The current status of noninvasive intracranial pressure monitoring: A literature review.

Elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) is a life-threatening condition that must be promptly diagnosed. However, the gold standard methods for ICP monitoring are invasive, time-consuming, and they involve certain risks. To address these risks, many noninvasive approaches have been proposed. This study undertakes a literature review of the existing noninvasive methods, which have reported promising results. The experimental base on which they are established, however, prevents their application in emergency conditions and thus none of them are capable of replacing the traditional invasive methods to date. On the other hand, contemporary methods leverage Machine Learning (ML) which has already shown unprecedented results in several medical research areas. That said, only a few publications exist on ML-based approaches for ICP estimation, which are not appropriate for emergency conditions due to their restricted capability of employing the medical imaging data available in intensive care units. The lack of such image-based ML models to estimate ICP is attributed to the scarcity of annotated datasets requiring directly measured ICP data. This ascertainment highlights an active and unexplored scientific frontier, calling for further research and development in the field of ICP estimation, particularly leveraging the untapped potential of ML techniques.

Controlled release of 5-fluorouracil from microporous zeolites.

Zeolite particles with different pore diameter and particle size were loaded with the model anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil. The loaded zeolites were characterized by means of SEM, XRD, DSC, XPS, N2 physisorption and FT-IR. Higher loading of 5-FU was observed for NaX-FAU than BEA. Release studies were carried out in HCl 0.1N. Release of 5-FU from NaX-FAU showed exponential-type behaviour with the drug fully released within 10 min. In the case of BEA, the kinetics of 5-FU shows a multi-step profile with prolonged release over time. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that diffusion of the drug molecule through the BEA framework is lower than for NaX-FAU due to increased van der Waals interaction between the drug and the framework. The effect of zeolitic particles on the viability of Caco-2 monolayers showed that the NaX-FAU particles cause a reduction of cell viability in a more pronounced way compared with the BEA particles. FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: This article describes zeolite-based nanoparticles in generating time-controlled release of 5-FU from zeolite preparations for anti-cancer therapy.

Towards boron neutron capture therapy: the formulation and preliminary in vitro evaluation of liposomal vehicles for the therapeutic delivery of the dequalinium salt of bis-nido-carborane.

Liposomes of phosphatidylcholine or of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine that incorporate bis-nido-carborane dequalinium salt are stable in physiologically relevant media and have in vitro toxicity profiles that appear to be compatible with potential therapeutic applications. These features render the structures suitable candidate boron-delivery vehicles for evaluation in the boron neutron capture therapy of cancer.