Risk Factors for Intraoperative Hypertension during Surgery for Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Objective: To investigate the incidence and identify risk factors for the occurrence of intraoperative hypertension (IOH) during surgery for primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT). Subjects and Methods: The study included 269 patients surgically treated between January 2008 and January 2012 for pHPT. IOH was defined as an increase in systolic blood pressure >= 20% compared to baseline values which lasted for 15min. The investigated influence were demographic characteristics, surgical risk score related to physical status (based on the American Society of Anesthesiologists [ASA] classification), comorbidities, type and duration of surgery, and duration of anesthesia on IOH occurrence. The investigated factors were obtained from the patients' medical history, anesthesia charts, and the daily practice database. Logistic regression analysis was done to determine the predictors of IOH. Results: Of the 269 patients, 153 (56.9%) had IOH. Based on the univariate analysis, age, body mass index, ASA status, duration of anesthesia, and preoperative hypertension were risk factors for the occurrence of IOH. Multivariate analysis showed that independent predictors of IOH were a history of hypertension (OR = 2.080, 95% CI: 1.102-3.925, p = 0.024) and age (OR = 0.569, 95% CI: 0.360-0.901, p = 0.016). Conclusion: In this study, a high percentage (56%) of the patients developed IOH during surgery for pHPT, which indicates that special attention should be paid to these patients, especially to the high-risk groups: older patients and those with a history of hypertension. Further, this study showed that advanced age and hypertension as a coexisting disease prior to parathyroid surgery were independent risk factors for the occurrence of IOH

The calculation of costs of postal network and universal postal service based on standard and average cost principles

The provision of universal postal service involves high costs for operator, especially in rural areas. The aim of this paper is to propose and test tool for managing the cost of providing universal postal service and maintaining the postal network in order to facilitate understanding of the problem in the sector. The proposed approach use standard prices and standard quantities (the redefined number of postal units, the number of employees, etc.) as well as average costs for calculation of the costs of the universal postal service and postal network. The methodology provides the efficiency analysis, benchmarking and identification of causes of poor performance of management and resource allocation. It can be used for postal operators that do not have modern accounting systems

Benzophenone Suppression of Quercetin Antioxidant Activity towards Lipids under UV-B Irradiation Regime: Detection by HPLC Chromatography

Quercetin, a well-known flavonoid antioxidant, has been employed to control benzophenone-sensitized peroxidation of the lipid mixture in methanol solution, induced by continuous UV-B irradiation. Surprisingly, the detected quercetin antioxidant activity was almost negligible. The presented data suggests that the reason is not in its own UV-B-induced degradation but rather in its interrelationship with benzophenone during UV-B stress. On the other side of this relationship, benzophenone anticipated sensitizing role towards lipids; that is, the initiation of lipid peroxidation has been affected as well. These results, obtained by HPLC chromatography, partly confirm but partly relativize to some extent recent results obtained with the same system by spectrophotometric method

Investigation into the potential chemical mechanism of the pro-oxidant activity of carotenoids with liposomes under UV-irradiation

This study focuses on the behavior of β-carotene and lutein inside multilamellar liposomes under continuous UV-irradiation. The liposomes were obtained by the thin film method and carotenoids (Crts) were incorporated by mixing at various concentrations (0.005, 0.0075, 0.02, 0.07 and 0.5 mol %). Liposomes formation and the presence of Crts inside them were confirmed by SEM microscopy and FT-IR spectroscopy, respectively. The antioxidant/pro- -oxidant activity of Crts inside liposomes was determined by the thiobarbituric acid–malondialdehyde (TBA–MDA) test. The investigated Crts acted more or less unexpected (as pro-oxidants) inside the lipid bilayers, interacting with the UV-produced lipid radicals and simultaneously suffering under the UV-irradiation. Their pro-oxidant activity with liposomes and under UV-irradiation could be explained by the formation of unstable adducts in the reaction with peroxyl radicals, or by Crts-cation radicals formation via the electron transfer mechanism. Such tentatively unexpected behavior of carotenoids should be taken into consideration in further carotenoids-based UV-filters projections in cosmetic formulations for skin protection. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. TR-34012

Irreversible UV-induced quercetin and rutin degradation in solution, studied by UV-spectrophotometry and HPLC chromatography

Irreversible degradation of quercetin and rutin, dissolved in methanol and water, induced by continuous UV-irradiation from two different sub-ranges (UV-B and UV-C) has been studied in this work. The degradation of both flavonoids is related to formation of UV-induced degradation products: both processes follow first-order kinetics. The degradation and products formation rate constants are both dependent on the involved UV-photons energy input in both solvents

UV-induced change in quercetin antioxidant activity toward benzophenone initiated lipid peroxidation

