Prevalence of nandrolone preparations with endogenous carbon isotope ratios in Australia.

Nandrolone and its prohormones, including 19-norandrost-4-ene-3,17-dione and 19-norandrost-4-ene-3β,17β-diol, are anabolic steroids forbidden at all times in sports according to the World Anti-Doping Code Prohibited List and its metabolite 19-norandrosterone (19NA) is the preferred urinary target compound to identify their abuse. In recent years, an increasing number of 19NA isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) cases have arisen that, based on the initial testing procedure, were likely to result in an adverse analytical finding but were concluded negative after IRMS analysis. The current study was therefore set up to gain a better insight on the prevalence of nandrolone preparations with endogenous carbon isotope ratio values in Australia.

Summer Olympic sports and female athletes: comparison of anti-doping collections and prohibited substances detected in Australia and New Zealand vs. France.

Like any athlete, female athletes may be tempted to use prohibited substances during competition or training to enhance their performance. Anti-doping tests performed on female athletes in summer Olympic sports from two geographical areas: Australia/ New Zealand, and France were compared. First, the distribution of sample collections across different sports disciplines, as well as the distribution of substances was investigated.

Reliability of Drug History to Verify Androgen Abuse in Men.

Context: Clinical evaluations that require excluding androgen abuse, a secretive, illicit activity, rely on the drug history, but its veracity for androgen abuse has neither been verified nor has any objective corroborating laboratory test been validated.

Objective: In a high-risk population, to (a) validate the drug history of androgen abuse objectively using state-of-the-art World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited antidoping laboratory urine mass spectrometry tests and (b) to determine what biochemical tests best distinguish androgen abuse from nonuse in this population.

Methods: Urine samples from current (n = 41) and past (n = 31) androgen abusers and nonusers (n = 21) were analyzed by comprehensive mass spectrometry-based detection tests for androgens and related drugs (ARD).

In-Sewer Stability Assessment of Anabolic Steroids and Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators.

Wastewater-based epidemiology is a potential complementary technique for monitoring the use of performance- and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs), such as anabolic steroids and selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs), within the general population. Assessing in-sewer transformation and degradation is critical for understanding uncertainties associated with wastewater analysis. An electrospray ionization liquid chromatography mass spectrometry method for the quantification of 59 anabolic agents in wastewater influent was developed.

Performance- and image-enhancing drug use in the community: use prevalence, user demographics and the potential role of wastewater-based epidemiology.

Performance- and image-enhancing drug (PIED) misuse is a significant public health issue. Currently, seizure data, surveys, anti-doping testing, and needle service provider data are used to estimate PIED use in populations. These methods are time consuming, single point-in-time measurements that often consist of small sample sizes and do not truly capture PIED prevalence.

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Telemedicine Preoperative Evaluation Initiative at a Major Academic Medical Center.

Background: With health care practice consolidation, the increasing geographic scope of health care systems, and the advancement of mobile telecommunications, there is increasing interest in telemedicine-based health care consultations. Anesthesiology has had experience with telemedicine consultation for preoperative evaluation since 2004, but the majority of studies have been conducted in rural settings. There is a paucity of literature of use in metropolitan areas.

Production of certified reference materials for the sports doping control of the REV-ERB agonist SR9009.

Two human metabolites of the REV-ERB agonist SR9009, identified by researchers with an interest in sports doping control, have been synthesized and assessed for purity. The synthesis employed was a modification of published procedures for the parent SR9009, careful attention to the purification of intermediates and the final product ensuring materials of the highest purity were available for certification. For each candidate material impurities of related structure were identified and quantified as a relative mass fraction using high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) detection and proton nuclear magnetic resonance ( H NMR) spectroscopy.

Multiple hypotheses explain variation in extra-pair paternity at different levels in a single bird family.

Extra-pair paternity (EPP), where offspring are sired by a male other than the social male, varies enormously both within and among species. Trying to explain this variation has proved difficult because the majority of the interspecific variation is phylogenetically based. Ideally, variation in EPP should be investigated in closely related species, but clades with sufficient variation are rare.

Stable carbon isotope ratio profiling of illicit testosterone preparations--domestic and international seizures.

Gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) is now established as a robust and mature analytical technique for the doping control of endogenous anabolic androgenic steroids in human sport. It relies on the assumption that the carbon isotope ratios of naturally produced steroids are significantly different to synthetically manufactured testosterone or testosterone prohormones used in commercial medical or dietary supplement products. Recent publications in this journal have highlighted the existence of black market testosterone preparations with carbon isotope ratios within the range reported for endogenous steroids (i.

The synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of adamantane-derived indoles: cannabimimetic drugs of abuse.

Two novel adamantane derivatives, adamantan-1-yl(1-pentyl-1H-indol-3-yl)methanone (AB-001) and N-(adamtan-1-yl)-1-pentyl-1H-indole-3-carboxamide (SDB-001), were recently identified as cannabimimetic indoles of abuse. Conflicting anecdotal reports of the psychoactivity of AB-001 in humans, and a complete dearth of information about the bioactivity of SDB-001, prompted the preparation of AB-001, SDB-001, and several analogues intended to explore preliminary structure-activity relationships within this class. This study sought to elucidate which structural features of AB-001, SDB-001, and their analogues govern the cannabimimetic potency of these chemotypes in vitro and in vivo.

Carbon isotope ratio analysis of endogenous glucocorticoid urinary metabolites after cortisone acetate and adrenosterone administration for doping control.

Glucocorticoids are listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List of substances. The detection of the administration of hydrocortisone and cortisone is complicated by the fact that the human body also produces these steroids naturally. Gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry can be utilized to determine the use of endogenous glucocorticoids by measuring the carbon isotope ratio (CIR) of their resulting metabolites in human urine samples.

Development of a GC/C/IRMS method--confirmation of a novel steroid profiling approach in doping control.

In doping control, an athlete can only be convicted with the misuse with endogenous steroids like testosterone (T), if abnormal values of steroid metabolites and steroid ratios are observed and if the subsequent analysis with isotope ratios mass spectrometry (IRMS) confirms the presence of exogenously administered androgens. In this work, we compare the results of a novel steroid profiling approach with the performance an in-house developed IRMS method. The developed IRMS has the advantage over other methods to be relatively short in time and with target compounds androsterone, etiocholanolone, 5β-androstane 3α,17β-diol and 5α-androstane 3α,17β-diol.

Tooth use and wear in three iron-biomineralizing mollusc species.

Chitons and limpets harden their teeth with biominerals in order to scrape algae from hard rock surfaces. To elucidate relationships between tooth structure and function, light and electron microscopy were used to examine naturally worn teeth in three species of mollusc with iron-mineralized teeth and to analyze the grazing marks left by members of these species feeding on wax. For the two chiton species, teeth wore down progressively from the medial to the lateral edge of the cusp, while for the limpet, wear was more evenly distributed across the edges of each cusp.

Development of criteria for the detection of adrenosterone administration by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry for doping control.

Adrenosterone (androst-4-ene-3,11,17-trione, 11-oxoandrostenedione) is an endogenous steroid hormone that has been promoted as a dietary supplement capable of reducing body fat and increasing muscle mass. It is proposed that adrenosterone may function as an inhibitor of the 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 enzyme (11beta-HSD1), which is primarily responsible for reactivation of cortisol from cortisone. The urinary metabolism of adrenosterone was investigated, after a single oral administration in two male subjects, by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS).

In vitro testing of a new aspiration thrombus device.

Background: Mechanical thrombectomy can restore blood flow to the brain after acute ischemic stroke, but may be associated with risks, such as breakage of moving parts and clot fragmentation. The aim of this study was to evaluate a new aspiration thrombus device (ATD), the GP ATD, which has no moving parts and extracts clots by suction in a vortex flow pattern.

Methods: The GP ATD is used to extract porcine blood clots inserted into the middle cerebral artery (MCA) of a model of the circle of Willis, and from porcine aorta.

Ultrastructure of the epithelial cells associated with tooth biomineralization in the chiton Acanthopleura hirtosa.

