Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling in Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Immunosuppressive Drugs—From Sampling and Analytical Issues to Clinical Application

Miniaturisation and simplification are novel approaches in clinical bioanalysis, especially in therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). These contemporary trends are related to the sampling, pre-treatment, and analysis of biological fluids. Currently, dried blood spot (DBS), one of the most popular microsampling techniques, is feasible and inexpensive. However, obtaining reliable results with sample homogeneity and volume variability is difficult. Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling (VAMS) has recently enabled the accurate and precise collection of a fixed blood volume. It reduced the hematocrit effect, improved volumetric accuracy, and generated results correlating with the dose and drug exposure from wet blood. This review focuses on VAMS-Mitra™ devices, which have become increasingly important since 2014, mainly for TDM and toxicology studies. First, the current literature has been reviewed based on immunosuppressants and their determination in samples obtained using Mitra™. Second, the critical points, weaknesses, and strengths have been characterized in contrast to classic venipuncture and other microsampling methods. Finally, we indicate the points of attention according to the perspective of Mitra™ as well as its usefulness in clinical practice. VAMS is currently state-of-the-art in microsampling and seems to be a good instrument for improving adherence to immunosuppressive therapy, especially in the pediatric population.     

Melatonin and the Brain–Heart Crosstalk in Neurocritically Ill Patients—From Molecular Action to Clinical Practice

Brain injury, especially traumatic brain injury (TBI), may induce severe dysfunction of extracerebral organs. Cardiac dysfunction associated with TBI is common and well known as the brain–heart crosstalk, which broadly refers to different cardiac disorders such as cardiac arrhythmias, ischemia, hemodynamic insufficiency, and sudden cardiac death, which corresponds to acute disorders of brain function. TBI-related cardiac dysfunction can both worsen the brain damage and increase the risk of death. TBI-related cardiac disorders have been mainly treated symptomatically. However, the analysis of pathomechanisms of TBI-related cardiac dysfunction has highlighted an important role of melatonin in the prevention and treatment of such disorders. Melatonin is a neurohormone released by the pineal gland. It plays a crucial role in the coordination of the circadian rhythm. Additionally, melatonin possesses strong anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and antiapoptotic properties and can modulate sympathetic and parasympathetic activities. Melatonin has a protective effect not only on the brain, by attenuating its injury, but on extracranial organs, including the heart. The aim of this study was to analyze the molecular activity of melatonin in terms of TBI-related cardiac disorders. Our article describes the benefits resulting from using melatonin as an adjuvant in protection and treatment of brain injury-induced cardiac dysfunction.     

Stability of bioactive polyphenols from honey during different extraction methods

The LC–MS/MS technique was applied to the stability study of several flavonoids and phenolic acids in honey samples during the ultrasonic extraction (USE) and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE). Phenolic compounds from the standard mixture were stable under ultrasounds action with the mean recovery of (90.4% ± 7.1%), but during microwave-assisted extraction the benzoic acid derivatives and aglycones of flavonoids showed lower recovery (70–80%). In honey matrix, the phenolic acids and the glycosides exhibited the high stability for MAE and USE treatments. However, the recoveries of tested aglycones were below 10%. In the presence of an artificial sugar matrix, flavonols were almost completely degraded after successive treatment under MAE and USE conditions. The obtained results indicated that standard addition method for flavonoids quantification in honey samples should not be recommended. Application of the USE conditions provided higher and/or similar extraction yields for phenolic acids than usually applied shaking with solvent. It also allowed shortening the time required for the whole sample preparation procedure. Phenolic acids and glycosides such as quercetrin, rutin and hesperidin appeared to be stable under such conditions.     

Über die Phosphorsäure der Kartoffelstärke

On the Phoshoric Acid in Potato Starch. Potato starch contains chemically linked ortho-phosphoric acid (30 to 175 mg% P). Among the physico-chemical properties of potato starch effected by the phosphoric acid the most important are ion exchange and selfhydrolysis. By the ability of ion exchange it is possible to produce the salts of the pure esters of amylo-phosphoric acid (cationic starches). Sodium, potassium, ammonium, calcium and magnesium starches differ in rheological properties. The hydrogen ions of amylophosphoric acid are able to effect the hydrolytic splitting of the starch. This hydrolysis consists of two different processes: the splitting of the glucosidic linkages and the splitting of the ester linkage between the phosphoric acid and the glucose unit. Velocity of self-hydrolysis is dependent on the hydrogen ion concentration. The self-hydrolysis of hydrogen starch offers the possibility of producing degraded starch products with different technical properties without any addition of chemicals and/or enzymes.     

等离子体化学气相沉积硅外延

运用射频等离子体化学气相沉积在Ｓｉ（１００）Ｐ进行外延试验，并用四极质谱仪（ＱＭＳ）进行监测，得出了ＳｉＨ４浓度的变化规律。试验结果表明在６００℃，压力为３００ｍＴｏｒｒ时，外延生长率最高，为４５０／ｍｉｎ，膜中Ｈ含量也较低，为１．５％［ａｔ］。在压力为３０ｍＴｏｒｒ，７００℃时，外延生长率为５９．６／ｍｉｎ，膜中Ｈ含量降至２．７５％［ａｔ］。     

The unstable thermoelectric effect in non-stoichiometric Cu2Se during the non-equilibrium phase transition

Journal of Materials Science - The superionic α???β phase transition in Cu1.96Se thermoelectric material is investigated by means of thermal analysis (DSC) and...     

On problems of multicomponent system maintenance modelling

We present an overview of some recent developments in the area of mathematical modeling of maintenance decisions for multi-unit systems. The emphasis is on three main groups of multicomponent maintenance optimization models： the block replacement models, group maintenance models, and opportunistic maintenance models. Moreover, an example of a two-unit system maintenance process is provided in order to compare various maintenance policies.