Complete Blood Count Collected Via Venipuncture Versus Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter in Hematological Patients: A Comparison of 2 Methods.

Background: The use of peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) in cancer care is increasing over traditional central venous catheters. Nurses frequently collect blood by venipuncture when a PICC is inserted, as there is no available evidence to confirm the reliability of blood tests collected through PICCs in adults.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of blood samples for complete blood count (CBC) obtained through PICCs as an alternative to venipuncture.

Ciprofloxacin-intercalated layered double hydroxide-in-hybrid films as composite dressings for controlled antimicrobial topical delivery.

Films based on biopolymers and loaded with antimicrobial agents are convenient pharmaceutical dosage forms for topical application. Inorganic carriers loaded with these agents lead to composite materials, which combined with polymers produce further functionality. Here, hybrid composite films based on layered double hydroxide (LDH) and hyaluronan (HS) as ciprofloxacin (Cip) delivery systems were studied as an alternative for prophylaxis and treatment of opportunistic infections in wounds.

A Patient with Graves' Disease Scheduled for Thyroidectomy with High Risk for Thyroid Storm Caused by Severe Medication Nonadherence: Anaesthetic and Surgical Considerations.

In patients with failed hormone regulation who are scheduled for indispensable total thyroidectomy, the risk of thyroid storm with severe end-organ complications has to be anticipated. This case report presents the successful surgical and anaesthesiological management of a patient with Graves' disease, without any signs of perioperative thyroid storm. Possible recommendations for treatment are presented.

A simple surface biofunctionalization strategy to inhibit the biofilm formation by Staphylococcus aureus on solid substrates.

Staphylococcus aureus is an important opportunistic pathogen that causes a broad range of infections due to the bacteria capacity to form biofilms on medical devices. This work is aimed at inhibiting the biofilm formation by S. aureus on solid substrates using a simple surface biofunctionalization strategy.

Albumin biofunctionalization to minimize the Staphylococcus aureus adhesion on solid substrates.

Staphylococcus aureus has become the most common opportunistic microorganism related to nosocomial infections due to the bacteria capacity to form biofilms on biomedical devices and implants. Since bacterial adhesion is the first step in this pathogenesis, it is evident that inhibiting such a process will reduce the opportunity for bacterial colonization on the devices. This work is aimed at optimizing a surface biofunctionalization strategy to inhibit the adhesion of S.

Unaffected features of BSA stabilized Ag nanoparticles after storage and reconstitution in biological relevant media.

Silver-coated orthopedic implants and silver composite materials have been proposed to produce local biocidal activity at low dose to reduce post-surgery infection that remains one of the major contributions to the patient morbidity. This work presents the synthesis combined with the characterization, colloidal stability in biological relevant media, antimicrobial activity and handling properties of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NP) before and after freeze dry and storage. The nanomaterial was synthesized in aqueous solution with simple, reproducible and low-cost strategies using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as the stabilizing agent.

Ni(ii)-modified solid substrates as a platform to adsorb His-tag proteins.

This work investigated a simple and versatile modification to a solid substrate to develop electrochemical bio-recognition platforms based on bio-affinity interactions between histidine (His)-tagged proteins and Ni(ii) surface sites. Carboxylate (COO)-functionalized substrates were prepared in multiple steps, initiated with an amino-terminated self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on polycrystalline gold. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) and contact angle measurements were used to follow the modification process.

Driving forces for the adsorption of a His-tag Chagas antigen. A rational approach to design bio-functional surfaces.

In order to rationally design a bio-functional surface based on the adsorption of a His-tag antigen, three requirements have to be considered: the bio-recognition element, the driving forces for the adsorption process and the detection mode of the bio-recognition event. This work is focused on the study of the adsorption mechanism of the His-tag H49 Chagas antigen on Ni(II) modified substrates. In order to construct the bio-functional surface, the gen of the H49 Chagas antigen was modified to incorporate His6 moiety at the N-terminal (His6-H49).

Infrared study of trifluoroacetic acid unpurified synthetic peptides in aqueous solution: trifluoroacetic acid removal and band assignment.

Synthetic peptide or protein samples are mostly unpurified with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) used during the synthesis procedure, which strongly interferes with structure determination by infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The aim of this work was to propose a simple strategy to remove TFA contribution from attenuated total reflection (ATR)-IR spectra of the hexahistidine peptide (His6) in aqueous solution to study the conformation of this synthetic peptide without previous purification. Such a strategy is based on the subtraction mode widely employed to remove water contribution, and it is tested with TFA unpurified histidine as a model system.

The adsorption-desorption process of bovine serum albumin on carbon nanotubes.

The aim of this work is to study the adsorption-desorption process of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on carbon nanotubes (CNT) by reflectometry. The effect of the surface properties was analyzed by comparing the behavior of BSA on silica. The experiments were performed by reflectometry at different BSA concentrations, at pH 3.

The binding of Ni(II) ions to hexahistidine as a model system of the interaction between nickel and His-tagged proteins.

The aim of this work is to study the binding of nickel ions to hexahistidine (His(6)) combining potentiometric titrations and spectroscopic (UV-Vis and circular dichroism) determinations in order to establish the species distribution as a function of the pH, their stoichiometry, stability and geometry. For comparative purposes, the same procedure was applied to the Ni-histidine (His) system. His behaves as a tridentate ligand, coordinating the carboxyl group, the imidazole and the amino nitrogen atoms to Ni(II) ions in an octahedral coordination and a bis(histidine) complex is formed at pH higher than 5.