Polymeric Microneedles for Health Care Monitoring: An Emerging Trend.

Bioanalyte collection by blood draw is a painful process, prone to needle phobia and injuries. Microneedles can be engineered to penetrate the epidermal skin barrier and collect analytes from the interstitial fluid, arising as a safe, painless, and effective alternative to hypodermic needles. Although there are plenty of reviews on the various types of microneedles and their use as drug delivery systems, there is a lack of systematization on the application of polymeric microneedles for diagnosis.

Material jetting of carbon nano onions for printed electronics.

As an additive manufacturing process, material jetting techniques allow to selectively deposit droplets of materials in liquid or powder form through a small-diameter aperture, such as a nozzle of a print head. For the fabrication of printed electronics, a variety of inks and dispersions of functional materials can be deposited by drop-on-demand printing on rigid and flexible substrates. In this work, zero-dimensional multi-layer shell-structured fullerene material, also known as carbon nano-onion (CNO) or onion-like carbon, is printed on polyethylene terephthalate substrates using drop-on-demand inkjet printing.

Design of Arbitrary Magnetic Patterns on Magnetic Polymer Composite Objects: A Finite Element Modelling Tool.

Magnetic sensor systems integrate a sensing element and magnetic field generators to determine their relative position or to measure movement. Typically, the magnetic fields are produced by permanent magnets, which have high intensity but are hard to machine into custom shapes. However, novel solutions using magnetic polymer composites (MPCs) have emerged as field generators due to their low cost, weight and patterning freedom.

Processing of aerogels and their applications toward CO adsorption and electrochemical reduction: a review.

Aerogels are a unique class of nanoporous ultralight materials exhibiting wide range of textural characteristic properties and tunable porosities. Due to their remarkable features such as low density, high surface area, low refractive index, small thermal conductivity, low dielectric constant and low sound velocity, they exhibit a wide range of applications in different areas such as electronics, thermal and acoustic insulation, chemistry, biomedicine and optics. The special advantages of these materials are that they can be produced in different forms such as monoliths/granular, bead/microspheres, thin films or sheets and as blankets.

Impact of Ag on the Limit of Detection towards NH-Sensing in Spray-Coated WO Thin-Films.

Ag-doped WO (Ag-WO) films were deposited on a soda-lime glass substrate via a facile spray pyrolysis technique. The surface roughness of the films varied between 0.6 nm and 4.

A Perspective on Microneedle-Based Drug Delivery and Diagnostics in Paediatrics.

Microneedles (MNs) have been extensively explored in the literature as a means to deliver drugs in the skin, surpassing the permeability barrier. MNs are potentially easy to produce and may allow the self-administration of drugs without causing pain or bleeding. More recently, MNs have been investigated to collect/assess the interstitial fluid in order to monitor or detect specific biomarkers.

Source-to-accelerator quadrupole matching section for a compact linear accelerator.

Recently, we presented a new approach for a compact radio-frequency (RF) accelerator structure and demonstrated the functionality of the individual components: acceleration units and focusing elements. In this paper, we combine these units to form a working accelerator structure: a matching section between the ion source extraction grids and the RF-acceleration unit and electrostatic focusing quadrupoles between successive acceleration units. The matching section consists of six electrostatic quadrupoles (ESQs) fabricated using 3D-printing techniques.

Multi-center prospective survey of inflammatory bowel diseases in Kerala: More than 2000 cases.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is considered uncommon in Asia. The aim of this study was to document the demographic characteristics and clinical aspects of ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) in Kerala, India.

Methods: A survey of IBD in Kerala was performed.

A compact linear accelerator based on a scalable microelectromechanical-system RF-structure.

A new approach for a compact radio-frequency (RF) accelerator structure is presented. The new accelerator architecture is based on the Multiple Electrostatic Quadrupole Array Linear Accelerator (MEQALAC) structure that was first developed in the 1980s. The MEQALAC utilized RF resonators producing the accelerating fields and providing for higher beam currents through parallel beamlets focused using arrays of electrostatic quadrupoles (ESQs).

Packaged peristaltic micropump for controlled drug delivery application.

Micropump technology has evolved significantly in the last two decades and is finding a variety of applications ranging from μTAS (micro Total Analysis System) to drug delivery. However, the application area of the micropump is limited owing to: simple pumping mechanism, ease of handling, controlled (microliter to milliliter) delivery, continuous delivery, and accuracy in flow rate. Here, the author presents the design, development, characterization, and precision flow controlling of a DC-motor driven peristaltic pump for controlled drug delivery application.

Peristaltic pump-based low range pressure sensor calibration system.

Peristaltic pumps were normally used to pump liquids in several chemical and biological applications. In the present study, a peristaltic pump was used to pressurize the chamber (positive as well negative pressures) using atmospheric air. In the present paper, we discuss the development and performance study of an automatic pressurization system to calibrate low range (millibar) pressure sensors.

QT interval prolongation: a risk factor for development of hepatorenal syndrome in cirrhotic patients with acute variceal bleeding.

Background: This study aimed to assess whether QT interval prolongation is an independent risk factor for development of hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) in cirrhotic patients with acute variceal bleeding.

