Osteotomías distales de los metatarsianos menores realizadas por cirugía abierta vs cirugía percutánea en el tratamiento de las metatarsalgias.

Objetivo. Comparar los resultados clínicos y radiológicos de las osteotomías distales de los metatarsianos menores realizadas por cirugía abierta y por cirugía percutánea en el tratamiento de las metatarsalgias Material y método. Revisión retrospectiva de 44 metatarsalgias: 22 en cada grupo. Recogida de datos epidemiológicos, clínicos y medición de parámetros radiográficos. Resultados. Se consiguieron modificaciones en los parámetros radiográficos con ambas técnicas, con mayor corrección con la cirugía abierta. Las fórmulas metatarsales postoperatorias continuaron siendo no armónicas en ambos grupos. Todos los pacientes mejoraron clínicamente. La cirugía abierta tuvo más complicaciones. Conclusiones. Los resultados clínicos y radiológicos de las osteotomías percutáneas son similares a los obtenidos por cirugía abierta, pero con menos complicaciones. La obtención de una fórmula metatarsal armónica no debería ser el objetivo principal de la cirugía de las metatarsalgias, ya que, según nuestro estudio, no es una condición indispensable para lograr un buen resultado clínicoObjectives. To compare the radiographic and functional outcomes in lesser metatarsal distal osteotomies performed by percutaneous and open surgery for the treatment of metatarsalgia. Methods. A retrospective medical record review of 44 cases of discharge diagnosis of metatarsalgia: 22 patients in each group. Epidemiological data, clinical data and radiological measurements were collected. Results . Improvement of radiological parameters were obtained with both techniques, with better correction with open than with percutaneous surgery. Postoperatively metatarsal parabola continues being nonharmonious in both groups. All patients improved in clinical assessment. Open surgery had more complications than percutaneous surgery. Conclusions . Clinical and radiological outcomes of lesser metatarsal distal osteotomies performed percutaneously are similar to those obtained by open surgery, but with fewer complications. To obtain a harmonic metatarsal parabola should not be the main purpose of surgery of metatarsalgia because it is not an essential condition to achieve a good clinical outcome

PREPARATION AND EVALUATION OF FENTANYL TRANSDREMAL PATCHES USING LIDOCAINE AS A MODEL DRUG AND AZELAIC ACID AS A PENETRATION ENHANCER

Transdermal drug delivery offers numerous advantages over the conventional routs of administration; however, poor permeation of most drug across the skin barrier constitutes a major limitation of this rout. Objective: The possibility of utilizing azelaic acid as penetration enhancer was investigated. And then development of a new transdermal controlled-release device using of non-medicated and lidocaine transdermal patches and then testing the feasibility of loading fentanyl patch. Methods: DSC, FTIR, X-ray diffraction analysis and skin permeability measurements were done for both skin sample untreated and treated with azelaic acid to prove the possibility of utilizing it as permeation enhancer. Multilayered lidocaine transdermal patches were prepared by solvent/evaporation casting technique using Eudragit® E100 as transdermal adhesive polymer, and ethyl vinyl acetate as impermeable backing layer. The flexibility of films required for a good compliance and optimum transdermal adhesion of the Eudragit E films was achieved by employing triethyl citrate or dibutylphthalate at concentration of 25% (w/w) of polymer. A physicochemical interaction between azelaic acid and Eudragit E100 (cationic polymer) has been evaluated using FTIR and DSC. Lidocaine as well as fentanyl bilayerd transdermal patches containing triethylcitrate at concentration of 25% (w/w) of Eudragit E100 with and without azelaic acid were selected for further permeation studies Results: The obtained results indicated that fluorescien permeation through epidermal human skin treated with overnight exposure to saturated aqueous solution of azelaic acid was increased by 8.6 folds while, its permeation through rat skin was increased by 10.89 folds. Additional analysis by FTIR, X-ray diffraction, SEM, and DSC showed that azelaic acid disrupted stratum corneum lipid, which supported its action as promising penetration enhancer.Plasticizers as triethyl citrate or dibutylphthalate at concentration of 25% (w/w) of polymer reduced Tg of Eudragit E100 polymer to about 15.50C and 26.20C respectively. A physicochemical interaction between azelaic acid and Eudragit E100 was proven by FTIR study which indicated the present of ionic bonding between them, while DSC showed that azelaic acid may act as non-traditional plasticizer through its reduction in Tg by 7.30 C.The results of permeation studies indicated that the presence of azelaic acid was significantly increased (P < 0.05) the drug flux as the concentration of azelaic acid increased. As well as; fentanyl transdermal permeability studies revealed similar behavior to lidocaine as drug flux increased by 4.82 folds at AZ concentration of 2mg/cm2. Conclusion: the overall obtained data revealed the feasibility of preparing a controlled release fentanyl transdermal patches containing azelaic acid as penetration enhancer

Cilnidipine Nanocrystals, Formulation and evaluation for Optimization of solubility and Dissolution Rate

Cilnidipine CLD fourth generation Ca+2 channel blockers, since cilnidipine has a very low solubility (BCS Class-II drug Low solubility High permeability) and extremely low medication compliance, it has been used to treat hypertension and hypertensive-associated vascular disorders.so cilnidipine can be formulated as nanocrystals NCs  using solvent anti-solvent technology which can improve the solubility and bioavailability .Two different stabilizers(poloxamer 188 and Tween20) were utilized to prepare  nine formula  with different ratio 1:0.25,1:0.5 and 1:1. Study and evaluation the formulation factors which may effect on particle size and Polydispersity index PDI. The prepared CLD NCs were evaluated for particle size and dissolution study ,F4 was the smallest size 152 nm ,PDI  (0.161 )and the saturated solubility was increased about ten folds, this formula was subjected for freeze drying by adding  3 % mannitol as cryoprotectant .A complete dissolusion was established in about 20 minutes  which confer the DSC and PXRD results in conversion from crystalline into amorphous state .It can conclude that solvent  anti-solvent technique was a useful in preparation of nanocrystals suspension

Investigation of the presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in groundwater of Jazan area, Saudi Arabia

Purpose: To investigate the possible occurrence of some selected  pharmaceutical compounds in the groundwater of Jazan area, Saudi Arabia.Methods: Water samples from 46 wells were collected from different sites covering Jazan area of Saudi Arabia between February and March 2017. These samples were first analyzed to investigate the presence of eleven drugs mostly used in the study area. Thereafter, samples were subjected to liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) by direct injection and external standard calibration.Results: Despite the low detection limit (0.001 - 0.02 μg/L) applied to the investigated compounds with a variety chemical groups (acetylsalicylic acid, paracetamol, ibuprofen, metronidazole, caffeine, olmesartan, omeprazole, nifedipine, diclofenac sodium, glibenclamide and loratidine), none of these compounds was detected in any of the analyzed samples.Conclusion: The main source of environmental contamination with  pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) is wastewater. The results obtained reveal the absence of groundwater contamination by these compounds in Jazan area. However, further extended investigations and monitoring are recommended.Keywords: Pharmaceuticals, Groundwater, Wastewater, Pollution, Personal care products, Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer (LC-MS/MS

Suppressing scratch-induced brittle fracture in silicon by geometric design modification of the abrasive grits

The overarching goal of this research was to investigate the application of spherically shaped abrasive particles in achieving ductile-mode cutting. Scratching experiments were carried out to assess the differences between arbitrarily and spherically shaped diamond and tungsten carbide (WC) grits in inducing brittle fracture or ductile plasticity in single-crystal silicon. It was observed that the arbitrarily shaped particles produce brittle fracture in contrast to the spherically shaped grits. The sharp edges and corners of grits result in high tensile stress-concentrated regions causing cracking and spalling. Contrary to this, spherically shaped WC particles induce uniform cutting pressure, which suppresses the extent of the brittle fracture and the mode of material removal was completely dominated by ductile-cutting until a threshold load for ductile-to-brittle transition (the first cracks appearance). These observations are expected to provide a suitable pathway in making the Diamond Wire Sawing machining operations more robust by providing a control on brittle damage

Perfect secret sharing scheme based on vertex domination set

Due to the fast development in data communication systems and computer networks in recent years, the necessity to protect the secret data has become extremely imperative. Several methods have been proposed to protect the secret data; one of them is the secret sharing scheme. It is a method of distributing a secret K among a finite set of participants, in such a way that only predefined subset of participant is enabled to reconstruct a secret from their shares. A secret sharing scheme realizing uniform access structure described by a graph has received a considerable attention. In this scheme, each vertex represents a participant and each edge represents a minimum authorized subset. In this paper, an independent dominating set of vertices in a graph G is introduced and applied as a novel idea to construct a secret sharing scheme such that the vertices of the graph represent the participants and the dominating set of vertices in G represents the minimal authorized set. While most of the previous schemes were based on the principle of adjacent vertices, the proposed scheme is based upon the principle of non-adjacent vertices. We prove that the scheme is perfect, and the lower bound of the information rate of this new construction is improved when compared to some well-known previous constructions. We include an experiment involving security threats to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme

The influence of picosecond laser generated periodic structures on bacterial behaviour

The formation of a biofilm is preceded by bacterial retention and proliferation on a surface. Biofilm development on surfaces can cause numerous issues in terms of fouling and bacterial transmission and contamination. The design and fabrication of surfaces that prevent bacterial retention and biofilm formation may provide a potential solution to reduce bacterial fouling of surfaces. An EdgeWave, Nd:YVO4 picosecond laser was used to generate two periodic surface topographies on 316L stainless steel surfaces with and without fluoroalkylsilane (FAS) treatment. These were characterised using Optical Laser Microscopy (OLM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), contact angle measurements, and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX). The surface wettability and retention of Escherichia coli bacteria on the laser generated surfaces were analysed over one month. Without chemical treatment, and with increasing the time to one month, the results showed that the wettability of laser treated surfaces was decreased as was subsequent bacterial retention. However, the control surface recorded the lowest number of adhered bacteria. After reducing the surface tension, the number of bacteria retention was decreased on all surfaces and one of laser generated surfaces which presented higher contact angle and lower surface tension components (CA = 132°, ΔGiwi = −85.26, γs = 13.81, γsLW = 13.37, and γs− = 0.13) recorded the minimal number of bacteria retention. The results showed that reducing the surface tension played an important role which reduced bacterial fouling

Reduction of seafood processing wastewater using technologies enhanced by swim–bed technology

The increasing growth of the seafood processing industries considerably requires more industrial process activities and water consumption. It is estimated that approximately 10–40 m3 of wastewater is generated from those industries for processing one-tonne of raw materials. Due to limitations and regulations in natural resources utilization, a suitable and systematic wastewater treatment plant is very important to meet rigorous discharge standards. As a result of food waste biodegradability, the biological treatment and some extent of swim-bed technology, including a novel acryl-fibre (biofilm) material might be used effectively to meet the effluent discharge criteria. This chapter aims to develop understanding on current problems and production of the seafood wastewater regarding treatment efficiency and methods of treatment