Quantification of ciprofloxacin in pharmaceutical products from various brands using FT-NIR: A comparative investigation of PLS and MCR-ALS.

This study aims to quantify ciprofloxacin in commercial tablets with varying excipient compositions using Fourier Transform Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-NIR) and chemometric models: Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Multivariate Curve Resolution - Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS). Matrix variation, arising from differences in excipient compositions among the tablets, can impact quantification accuracy. We discuss this phenomenon, emphasizing potential issues introduced by varying certain excipients and its importance in reliable ciprofloxacin quantification. We evaluated the performance of PLS and MCR-ALS models independently on two sets of tablets, each containing the same drug substance but different excipients. The statistical results revealed promising results with PLS prediction error of 0.38% w/w of the first set and 0.47% w/w of the second set, while MCR-ALS achieved prediction errors of 0.67% w/w of the first set and 1.76% w/w of the second set. To address the challenge of matrix variation, we developed single models for PLS and MCR-ALS using a dataset combining both first and second sets. The PLS single model demonstrated a prediction error of 4.3% w/w and a relative error of 6.41% w/w, while the MCR-ALS single model showed a prediction error of 1.88% w/w and a relative error of 1.29% w/w. We then assessed the performance of the single PLS and MCR-ALS models developed based on the combination of the first and the second set in quantifying ciprofloxacin in various commercial tablet brands containing new excipients. The PLS model achieved a prediction error ranging between 6.2% w/w and 8.39% w/w, with relative errors varied between 8.53% w/w and 12.82% w/w. On the other hand, the MCR-ALS model had a prediction error between 1.11% w/w and 2.66% w/w, and the relative errors ranging from 0.8% to 1.74% w/w.

Impact of cognitive impairment, depression, disease activity, and disease damage on quality of life in women with systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVES: To define the relative role of cognitive impairment, depression, disease activity, and disease damage in the decreased health-related quality of life (HRQoL) frequently observed in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. METHOD: We studied 101 Chilean female SLE patients and applied the 12-item Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Short Form Health Survey version 2 (SF-12v2) to assess HRQoL and the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) to assess cognitive function. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models included demographic and disease-related factors and cognitive function tests of sustained attention, memory, and executive function. RESULTS: All measures of HRQoL were lower in the 101 female SLE patients compared to the women from the Chilean general population. HRQoL was associated with the following factors: (i) depression symptoms, which were detrimental to all components of the physical and mental HRQoL scores; (ii) executive dysfunction (spatial planning), which was associated with lower scores on role limitations due to physical health problems and emotional problems, and general health perceptions; (iii) higher activity and organ damage were deleterious to role physical, bodily pain, and physical summary scores; and (iv) higher damage also impacted physical function. Impairments in sustained attention and memory did not decrease the HRQoL. CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the relevance of executive dysfunction to poor physical and mental health components of HRQoL in SLE together with depression, while disease activity and disease damage are associated with lower HRQoL physical components. The need for cognitive function evaluation and rehabilitation in SLE is indicated.

[Influence of intake of vegetable oils on the in vitro intestinal absorption of glucose in golden hamsters]. / Influencia de la ingesta de aceites vegetales en la absorción intestinal de glucosa in vitro en hamster dorado.

Male Hamsters (Mesocricetus aureatus) were fed standardized diets with 15% Rose hip, Sunflower, Olive or Coconut oil for four weeks, in order to determine the influence of vegetable oils with different degree of unsaturation over the intestinal absorption of glucose. The concentration of glucose in the serosal solution at 20, 40 and 60 minutes, was quantified in pieces of everted intestine of each animal, after the feeding period was over. A lower concentration of glucose was observed in the Olive group, although it was statistically significant only when compared to the Rose hip and Coconut oil group (P < 0.05). The groups fed Rose hip and Coconut showed a similar pattern, even though they are oils with extreme and opposing degree of unsaturation. We explain this by the triggering of homeostatic mechanisms in the cellular membranes of the enterocytes when faced to a nutritional stress caused by the saturated and unsaturated fatty acids of those oils. We can conclude that the in vitro intestinal absorption of glucose in golden hamster is modified by dietary lipids. The lower absorption of glucose seen in the Olive group could be caused a specific action of a fatty acid or of its degree of unsaturation.

Segregation analysis of thalassemia in Ferrara.

Segregation analysis of 996 families in which the gene for beta-thalassemia was segregating showed no distortion of expected Mendelian ratios. No appreciable frequency of sporadic cases was detected. It was suggested that segregation distortion is not a mechanism which contributes to the maintenance of polymorphism in the beta-thalassemia system in the population of the Ferrara area.