DocumentsDate added
Health and Safety Survey:- *Javed Akhter, PhD, Sameera Al Johani, MD, Loulwah Hammad, BSc, Khalid Al Zahrani, MSc.
*Director, Quality Management and Laboratory Safety,Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mail Code 1122,P.O. Box 22490,King Abdulaziz Medical City,Riyadh 11426,Saudi Arabia.
Abstract:- A Health and Safety survey was conducted among Laboratory workers in the Pathology Laboratory at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Analysis of 154 completed questionnaires showed that the majority of respondents were female (61%) with most participants under the age of 30 years (49%). 88% of respondents regularly worked with blood and blood products. It was found that 14% had suffered a needle stick injury and 8% had received splashes to the eyes or mouth; 2% had not reported these exposures. Full compliance of wearing gloves at all times when working with blood and blood products was 92%. Only 61% of respondents washed their hands after removing gloves. There was also a low compliance of using goggles/face shields when handling body fluids outside of a biological safety cabinet (17%). Reasons given were lack of availability (30%), not thought necessary (18%) and interfered with job (8%). Total compliance for safe disposal of sharps in a sharps container was 92%. This first report in Saudi Arabia identified several deficiencies and strategies for improvement. These results are essential in formulating effective health and safety measures and provide relevant and focused education to reduce occupational related hazards and injuries.
Keywords:- Occupational hazards, laboratory workers, laboratory hazards.
Research article:- * P. Shetti1 , A. Venkatachalam.1 1.Department of Chemistry, Bhavan’s College, Andheri (West), Mumbai – 400058, Maharashtra, India
Abstract:- Trihexyphenidyl HCl, Trifluoperazine HCl and Chlorpromazine HCl is antipsychotic drugs and used for symptomatic treatment of psychotic ailment. We present a simple liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method developed and validated for the quantification of Trihexyphenidyl HCl, Trifluoperazine HCl and Chlorpromazine HCl in Human Plasma. Ornidazole was used as the internal standard. The simple and cost effective Liquid-Liquid Extraction method is applied for the extraction of all three drug and Internal standard from Plasma. A rapid isocratic separation is achieved by a short HYPERSIL, Hypurity C18 (50x4.6)mm 5µ (Thermo, USA) column using mobile phase of Acetonitrile and Ammonium acetate buffer (70:30 v/v, (%) ) at flow rate of 0.4 ml/min. The run time is 2 minutes suggests high throughput of the proposed method. . The compound was ionized in the positive electro spray ionization (ESI) mode of the mass spectrometer. Detection of mass was performed in multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode; Trihexyphenidyl m/z 302.2-►98.1, Trifluoperazine m/z 408.1-►113.1, Chlorpromazine m/z 319.1-►86.1 and Ornidazole 220.1-►128.1. The response for all the three drugs found to be linear over the range of 0.1-100 ng/ml. The lower limit of quantification of the LC-MS/MS method was 0.1ng/ml. The intra-and inter-day precisions were below 10.0% and the accuracy was between + 5.0% and - 5.0%. This validated LC-MS/MS is rapid, sensitive, specific and cost-effective method for determining Trihexyphenidyl HCl, Trifluoperazine HCl and Chlorporomazine HCl in human plasma samples.
Key words :- Trihexyphenidyl HCl, Trifluoperazine HCl and Chlorpromazine HCl, LC-MS/MS study, Bioequivalence, Development and validation.
Review article:- Piplani S1, * Lalit M2, Arora AK3.
1.Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar, Punjab,India. 2.Chintpurni Medical College,Bungal, Pathankot, Punjab, India.
3.Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar, Punjab, India.
Abstract-: Glucagonomas an uncommon clinicopathological entity originate from the alpha-2 cells of the pancreas The syndrome goes by the acronym 4D syndrome, which stands for dermatosis, diarrohea, deep vein thrombosis and depression. Necrolytic migratory erythema (NME) is the most characteristic clinical sign of this pathology. It is associated with hyperglucagonemia, diabetes mellitus, hypoaminoacidemia, cheilosis, normochromic, normocytic anemia, and weight loss. NME features a characteristic skin eruption of red patches with irregular borders, intact and ruptured vesicles, and crust formation.The tumor cells are occasionally organized in nests and strands and appear strongly glucagon-positive on immunohistochemical staining. The correct recognition of NME is very important, because it may allow early detection either of glucagonoma or of extrapancreatic, glucagon-secreting tumors. Glucagonoma is a slow growing tumor and good recovery is possible after surgical resection.
Key words:- Glucagonoma, Hyperglucagonemia, Necrolytic migratory erythema (NME), Diabetes mellitus.
Research article:-
* I.O.George, A.I.Frank-Briggs Department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria.
Abstract:-
Background: Children with sickle cell anaemia are often treated with blood transfusion which is an important route of transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HIV infection among previously transfused children with sickle cell anaemia at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital(UPTH), Port Harcourt, Nigeria Methods: This was a prospective study of sickle cell anaemia patients with previous blood transfusion (aged 6 months to 16 years) attending the paediatric haematology clinic of UPTH, Port Harcourt, Nigeria from January 2008 to December 2009. Results: There were a total of 118 patients with previous blood transfusion from January 2008 to December 2009. Out of these, 66 (55.9 %%) were males while 52 (44.1%) were females .The Mean age (± 1 standard deviation) was 2.7 ±2.6 years (range 0.5-16 years). Five (4.2%) of 118 patients were HIV-seropositive. The parents of these patients were HIV-seronegative. However, the HIV-seropositive patients are being followed up at the paediatric HIV clinic of our hospital after post-test counseling. Conclusion: The HIV-seropositive rate in this study is comparable with national estimates thus highlighting the continued risks of inadequate blood banking systems in Nigeria.
Keywords:- HIV INFECTION, Sickle Cell Anaemia, Blood Transfusion, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Research article:-
Wangai Nyawira L1, Karau Muriira G2, 3, Gitonga Wachira4.
1.Ph.D. Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Department Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; P.O. Box 62000-00200, Nairobi, Kenya.
2.Kenya Bureau of Standards, P. O Box 54974-00200, Nairobi, Kenya
3.Ph.D (Candidate). Kenyatta University, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, P.O Box 43844 Nairobi, Kenya.
4.MSc. School of Medicine, University of Nairobi, P. O Box 19676-00202, Nairobi.
Abstract:-Plasmodium falciparum strains resistant to the commonly used antimalarial drugs are becoming more prevalent in Kenya, thus becoming a great challenge to the efforts to manage malaria, especially in endemic areas where mortality and morbidity rates are high. In the present study, the presence of dhfr-codon Arg 59 and dhps-codon Glu 540, associated with sulfadoxine pyrimethamine (SP) drugs resistance was determined by polymerase chain reactions (PCR) followed by restriction fragments digestion. Blood samples were collected from Mbita and eight epidemic districts in Kenya. It was found that the prevalence of the mutants’ strains was 16.7% in 1998 when SPs were introduced in Kenya. In 2007, about 10 years since the introduction of SPs, the prevalence of mutant strains was significantly high at 78.9% in malaria endemic areas of Mbita and 43.4% in the eight epidemic districts in Kenya. This study suggests that resistance to SPs could be largely due to drug pressure which has been present, and is still present after the withdrawal of the SPs due to their use as second line drugs, and their availability over the counter out lets in the country. To ensure that the circulation of the resistant mutants is controlled, strict adherence to the withdrawal policy should be observed.
Keywords:- Dehydrofolate reductase (dhfr), dehydropteroate synthase (dhps), endemic, epidemic, mutants, sulfadoxine pyrimethamine (SP).