Diagnostic evaluation of heel prick newborn screening of thyroid stimulating hormone on dissociation-enhanced lanthanide fluorescence immunoassay with the establishment of reference value in Pakistani neonates.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a method on Dissociation Enhanced Lanthanide Fluorescence Immunoassay for neonatal heel prick blood human thyroid stimulating hormone and the establishment of its reference value in the local population. METHODS: The multi-centre cross-sectional validation study was conducted from September 2016 to September 2018 at Zahra Beau Naqvi Foundation Welfare Trust laboratory, Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised samples related to newborns aged 1 month or less taken from neonatal units of 39 hospitals based in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Samples were collected after 24 hours of birth using the heel prick test. The samples were dried and sent to the laboratory for assessment where Dissociation Enhanced Lanthanide Fluorescent Immunoassay was used to estimate thyroid stimulating hormone levels. Data recorded included age, gender, and birth detail, like gestational age, mode of delivery etc. Data was analysed using SPSS 21. Method validation and reference value were manually calculated. RESULTS: Of the 14,147 samples received, 8,207(58%) related to boys and 5,940(42%) to girls. Most samples 4903(34.6%) came from Peshawar. The overall mean age of the newborns was 5.6±4.8 days. Thyroid stimulating hormone data was divided into three groups; positive with median value 27.8±36.6 uIU/ml, negative with median 1.42±1.60 uIU/ml, and borderline with median 11.4±4.12uIU/ml. Prevalence of congenital hypothyroidism in high-risk population in the positive group was 39(0.3%), negative 14,012(99.0%) and borderline 96(0.7%). Reference cut-off was calculated as 7.06uIU/ml for screening of healthy and positive cases of congenital hypothyroidism. Method Validation results showed limit of detection -0.5uU/ml, limit of quantitation LOQ 0.8uU/ml, accuracy 100±5%, precision coefficient of variation at each level of calibrators -4, 8.8, 1.2, 11.3, 7.2 and 4.3% respectively, and linearity from to 0.8uU/ml to 254.1uU/ml. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal human thyroid stimulating hormone by heel prick blood was found to be an affordable and highly sensitive method of screening for congenital hypothyroidism.

Biochemical characterization of bioinspired nanosuspensions from Swertia chirayita extract and their therapeutic effects through nanotechnology approach.

Swertia chirayita is used as a traditional medicinal plant due to its pharmacological activities, including antioxidant, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic. This study was aimed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of newly synthesized nanosuspensions from Swertia chirayita through nanotechnology for enhanced bioactivities. Biochemical characterization was carried out through spectroscopic analyses of HPLC and FTIR. Results revealed that extract contained higher TPCs (569.6 ± 7.8 mg GAE/100 g)) and TFCs (368.5 ± 9.39 mg CE/100 g) than S. chirayita nanosuspension, TPCs (500.6 ± 7.8 500.6 ± 7.8 mg GAE/100 g) and TFCs (229.5± 3.85 mg CE/100 g). Antioxidant activity was evaluated through DPPH scavenging assay, and nanosuspension exhibited a lower DPPH free radical scavenging potential (06 ±3.61) than extract (28.9± 3.85). Anti-dabetic potential was assessed throughα-amylase inhibition and anti-glycation assays. Extract showed higher (41.4%) antiglycation potential than 35.85% nanosuspension and 19.5% α-amylase inhibitory potential than 5% nanosuspension. Biofilm inhibition activity against E. coli was higher in nanosuspension (69.12%) than extract (62.08%). The extract showed high cytotoxicity potential (51.86%) than nanosuspension (33.63%). These nanosuspensions possessed enhanced bioactivities for therapeutic applications could be explored further for the development of new drugs.

Evaluation of essential clinical components and features of current acne global grading scales.

BACKGROUND: Acne research is hindered by the absence of a universal, consistently applied standard for severity grading. Acne experts recently identified 4 essential clinical components and 2 features for an ideal acne global grading scale (AGGS). OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated current AGGSs against consensus criteria previously identified as necessary. METHODS: AGGSs were identified by systematic literature search and then evaluated independently by 4 raters against criteria (components and subcomponents; features and subfeatures) identified as essential. RESULTS: Eighteen AGGSs fulfilled selection criteria. Three scored 1 full SD above the mean for categorical scores. We also identified highest-ranked AGGSs for subcategory scores. LIMITATIONS: Only English-language scales were selected. Efficiency and acceptance were not evaluable. CONCLUSION: Although no singular scale fulfilled all essential criteria, this study did identify highly ranked AGGSs. Incorporation and rationalization of their components and features should facilitate development of an ideal standard.

Performance Analysis of Blended Membranes of Cellulose Acetate with Variable Degree of Acetylation for CO2/CH4 Separation.

The separation and capture of CO2 have become an urgent and important agenda because of the CO2-induced global warming and the requirement of industrial products. Membrane-based technologies have proven to be a promising alternative for CO2 separations. To make the gas-separation membrane process more competitive, productive membrane with high gas permeability and high selectivity is crucial. Herein, we developed new cellulose triacetate (CTA) and cellulose diacetate (CDA) blended membranes for CO2 separations. The CTA and CDA blends were chosen because they have similar chemical structures, good separation performance, and its economical and green nature. The best position in Robeson's upper bound curve at 5 bar was obtained with the membrane containing 80 wt.% CTA and 20 wt.% CDA, which shows the CO2 permeability of 17.32 barrer and CO2/CH4 selectivity of 18.55. The membrane exhibits 98% enhancement in CO2/CH4 selectivity compared to neat membrane with only a slight reduction in CO2 permeability. The optimal membrane displays a plasticization pressure of 10.48 bar. The newly developed blended membranes show great potential for CO2 separations in the natural gas industry.

Novel Cellulose Triacetate (CTA)/Cellulose Diacetate (CDA) Blend Membranes Enhanced by Amine Functionalized ZIF-8 for CO2 Separation.

Currently, cellulose acetate (CA) membranes dominate membrane-based CO2 separation for natural gas purification due to their economical and green nature. However, their lower CO2 permeability and ease of plasticization are the drawbacks. To overcome these weaknesses, we have developed high-performance mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) consisting of cellulose triacetate (CTA), cellulose diacetate (CDA), and amine functionalized zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (NH2-ZIF-8) for CO2 separation. The NH2-ZIF-8 was chosen as a filler because (1) its pore size is between the kinetic diameters of CO2 and CH4 and (2) the NH2 groups attached on the surface of NH2-ZIF-8 have good affinity with CO2 molecules. The incorporation of NH2-ZIF-8 in the CTA/CDA blend matrix improved both the gas separation performance and plasticization resistance. The optimized membrane containing 15 wt.% of NH2-ZIF-8 had a CO2 permeability of 11.33 Barrer at 35 °C under the trans-membrane pressure of 5 bar. This is 2-fold higher than the pristine membrane, while showing a superior CO2/CH4 selectivity of 33. In addition, the former had 106% higher CO2 plasticization resistance of up to about 21 bar and an impressive mixed gas CO2/CH4 selectivity of about 40. Therefore, the newly fabricated MMMs based on the CTA/CDA blend may have great potential for CO2 separation in the natural gas industry.