19 research outputs found
Acute pancreatitis in children: an experience with 50 cases
Background/purpose Acute pancreatitis in childhood is not common. It can be associated with severe morbidity and mortality. The role of clinical evaluation is vital as it can be misdiagnosed easily. The objective of this study was to review the etiology, presentation, diagnosis, management, and prognosis of acute pancreatitis in children and to assess the relevance of currently available prognostic criteria.Patients and methods Fifty children with acute pancreatitis admitted to the Pediatric Surgery Unit at the Al-Azhar University Hospitals, within the period January 1998 to December 2008 were retrospectively reviewed. They were diagnosed by clinical examination, laboratory, and radiological investigations, as well as by abdominal exploration.Results There were 25 boys and 25 girls. The median age was 9 years (range: 2–17 years). In the majority of cases, the main cause of acute pancreatic was idiopathic (17 patients), followed by trauma (10 patients). Most of the patients presented with abdominal pain (10 cases), vomiting (nine cases), jaundice (five cases), and an abdominal mass in computed tomography (48 cases).Conclusion Trauma is a major cause of pancreatitis in children. Early diagnosis, close monitoring, and proper intervention are mandatory to reduce the potential morbidity and mortality.Keywords: acute pancreatitis, children, morbidity, traum
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Advances in ophthalmic drug delivery
Various strategies for ocular drug delivery are considered; from basic formulation techniques for improving availability of drugs; viscosity enhancers and mucoadhesives aid drug retention and penetration enhancers promote drug transport into the eye. The use of drug loaded contact lenses and ocular inserts allows drugs to be better placed where they are needed for more direct delivery. Developments in ocular implants gives a means to overcome the physical barriers that traditionally prevented effective treatment. Implant technologies are under development allowing long term drug delivery from a single procedure, these devices allow posterior chamber diseases to be effectively treated. Future developments could bring artificial corneas to eliminate the need for donor tissue and one-off implantable drug depots lasting the patient’s lifetime
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Crown ethers: novel permeability enhancers for ocular drug delivery?
Crown ethers are cyclic molecules consisting of a ring containing several ether groups. The most common and important members of this series are 12-crown-4 (12C4), 15-crown-5 (15C5), and 18-crown-6 (18C6). These container molecules have the ability to sequester metal ions and their complexes with drugs are able to traverse cell membranes. This study investigated 12C4, 15C5 and 18C6 for their ability to increase solubility of ocular drugs and enhance their penetration into the cornea. Phase solubility analysis determined crown ethers’ ability to enhance the solubility of riboflavin, a drug used for the therapy of keratoconus, and these solutions were investigated for ocular drug permeation enhancing properties. Atomic absorption spectroscopy demonstrated crown ether solutions ability to sequester Ca2+ from corneal epithelia and crown ether mediated adsorption of riboflavin into the stroma was investigated. Induced corneal opacity studies assessed potential toxicity of crown ethers. Crown ethers enhanced riboflavin’s aqueous solubility and its penetration into in vitro bovine corneas; the smaller sized crown ethers gave greatest enhancement. They were shown to sequester Ca2+ ions from corneal epithelia, doing so loosens cellular membrane tight junctions thus enhancing riboflavin penetration. Induced corneal opacity was similar to that afforded by benzalkonium chloride and less than is produced using polyaminocarboxylic acids. However, in vivo experiments performed in rats with 12C4 did not show any statistically significant permeability enhancement compared to enhancer-free formulation
Ocular antisense oligonucleotide delivery by cationic nanoemulsion for improved treatment of ocular neovascularization: an in-vivo study in rats and mice.
