Accidental Aluminum Phosphide Intoxication Successfully Treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: A Case Report.

The most common pesticide agents are organophosphates and phosphides, aluminum phosphide (ALP) in particular. ALP is a major cause of suicidal poisoning in many countries. In other countries, the problem of accidental, mainly occupational-related, poisoning is also real and actual. Almost two thirds of individuals in poisoning cases have died. This case report describes a case of a patient with accidental ALP intoxication. The origin of the poisoning was the fumigation of stored grain in an agricultural building adjacent to the building in which patient was temporarily housed, while both buildings were connected by an underground corridor, through which the released poison gas penetrated. The case was originally presented by the rescuers as well as healthcare professionals of the local hospital as carbon monoxide intoxication, which has a similar symptomatology as ALP intoxication. The patient was treated comprehensively, including using the HBOT method, which is very unique in the case of phosphine intoxication in human medicine, with an excellent final clinical outcome. This was the first described case of HBOT for ALP intoxication in clinical medicine, although the HBOT indication itself became a coincidence in this case. Further studies must be undertaken to demonstrate the effectiveness of HBOT in treating patients with ALP poisoning.

Copper nanowire coated carbon fibers as efficient substrates for detecting designer drugs using SERS.

Miniature Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) sensors were fabricated by coating the carbon fiber microelectrodes with copper nanowires. The coating procedure, based on anodizing the copper wire in ultrapure water followed by cathodic deposition of the anode-derived material onto carbon fiber electrodes, provides a "clean" copper nanowire network. The developed miniature (10µm in diameter and 2mm in length) and nanoscopically rough SERS substrates are applicable in drug sensing, as shown by the detection and resolving of a range of seized designer drugs in trace amounts (microliter volumes of 10-10-10-12M solutions). The copper nanowire modified carbon microfiber substrates could also find further applications in biomedical and environmental sensing.

eL-Chem Viewer: a freeware package for the analysis of electroanalytical data and their post-acquisition processing.

In electrochemical sensing, a number of voltammetric or amperometric curves are obtained which are subsequently processed, typically by evaluating peak currents and peak potentials or wave heights and half-wave potentials, frequently after background correction. Transformations of voltammetric data can help to extract specific information, e.g., the number of transferred electrons, and can reveal aspects of the studied electrochemical system, e.g., the contribution of adsorption phenomena. In this communication, we introduce a LabView-based software package, 'eL-Chem Viewer', which is for the analysis of voltammetric and amperometric data, and enables their post-acquisition processing using semiderivative, semiintegral, derivative, integral and elimination procedures. The software supports the single-click transfer of peak/wave current and potential data to spreadsheet software, a feature that greatly improves productivity when constructing calibration curves, trumpet plots and performing similar tasks. eL-Chem Viewer is freeware and can be downloaded from www.lchem.cz/elchemviewer.htm.

HPLC-ED of low-molecular weight brominated phenols and tetrabromobisphenol A using pretreated carbon fiber microelectrode.

Electrochemically pretreated carbon fiber microelectrode was used to develop a simple, fast and sensitive HPLC-ECD method for the determination of brominated phenols. In addition to simple mono-, di- and tri-bromophenols (4-bromophenol, 2,4-dibromophenol, 2,6-dibromophenol, 2,4,6-tri-bromophenol) the possibility of electrochemical detection of 3,3',5,5'-tetrabromobisphenol A in oxidation mode is reported for the first time. The isocratic separation was achieved within 14 min using ternary mobile phase consisting of 50mM-phosphate buffer (pH 3.5), acetonitrile and methanol (35/15/50, v/v), and detection potential of E=+1450 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl). The carbon fiber microelectrode permitted to use high anodic potentials (up to +1800 mV vs. Ag/AgCl), the optimum analytical response was achieved at +1450 mV vs. Ag/AgCl. The limits of detection (LOD) for the studied analytes were within the range of 1.8-56.6 ng mL(-1). The developed method was applied to determination of brominated phenols in spiked water samples. Furthermore, after simple extraction with methyl tert-butyl ether, it was possible to quantify tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBA) in a piece of CRT monitor plastic casing. The found amount of TBBA was 10.22 mg kg(-1) (±0.43).

Electrochemical sensing of total antioxidant capacity and polyphenol content in wine samples using amperometry online-coupled with microdialysis.

This work describes the method for total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and/or total content of phenolics (TCP) analysis in wines using microdialysis online-coupled with amperometric detection using a carbon microfiber working electrode. The system was tested on 10 selected wine samples, and the results were compared with total reactive antioxidant potential (TRAP), oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), and chemiluminescent determination of total antioxidant capacity (CL-TAC) methods using Trolox and catechin as standards. Microdialysis online-coupled with amperometric detection gives similar results to the widely used cyclic voltammetry methodology and closely correlates with ORAC and TRAP. The problem of electrode fouling is overcome by the introduction of an electrochemical cleaning step (1-2 min at the potential of 0 V vs Ag/AgCl). Such a procedure is sufficient to fully regenerate the electrode response for both red and white wine samples as well as catechin/Trolox standards. The appropriate size of microdialysis probes enables easy automation of the electrochemical TAC/TCP measurement using 96-well microtitration plates.

Electrochemically pretreated carbon microfiber electrodes as sensitive HPLC-EC detectors.

The paper focuses on the analysis and detection of electroactive compounds using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with electrochemical detection (EC). The fabrication and utilization of electrochemically treated carbon fiber microelectrodes (CFMs) as highly sensitive amperometric detectors in HPLC are described. The applied pretreatment procedure is beneficial for analytical characteristics of the sensor as demonstrated by analysis of the model set of phenolic acids. The combination of CFM with separation power of HPLC technique allows for improved detection limits due to unique electrochemical properties of carbon fibers. The CFM proved to be a promising tool for amperometric detection in liquid chromatography.

Electrochemical behavior and determination of rutin on modified carbon paste electrodes.

The performances of ionic liquid (1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium-bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide, IL/CPE) and iron phthalocyanine (IP/CPE) modified carbon paste electrodes in electroanalytical determinations of rutin were evaluated and compared to the performance of unmodified carbon paste electrode (CPE). Cyclic voltammetry (CV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry (DPAdSV), and amperometry were used for rutin analysis. The best current responses of rutin were obtained at pH 4.0 for all tested techniques. IL/CPE electrode was found to perform best with DPAdSV technique, where a detection limit (LOD) as low as 5 nmol L(-1) of rutin was found. On the other hand, IP/CPE showed itself to be an optimum choice for DPV technique, where LOD of 80 nmol L(-1) was obtained. Analytical applicability of newly prepared electrodes was demonstrated on determination of rutin in the model samples and the extracts of buckwheat seeds. To find an optimum method for buckwheat seeds extraction, a boiling water extraction (BWE), Soxhlet extraction (SE), pressurized solvent extraction (PSE), and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) were tested.