New oral anticoagulants in atrial fibrillation: a reappraisal of trial results looking at absolute figures.

Three new oral anticoagulant agents were tested versus warfarin in separate, large phase III randomized clinical trials for prevention of any stroke and systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation. Dabigatran, a direct thrombin inhibitor, is at 110 mg bid non-inferior and at 150 mg bid superior to warfarin; rivaroxaban, a factor X inhibitor, is also non-inferior, and apixaban, also a factor X inhibitor, is superior to warfarin on the same efficacy end point. Statistical analysis of subgroups does not suggest, for any of the tested drugs, major differences in relation to different risk levels and history of previous stroke/TIA.

[Aspirin in primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases: how to balance risks and benefits].

While the use of aspirin in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular atherothrombotic disease is well established, many aspects of primary prevention are still unclear. Uncertainties mostly depend on a doubtful risk-benefit ratio, because of the low atherothrombotic risk of populations involved on the one hand, and the non-negligible bleeding risk of treatment on the other. Areas of specific doubt are those of diabetes and asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease, where neither single trials nor meta-analyses allow issuing high-grade specific recommendations at the moment.

Collision-induced dissociation of the A + 2 isotope ion facilitates glucosinolates structure elucidation by electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry with a linear quadrupole ion trap.

An approach is presented that can be of general applicability for structural elucidation of naturally occurring glucosinolates (GLSs) in crude plant extracts based on the fragmentation of isotopic A and A + 2 peaks. The most important fragmentation pathways were studied by tandem mass spectrometry (MS(n), n = 2, 3) using a linear quadrupole ion trap (LTQ) upon GLSs separation by optimized reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) and electrospray ionization (ESI) in negative ion mode. As the LTQ MS analyzer ensures high sensitivity and linearity, the fragmentation behavior under collision induced dissociation (CID) of the isotopic peaks A and A + 2 as precursor ions was carefully examined.

A three-factor Doehlert matrix design in optimising the determination of octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide by cation-exchange chromatography with suppressed conductivity detection.

A simple and effective chromatographic method with suppressed conductivity detection was developed and validated to determine dissolved samples of octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (C18H37N+ Me3Br-, ODTAB) for purity testing. A response surface methodology generated with a Doehlert matrix design was applied to optimize the chromatographic and detection conditions in ion-exchange chromatography (IEC) with conductivity detection in the chemical suppression mode. A three-factor Doehlert design was performed to fit a second-order model and jointly optimize the peak intensity and shorten analysis time through a global desirability function.