The efficacy of an antisense oligonucleotide (ODN17) cationic nanoemulsion directed at VEGF-R2 to reduce neovascularization was evaluated using rat corneal neovascularization and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) mouse models. Application of saline solution or scrambled ODN17 solution on eyes of rats led to the highest extent of corneal neovascularization. The groups treated with blank nanoemulsion or scrambled ODN17 nanoemulsion showed moderate inhibition in corneal neovascularization with no significant difference with the saline and scrambled ODN17 control solution groups, while the groups treated with ODN17 solution or Avastin® (positive ODN17 control) clearly elicited marked significant inhibition in corneal neovascularization confirming the results reported in the literature. The highest significant corneal neovascularization inhibition efficiency was noted in the groups treated with ODN17 nanoemulsion (topical and subconjunctivally). However, in the ROP mouse model, the ODN17 in PBS induced a 34% inhibition of retinal neovascularization when compared to the aqueous-vehicle-injected eyes. A significantly higher inhibition of vitreal neovascularization (64%) was observed in the group of eyes treated with ODN17 nanoemulsion. No difference in extent of neovascularization was observed between blank nanoemulsion, scrambled ODN17 nanoemulsion, vehicle or non-treated eyes. The overall results indicate that cationic nanoemulsion can be considered a promising potential ocular delivery system and an effective therapeutic tool of high clinical significance in the prevention and forthcoming treatment of ocular neovascular diseases
Topical and intravitreous administration of cationic nanoemulsions to deliver antisense oligonucleotides directed towards VEGF KDR receptors to the eye.
Antisense oligonucleotides (ODNs) specific for VEGFR-2-(17 MER) and inhibiting HUVEC proliferation in-vitro were screened. One efficient sequence was selected and incorporated in different types of nanoemulsions the potential toxicity of which was evaluated on HUVEC and ARPE19 cells. Our results showed that below 10 microl/ml, a 2.5% mid-chain triglycerides cationic DOTAP nanoemulsion was non-toxic on HUVEC and retinal cells. This formulation was therefore chosen for further experiments. In-vitro transfection of FITC ODNs in ARPE cells using DOTAP nanoemulsions showed that nanodroplets do penetrate into the cells. Furthermore, ODNs are released from the nanoemulsion after 48 h and accumulate into the cell nuclei. In both ex-vivo and in-vivo ODN stability experiments in rabbit vitreous, it was noted that the nanoemulsion protected at least partially the ODN from degradation over 72 h. The kinetic results of fluorescent ODN (Hex) distribution in DOTAP nanoemulsion following intravitreal injection in the rat showed that the nanoemulsion penetrates all retinal cells. Pharmacokinetic and ocular tissue distribution of radioactive ODN following intravitreal injection in rabbits showed that the DOTAP nanoemulsion apparently enhanced the intraretinal penetration of the ODNs up to the inner nuclear layer (INL) and might yield potential therapeutic levels of ODN in the retina over 72 h post injection
Influence of activation temperature and acid concentration on the sludge-based activated carbon production
This work is focus on the synthesis of activated carbon from palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME is waste from palm oil refineries and generated in large quantities, which about 2.5 tons of POME generated for every ton of palm oil production. POME usually discard in disposal pond and proceed with series of treatment. POME sludge is one of the main waste product from POME treatment and it needs a serious attention due to the significant increasing volume of waste sludge. The utilization of POME into valuable product such as activated carbon can be considered as one of the promising solutions to reduce its volume periodically. Previous researches were done on production of activated carbon from food processing industry, domestic and sewage sludge. However, the production of activated carbon from POME sludge has never been reported. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the influence of operational parameters on activation process of POME sludge for activated carbon production. The POME sludge undergone processing steps including cutting and grinding. Then, the sample was carbonized at 400°C for 1 hours and followed by chemical activation process. The chemical activation process was carried out by impregnated with 25 wt% of phosphoric acid with impregnation ratios of 1:4 (w/w) for 24 hours. After 24 hours, the sample was filtrated and dried overnight in the oven. The sample then pyrolyzed at different temperature (500°C to 800°C) for 1 hour for activation and followed by washing. Based on the BET analysis, for low phosphoric acid concentration, the activated carbon prepared under higher activation temperature shows higher surface area (125.84 m2 /g). For high activation temperature, the activated carbon impregnated with higher phosphoric acid concentration resulted in higher surface area (186.46 m2 /g). Therefore, activation temperature and acid concentration are
the important parameters determining the activated carbon quality