Assessment of drug delivery devices working at microflow rates.

Almost every medical department in hospitals around the world uses infusion devices to administer fluids, nutrition, and medications to patients to treat many different diseases and ailments. There have been several reports on adverse incidents caused by medication errors associated with infusion equipment. Such errors can result from malfunction or improper use, or even inaccuracy of the equipment, and can cause harm to patients' health.

In-line measurements of the physical and thermodynamic properties of single and multicomponent liquids.

Microfluidic devices are becoming increasingly important in various fields of pharmacy, flow chemistry and healthcare. In the embedded microchannel, the flow rates, the dynamic viscosity of the transported liquids and the fluid dynamic properties play an important role. Various functional auxiliary components of microfluidic devices such as flow restrictors, valves and flow meters need to be characterised with liquids used in several microfluidic applications.

Calibration of insulin pumps based on discrete doses at given cycle times.

One application in the medical treatment at very small flow rates is the usage of an Insulin pump that delivers doses of insulin at constant cycle times for a specific basal rate as quasi-continuous insulin delivery, which is an important cornerstone in diabetes management. The calibration of these basal rates are performed by either gravimetric or optical methods, which have been developed within the European Metrology Program for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) Joint Research Project (JRP) 18HLT08 Metrology for drug delivery II (MeDDII). These measurement techniques are described in this paper, and an improved approach of the analytical procedure given in the standard IEC 60601-2-24:2012 for determining the discrete doses and the corresponding basal rates is discussed in detail.

Calibration methods for flow rates down to 5 nL/min and validation methodology.

Improving the accuracy and enabling traceable measurements of volume, flow, and pressure in existing drug delivery devices and in-line sensors operating at very low flow rates is essential in several fields of activities and specially in medical applications. This can only be achieved through the development of new calibrationmethods and by expanding the existing metrological infrastructure to perform micro-flow and nano-flow measurements. In this paper, we will investigate new traceable techniques for measuring flow rate, from 5 nL/min to 1,500 nL/min and present the results of an inter-comparison between nine laboratories for the calibration of two different flow meters and a syringe pump.

Vaginal breech delivery at term and neonatal morbidity and mortality - a population-based cohort study in Sweden.

Introduction: The routine to deliver almost all term breech cases by elective cesarean section (CS) has continued to be debated due to the risk of maternal and neonatal complications. The aims of the study were (1) to investigate if mode of delivery impacts on the risk of morbidity and mortality among term infants in breech presentation and (2) to compare the rates of severe neonatal complications and mortality in relation to presentation and mode of delivery.

Methods: This population-based cohort study used data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register.