Methods: 78 consecutive cirrhotic patients with acute variceal bleeding were included in the study. All patients were evaluated before bleeding (T0), during bleeding (T1) and 6 weeks later (T2).

Development of cup shaped microneedle array for transdermal drug delivery.

Microneedle technology is one of the attractive methods in transdermal drug delivery. However, the clinical applications of this method are limited owing to: complexity in the preparation of multiple coating solutions, drug leakage while inserting the microneedles into the skin and the outer walls of the solid microneedle can hold limited quantity of drug. Here, the authors present the fabrication of an array of rectangular cup shaped silicon microneedles, which provide for reduced drug leakage resulting in improvement of efficiency of drug delivery and possibility of introducing multiple drugs.

Hepatic artery duplex Doppler ultrasound in severe alcoholic hepatitis and correlation with Maddrey's discriminant function.

Background: Alcoholic hepatitis is associated with altered hepatic artery hemodynamics. Maddrey's discriminant function (MDF) can identify patients with poor prognosis (DF >32). We studied hepatic artery hemodynamic parameters of hepatic artery diameter (HAD), resistive index (RI) and pulsatility index (PI) in severe acute alcoholic hepatitis (SAAH) and for the presence of correlation of parameters with severity factor MDF.

Risk factors of cellulitis in cirrhosis and antibiotic prophylaxis in preventing recurrence.

Background: Cellulitis is a commonly encountered bacterial infection among cirrhotic patients apart from spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, urinary tract and respiratory infections. This study aimed to determine the risk factors of cellulitis in cirrhosis and whether antibiotic prophylaxis helps prevent recurrence of cellulitis.

Methods: The study was conducted in two phases.

Non-typhoidal salmonella: an unusual cause of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in decompensated cirrhosis.

Salmonella typhimurium, a non-typhoidal salmonella, is an unusual cause of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). It is usually reported in asymptomatic patients with normal or high ascitic fluid protein levels with underlying immunosuppression, as high opsonic activity in the ascitic fluid of these patients protects them from the usual organisms causing spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, unless they are exposed to a particularly virulent organism like salmonella. We report a case of culture-proven non-typhoidal salmonella in a patient with decompensated cirrhosis, with low protein and without any underlying immunosuppression, and no other source to explain its origin.

infection in patients with liver cirrhosis: prevalence and association with portal hypertensive gastropathy.

Background: The role of () in the pathogenesis of portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) in cirrhotic patients is poorly defined. The aim of this study was toinvestigate the prevalence of infection and its association with PHG in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Methods: Seroprevalence of was tested in 70 cirrhotic patients with PHG (cases) and 70 cirrhotic patients without PHG (controls) using an anti- IgG ELISA.

Bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase and platelet count score: a novel score for differentiating patients with chronic hepatitis B with acute flare from acute hepatitis B.

Background: Early therapy improves the outcome in patients with chronic hepatitis B with acute flare (CHB-AF). However in mesoendemic countries, it is difficult to differentiate CHBAF from acute hepatitis B (AHB). The aim of this study was to formulate a clinical score to differentiate CHB-AF from AHB in patients presenting with an acute hepatitis-like picture.

Hepatitis B virus subgenotype A1 predominates in liver disease patients from Kerala, India.

Aim: To molecularly characterize hepatitis B virus (HBV) isolates from Kerala and to relate them to the clinical manifestation of infection.

Methods: Sera and clinical data were collected from 91 patients diagnosed with chronic HBV infection and HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBV from 44 HCC, 22 cirrhotic and 25 chronic hepatitis patients were genotyped by sequencing of the complete S region or by restriction fragment length polymorphism assays.

Splenic abscess due to chronic melioidosis in a patient previously misdiagnosed as tuberculosis.

Melioidosis is endemic in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia. Sporadic cases have been reported from many parts of the world where it has an epidemic potential with high-rate fatality cases. In non-endemic areas, melioidosis may be misdiagnosed with common diseases and this may prove fatal.

Imatinib-induced pancreatitis.

Drug-induced pancreatitis is a rare but serious complication of many drugs, some of which have been well documented. Here we present a case of a middle-aged man with chronic myeloid leukemia who developed acute pancreatitis after being initiated on imatinib mesylate. The case history, the pharmacodynamics, uses, and adverse effects of imatinib mesylate are discussed in detail.

Chronic pancreatitis. A prospective nationwide study of 1,086 subjects from India.

Context: Chronic pancreatitis is common in India. However, its risk factors are not clear. There is sparse data on the current prevalence of tropical pancreatitis in India.

Metastatic Crohn's disease of external genitalia.

Metastatic Crohn's disease is an uncommon extraintestinal manifestation of Crohn's disease. Its hallmark features include the presence of cutaneous noncaseating granulomas that are noncontiguous with the gastrointestinal tract or fistula. We report a rare case of metastatic Crohn's disease involving the external genitalia in a 14-year-old girl.

Pancreatic pseudocyst presenting as dysphagia: a case report.

Pancreatic pseudocysts are relatively common complications of acute pancreatitis. However, extension of pseudocysts into the mediastinum rarely occurs. In such situations they commonly present with chest pain or shortness of breath.