RESUMEN
Measurement of the spin-spin NMR relaxation time (or its inverse, the rate) of water molecules in aqueous nanoparticle dispersions has become a popular approach to probe of the nature and structure of the particle surface and any adsorbed species. Here, we report on the characterisation of aqueous dispersions of hollow amorphous nanoparticles that have two liquid accessible surfaces (inner cavity surface and outer shell surface) plus the solid (silica) and core-shell (titania-silica) nanoparticle precursors from which the hollow particles have been prepared. In all cases, the observed water relaxation rates scale linearly with particle surface area, with the effect being more pronounced with increasing levels of titania present at the particle surface. Two distinct behaviours were observed for the hollow nanoparticles at very low volume fractions, which appear to merge with increasing surface area (particle concentration). Herewith, we further show the versatility of solvent NMR spectroscopy as a probe of surface character.
RESUMEN
This study reflected that administration of tetracycline along with quinine and cotrimoxazole can reduce mortality from cerebral malaria significantly. In this five year prospective study in an endemic zone, the authors assessed the outcome of treatment with or without tetracycline among 254 cases of cerebral malaria. 100 patients were treated with quinine and cotrimoxazole and 154 patients were given triple therapy-quinine, cotrimoxazole and tetracycline. Fatality in group without tetracycline was 18%, whereas in the tetracycline group it was 12.33%. One interesting observation was that the parasite count was not proportional to the severity of disease. Out of 254 patients of this series, 136 patients (53.54%) had low parasite count (less than 1,000/cumm) and only 26 patients (10.23%) had infinity count. Quinine induced cardiac arrhythmia or hypoglycaemia was not seen in any patient.
