The lived experiences of patients undergoing acellular porcine corneal stroma transplantation.

To explore the lived experiences of patients undergoing acellular porcine corneal stroma (APCS) transplantation, a descriptive, qualitative design was performed. A purposive sample of 13 patients who underwent APCS transplantation to treat progressive infectious keratitis were enrolled in the semi-structured, open-ended interviews. The taped and transcribed interviews were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Alterations in the transparency of APCS grafts were accompanied by a gradual improved visual acuity (before surgery: 1.38± 0.91 logMAR; 3mo postoperatively: 0.40±0.24 logMAR, respectively). Accordingly, in terms of lived experiences, the patients generally reported "negative" experiences before the operation and during the early postoperative period, but this was greatly improved 3mo after surgery. Four main themes were derived: anxiety and fear, stigma, lifestyle change, and gratitude and insights. Conclusively, health care professionals should provide holistic care for patients, proactively promoting patients' physical and mental health.

Microchip-based immunoassays with application of silicon dioxide nanoparticle film.

Highly sensitive detection of proteins offers the possibility of early and rapid diagnosis of various diseases. Microchip-based immunoassay integrates the benefits from both immunoassays (high specificity of target sample) and microfluidics (fast analysis and low sample consumption). However, direct capture of proteins on bare microchannel surface suffers from low sensitivity due to the low capacity of microsystem. In this study, we demonstrated a microchip-based heterogeneous immunoassay using functionalized SiO(2) nanoparticles which were covalently assembled on the surface of microchannels via a liquid-phase deposition technique. The formation of covalent bonds between SiO(2) nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane substrate offered sufficient stability of the microfluidic surface, and furthermore, substantially enhanced the protein capturing capability, mainly due to the increased surface-area-to-volume ratio. IgG antigen and FITC-labeled anti-IgG antibody conjugates were adopted to compare protein-enrichment effect, and the fluorescence signals were increased by ~75-fold after introduction of functionalized SiO(2) nanoparticles film. Finally, a proof-of-concept experiment was performed by highly efficient capture and detection of inactivated H1N1 influenza virus using a microfluidic chip comprising highly ordered SiO(2) nanoparticles coated micropillars array. The detection limit of H1N1 virus antigen was 0.5 ng mL(-1), with a linear range from 20 to 1,000 ng mL(-1) and mean coefficient of variance of 4.71%.

Polymer monolith-integrated multilayer poly(dimethylsiloxane) microchip for online microextraction and capillary electrophoresis.

We reported the in situ synthesis and use of porous polymer monolith (PPM) columns in an integrated multilayer PDMS/glass microchip for microvalve-assisted on-line microextraction and microchip electrophoresis for the first time. Under the control of PDMS microvalves, the grafting of the microchannel surface and in situ photopolymerization of poly(methacrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) monolith in a defined zone were successfully achieved. Different factors including the surface grafting, polymerization time, PDMS elastic properties (ratio of oligomer/curing reagent) and UV intensity that affect the monolith synthesis in the PDMS microchannel were investigated and optimized. Dopamine, a model analyte, has been online microextracted, eluted, electrophoresized and electrochemically detected in the microchip, with a mean concentration enrichment factor of 80 (n=3). The results demonstrated that the PPM could be synthesized successfully in the PDMS microchip with a homogeneous structure and excellent mechanical properties. Furthermore, owing to the intrinsic character using PDMS in large-scale integrated microsystems, the implantation of PPM pretreatment units in PDMS microchips would make it possible to deal with complicated analytical processes in a high-throughput way.