The aim of this work is to estimate the degradation and change in antioxidant activity of quercetin in the presence of two different mixtures of phospholipids in methanol solution, under continuous UV-irradiation from three different sub-ranges (UV-A, UV-B and UV-C), in the presence and in the absence of selected UV-absorbing photosensitizer, benzophenone. Quercetin is employed to control lipid peroxidation process generated by UV-irradiation, by absorbing part of the UV-incident light, or/and by scavenging the involved, created free radicals. The results show that quercetin undergoes to irreversible destruction, highly dependent on UV-photons energy input, more expressed in the presence than in the absence of benzophenone. In the same time quercetin expresses suppression effect on lipid peroxidation processes in UV-irradiated phospholipid mixtures in both cases - absence or presence of benzophenone (more or less effective, respectively). In UV-C-irradiated mixtures, benzophenone photosensitizing function is significantly reduced due to its strong absorption in the same UV-C spectral range, therefore affecting less antioxidant activity of the remained quercetin

Quercetin oxidation by horseradish peroxidase: The effect of UV-B irradiation

Horseradish peroxidase (HRP), a highly-investigated member of the peroxidase family has been known, among many other biological activities, to catalyze the oxidation of flavonoids and phenolic substrates overall, including quercetin. On the other hand, quercetin is very well known for its antioxidant activities, which in the case of UV external radiation is exibited partly in a preventive manner since it is an excellent UV-absorber. Therefore the aim of this investigation is to study quercetin oxidation by HRP in phosphate buffer under the conditions of UV-stress, i.e. continuous, prolonged UV-B irradiation. The results show that while UV-B irradiation affects the activity of HRP, and the overal rate of quercetin oxidation by HRP, it probably has very little effect on it for longer UV-B-irradiation periods (>30 min). [Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia under Project No.TR-34012 and OI-172044

In vitro studies of temperature and pH influence on chlorophyll degradation by horseradish peroxidase: Spectroscopic and HPLC studies

In vitro chlorophyll a degradation by horseradish peroxidase in the presence of the resorcinol was investigated in this work, and the influence of pH and temperature was particularly studied. Chlorophyll a degradation was followed by UV-VIS and HPLC. Chlorophyll a was degraded when hydrogen peroxide was added into reaction mixture containing chlorophyll fraction, horseradish peroxidase, resorcinol and phosphate buffer. HPLC analysis has identified the main degradation product of chlorophyll a as 132 -hydroxychlorophyll a. The degradation was traced at different temperatures and pH values. The increasing temperatures led to increase of chlorophyll a degradation, with a maximum at 37 °C. The degradation also increased with increasing pH values, reaching maximum at pH 6

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry combined with the ultra high performance liquid chromatography in the analysis of in vitro formation of chlorophyll complexes with copper and zinc

The aim of this work was to give more accurate insight in the interaction of major photosynthesis pigment, chlorophyll (Chl), with copper (II) and zinc (II) in solution by flow injection analysis with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (FIA-ESI-MS) method, as well as combined with ultra high performance liquid chromatography with DAD detection (UHPLC-DAD). These interactions may potentially, but not necessarily lead to formation of Cu-Chl and Zn-Chl complexes of two different types, which has a lot of - at least - disfunctional implications in plant world. The results based on analysis of full-scan and MS/MS spectra - with or without the UHPLC chromatograms - confirm formation of “central type” Cu-Chl complex, and “central type” Zn-Chl complex as well, along with a proof for formation of “peripheral” Zn-Chl complex, the latter one originating from a very week coordinative interaction at the edge of Chl structure. The used techniques appeared to be an efficient and reliable tool for studying formation and stability of heavy metals complexes with chlorophyll, at least in vitro, with a considerable possibility for assessment of real bio-environmental behavior. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR-34012 i br. OI-172044

Graphene quantum dots as autophagy-inducing photodynamic agents

The excellent photoluminescent properties of graphene quantum dots (GQD) makes them suitable candidates for biomedical applications, but their cytotoxicity has not been extensively studied. Here we show that electrochemically produced GQD irradiated with blue light (470 nm, 1 W) generate reactive oxygen species, including singlet oxygen, and kill U251 human glioma cells by causing oxidative stress. The cell death induced by photoexcited GQD displayed morphological and/or biochemical characteristics of both apoptosis (phosphatidylserine externalization, caspase activation. DNA fragmentation) and autophagy (formation of autophagic vesicles, LC3-I/LC3-II conversion, degradation of autophagic target p62). Moreover, a genetic inactivation of autophagy-essential LOB protein partly abrogated the photodynamic cytotoxicity of GQD. These data indicate potential usefulness of GQD in photodynamic therapy, but also raise concerns about their possible toxicity. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved