Magnetic resonance imaging and clinical outcome in patients with symptomatic carotid artery stenosis after carotid artery revascularization

Introduction: About 30% of patients with carotid artery stenosis (CAS) develop dementia after a cerebral ischemic event (CIE), and 20–50% suffer from CIE recurrence during 6 months. Carotid artery revascularization (CAR) may prevent CIE recurrence, at the cost of new microembolic lesions (MES). The impact of CAR on cognitive function is debatable. Aim: To assess functional and cognitive outcome, cerebral flow on transcranial Doppler (TCD) and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with symptomatic CAS referred for CAR. Material and methods: Twenty-two patients (aged 69.0 ±7.2 y.o., 15 male) with recent CIE (21.9 ±20.9 days to CAR) related to CAS of mean 89.8 ±3.9% lumen reduction were prospectively evaluated with TCD, diffusion and perfusion MRI, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) 24 h before, at 24–48 h and 1 month following CAR. Results: New MES were found in 11 (50%) subjects following CAR. CAR resulted in a significant increase of cerebral flow velocity in the middle and anterior cerebral arteries (p < 0.002 and p = 0.003; respectively) and cerebral perfusion measured by time to peak (TTP) and mean transit time (MTT) (p = 0.0009 and p = 0.0002; respectively). Neurologic tests showed improvement in NIHSS (2.4 ±1.6 to 1.5 ±1.2, p = 0.003), mRS (from 1.3 ±0.9 to 0.7 ±0.9, p = 0.005), and MMSE (26.7 ±2.2 to 27.6 ±2.3, p = 0.019) at 1 month, while similar MoCA scores were observed before and 1 month after CAR (23.4 ±3.3 vs. 24.1 ±3.7, p = 0.136). Conclusions: Improvement of cerebral flow and perfusion and functional outcome, as well as at least no cognitive decline, is observed after CAR for symptomatic CAS

Nanomaterials developed for dispersive solid phase extraction, part 1 – modifications of classical materials

Solid phase extraction (SPE) is an analytical procedure developed with the purpose of separating a target analyte from a complex sample matrix prior to quantitative or qualitative determination. The purpose of such treatment is twofold: elimination of matrix constituents that could interfere with the detection process or even damage analytical equipment as well as enriching the analyte in the sample so that it is readily available for detection. Dispersive solid phase extraction (dSPE) is a relatively recent development of the standard SPE technique that is attracting growing attention due to its remarkable simplicity, short extraction time and low requirement for solvent expenditure, accompanied by high effectiveness and wide applicability. There is an enormous abundance of articles concerning advances in sample preparation and analysis published every year. The aim of this review is to bring to closer attention developments of materials with potential application as sorbents in dSPE technique through a thorough survey of recently conducted analytical studies focusing on methods utilizing novel, interesting nanomaterials in dSPE procedures and evaluation of their performance and suitability based on comparison of provided validation parameters with previously reported analytical procedures. The first part of this review focuses on widely known and utilized materials such as silica and carbon and their modifications, up to and including graphene and carbon nanotubes. Studies chosen for this review will be listed in tables alongside their relevant validation parameters at the end of each chapter. Applications found to be particularly interesting due to high effectiveness, unusual operating procedure or scope, among other reasons, will be described in greater detail

Recent nanomaterials developed for dispresive solid phase extraction. Part 2, Modern materials

The second part of the review shifts attention to novel modern materials applied to dSPE as sorbents, that are often designed specifically for the extraction of a particular analyte. This part will focus on advances in materials such a molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP), metallic organic frameworks (MOF), layered double hydroxides (LDH) or magnetic nanoparticles (MNP). As in the first part, studies chosen for this review will be listed in tables alongside their relevant validation parameters at the end of each chapter. Studiesfound to be particularly interesting due to high effectiveness, unusual operating procedure or scope, among other reasons, will be described in greater detail