been shown that benzethonium chloride produces linear mixed-type inhibition of choline esterase and acetylcholine esterase. These enzymes also show-reagent-carry-over inhibition if the enzyme activities are measured in plastic cuvettes in which previously protein has been determined by the alkaline benzethonium chloride method. Choline esterase is about 10-fold more sensitive to benzethonium chloride than acetylcholine esterase. With acetylthiocholine as substrate Michaelis-Menten constants for choline esterase and acetylcholine esterase are 85 mumol/l and 102 mumol/l, respectively. Carry-over inhibitory effect of benzethonium chloride can be avoided by washing the cuvettes, after protein determination by the benzethonium chloride method, with 5 ml/l Triton X-100, 5 ml/l Tween 20 or 10 g/l sodium dodecyl sulphate. The latter has a disadvantage in that it precipitates out at low temperatures. The dry slide method (Johnson & Johnson) for serum choline esterase is free of the inhibitory effect until the concentration of benzethonium chloride in the sample reaches about 200 mumol/l.

Elimination of paraprotein interference in determination of plasma inorganic phosphate by ammonium molybdate method.

Phosphate concentrations were determined in 52 cases of paraproteinemia. The unmodified acidic ammonium molybdate method produced 19% spuriously high results. The false increase of phosphate concentration was attributable to formation of precipitate in the reaction mixture. The precipitate was formed by interaction between immunoglobulins and the unmodified acidic ammonium molybdate reagent. The magnitude of interference bore no relation to the type, concentrations, or isoelectric point of the paraproteins or to the presence or absence of free light chains. Diluting the sample to approximately 40 g/L total protein reduced but did not always eliminate the interference. In some cases paraprotein concentration as low as 8 g/L falsely increased plasma phosphate results. Apparently, only IgG and IgM but not IgA paraproteins produced the interference. Deproteination by ultrafiltration or by treatment with trichloroacetic acid removed the interference. The Kodak slide method and the new modified Boehringer Mannheim phosphate test were found to be interference-free. However, in some cases the latter new formulation is sensitive to substantial changes in ionic concentration of the reaction mixture.