Revival of Endovascular Visual Assessment of Anastomotic Patency in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

Background : Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is considered the most performed cardiac surgery nowadays. The outcome of CABG surgery has been linked to several aspects. Above all is graft patency which is a crucial element contributing to success of the surgery. Early graft failure following CABG has been recorded in up to 12% of grafts (left IMA 7%; saphenous vein graft 8%). Objectives: The aim of the present study was to determine the efficacy and feasibility of the endovascular visualization to detect anastomotic errors. Patients and methods: The study included 40 patients who presented with CAD and were candidates for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). All anastomoses were assessed using 1.9 mm telescope and endovascular visualisation score was recorded followed by routine assessment of grafts quality using transient time flow meter. Results: In this prospective cross-sectional study, we included a total of forty patients who underwent CABG which enabled intraoperative assessment of the quality of 70 venous grafts. There is a statistically significant correlation between the endovascular visual score and the mean flow across the OM and RCA grafts. For the Diagonal grafts , the correlation was less evident due to the small sample number. Conclusion: Coronary angioscopy is a simple and safe procedure and provides clinically relevant information. It provides immediate control of anastomotic quality and it can assist in the assessment of the native coronary artery. Together with transient time flowmeter, it provides a new alternative for the quality control of CABG surgery

DC pulsed plasma magnetron sputtering of CdO/Cu/CdO multilayers thin films for self-cleaning and optoelectronic applications

In this study, CdO/Cu/CdO multilayers thin films were organized on glass substrates with different Cu intermetallic layer thickness engaging DC plasma magnetron sputtering. The optoelectronic properties and structural characteristics of the multilayers at various Cu intermetallic layer thicknesses which were varied from 4 to 16 nm were explored. The calculated band gap was reduced from 2.66 eV to 2.48 eV as the Cu intermetallic layer thickness increased from 4 to 16 nm. The refractive index and coefficient of extinction of CdO/Cu/CdO multilayers increased with increasing the Cu intermetallic layer thickness. The resistivity is reduced from 1.8 × 10−2 Ω cm for CdO single layer to reach a value of 2.7 × 10−4 Ω cm for CdO/Cu (16 nm)/CdO multilayer. Further, the sheet resistance is decreased from 1000 to 13.8 Ω/sq. with the variation in Cu intermetallic layer thickness from 0 to 16 nm. CdO/Cu (4 nm)/CdO multilayer film recorded the best figure of merit (2.3 × 10−4 Ω−1). After sunlight illumination for the multilayers, the surface wettability was improved and the contact angle recorded lowest value of nearly 24° for CdO/Cu (8 nm)/CdO and CdO/Cu (12 nm)/CdO

Effect of the Nile Aquifer Lithological Characteristics on Groundwater Chemistry in Assiut Governorate, Egypt

The chemical composition of groundwater is affected by many features, including the impact caused by surrounding rocks. The Nile aquifer is surrounded by the calcareous structural plateau along the Assiut governorate on both sides. This paper aims at studying the effect of surrounding rocks on the chemical composition of groundwater in the Nile aquifer along the Assiut governorate. Fifty-five samples were taken from drinking water stations and irrigation wells in 2015, and then analyzed chemically in water and soil fertility laboratory located in the irrigation ministry in Assiut. Aquachem software package was used to determine the groundwater type and rock source deduction. Piper-trilinear diagram was plotted to show the hydrochemical facies. Furthermore, Gibbs diagram was applied to determine the correlation between water composition and aquifer lithological characteristics. The results revealed that nearly all of the groundwater samples drop in the water-rock interaction field. The results of rock source deduction show that the ratio of Cl to the sum of anions is less than 0.8 for all samples, concluding that the rock weathering is dominant. According to the criterion of TDS values, 78% of all the samples indicated that the carbonate weathering is prevalent; in turn, the ratio of Mg to Ca plus Mg shows that limestone-dolomite weathering is predominant. These results confirm that the calcareous structural plateau surrounding the Nile aquifer along the Assiut governorate has an effect on the groundwater chemistry by interacting between groundwater and limestone rocks which are the main component of the calcareous plateau

Impact of HCV ns5a resistance associated substitutions on treatment outcome of chronic HCV in daclatasvir-based antiviral regimens

Background: RASs have direct relation to the treatment outcome in chronic HCV patients receiving DAAs. Aim and objectives: to evaluate prevalence of NS5A HCV RASs and their impact on the treatment outcome in daclatasvir-based antiviral regimens in a cohort of Egyptian patients. Subjects and methods: This study was conducted on 40 Egyptian chronic HCV patients at the virology unit of Cairo Fatemya hospital. The study participants were recruited from cases attending the virology unit of Cairo Fatemya hospital in the period from 1/11/2019 to 1/6/2020. Those patients were divided to two equal groups: responders and non responders (20 patient each).Result:Significant difference was found between the two groups as regard RAS in NS5A region in amino acid position 332 (K substitution was detected in responders while E substitution was detected in non-responders), There was a significant difference between the two groups of studied patients as regard RAS in NS5A region in amino acid position 28 (L substitution was found in responders while M substitution was found in non-responders).Conclusion; Although our results showed that RASs against NS5A and NS5B inhibitors have impact on treatment outcome,  this finding needs to be confirmed by a larger study

Novel liquid chromatographic methods for the determination of varenicline tartrate.

Two simple, sensitive, rapid, and stability-indicating liquid chromatographic (LC) methods have been developed for the determination of varenicline tartrate. They comprised the determination of varenicline (VRC) in the presence of its oxidative degradates and related impurity (N-formyl varenicline) (NFV). The first method was a LC with diode array detection (DAD) at 235 nm using Ristek-Ultra® C18 column (100 mm×2.1 mm, 5 µm). Isocratic elution of VRC was employed using a mobile phase consisting of buffer mixture (1.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate and 0.08% octane sulphonic acid): acetonitrile (86:14, v/v), pH (5.0). In the second method; a fluorimetric detection technique was developed, based on precolumn derivatization of VRC using 7-chloro-4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1, 3-diazole (NBD-Cl). The fluorescence detector (FLD) was operated at 474 nm for excitation and 539 nm for emission. Isocratic elution was applied with a mobile phase consisting of methanol-distilled water (70:30, v/v). Separation was achieved using Symmetry® Waters C18 column (150 mm×4.6 mm, 5 µm). Linearity, accuracy and precision were found to be acceptable over the concentration ranges of 0.5–20.0 µg mL−1 and 0.2–20.0 µg mL−1 with the first and the second method, respectively. The optimized methods were validated and proved to be specific, simple, and accurate for the quality control of the drug in its pharmaceutical preparation