The cusp epithelium is a specialized branch of the superior epithelium that surrounds the developing teeth of chitons and is responsible for delivering the elements required for the formation of biominerals within the major lateral teeth. These biominerals are deposited within specific regions of the tooth in sequence, making it possible to conduct a row by row examination of cell development in the cusp epithelium as the teeth progress from the unmineralized to the mineralized state. Cusp epithelium from the chiton Acanthopleura hirtosa was prepared using conventional chemical and microwave assisted tissue processing, for observation by light microscopy, conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy filtered TEM.

The chiton stylus canal: An element delivery pathway for tooth cusp biomineralization.

A detailed investigation of the stylus canal situated within the iron mineralized major lateral teeth of the chiton Acanthopleura hirtosa was undertaken in conjunction with a row-by-row examination of cusp mineralization. The canal is shown to contain columnar epithelial tissue similar to that surrounding the mineralized cusps, including the presence of iron rich particles characteristic of the iron storage protein ferritin. Within the tooth core, a previously undescribed internal pathway or plume is evident above the stylus canal, between the junction zone and mineralizing posterior face of the cusp.

Heavier molecular weight ocular viscoelastic devices and timing of post-operative review following cataract surgery.

Background: To assess the safety of abandoning the next day post-operative review in preference for assessment only 2 hours post-surgery for both phacoemulsification and extracapsular surgery with heavier molecular weight ocular viscoelastic devices (OVD).

Methods: 475 patients who underwent uncomplicated cataract surgery using heavier molecular weight ocular viscoelastic device (Healon GV) were studied. Of these 415 were phacoemulsification and 60 extracapsular and none received Intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering prophylaxis at the end of surgery.

Fine structure of the mineralized teeth of the chiton Acanthopleura echinata (Mollusca: Polyplacophora).

The major lateral teeth of the chiton Acanthopleura echinata are composite structures composed of three distinct mineral zones: a posterior layer of magnetite; a thin band of lepidocrocite just anterior to this; and apatite throughout the core and anterior regions of the cusp. Biomineralization in these teeth is a matrix-mediated process, in which the minerals are deposited around fibers, with the different biominerals described as occupying architecturally discrete compartments. In this study, a range of scanning electron microscopes was utilized to undertake a detailed in situ investigation of the fine structure of the major lateral teeth.

Human external ophthalmomyiasis occurring in Barbados.

Human infection with the sheep nasal botfly Oestrus ovis occurs sporadically. In most cases, there is a history of a strike in the eye by the adult fly. Human O.

Intensive exposure to factor VIII is a risk factor for inhibitor development in mild hemophilia A.

Background: Inhibitors are rare in boys with mild hemophilia A (MHA; factor (F)VIII:C > 5%) but may arise following intense FVIII exposure, e.g. continuous infusion (CI).

Venous thrombosis in children.

Venous thromboembolic (VTE) events are being increasingly diagnosed in systemic and cerebral vessels in children. Systemic VTE are increasing in children as a result of therapeutic advances and improved clinical acumen in primary illnesses that previously caused mortality. The epidemiology of systemic VTE has been studied in international registries.

Contribution of Raman spectroscopy to identification of biominerals present in teeth of Acanthopleura rehderi, Acanthopleura curtisiana, and Onithochiton quercinus.

Raman spectroscopic investigations of the major lateral teeth of the chitons Acanthopleura rehderi and Acanthopleura curtisiana indicate that, in addition to the magnetite of the cutting surface and a carbonated hydroxyapatite in the central tooth core, these species deposit limonite in place of the lepidocrocite reported for other members of the genus Acanthopleura. A comparison of the spectra from these species with those of Onithochiton quercinus, which also deposits limonite, indicates that the current assignment of these species to Acanthopleura may not be appropriate. Biomineralization of the major lateral teeth may be a useful parameter to include in the taxonomic classification of chiton species.

A new biomineral identified in the cores of teeth from the chiton Plaxiphora albida.

The hydrated iron(III) oxide limonite is reported for the first time as a biomineral. In situ laser Raman spectra of the tooth cores from major lateral teeth of the chiton Plaxiphora albida are compared with those of synthetic and mineral iron phosphates and iron oxides. Raman spectra measured on iron phosphate and iron oxide standard materials are shown to be easily distinguishable from one another.