The effect of long-term alendronic acid treatment on Modic changes in the lumbar spine: a gender and age-matched study.

BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) affects a significant proportion of the adult population. Potent anti-resorptive drugs such as intravenous zoledronic acid have been demonstrated to reduce Modic changes (MCs) upon magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine and concomitantly decrease associated LBP. It is uncertain whether oral alendronic acid has a similar effect. METHODS: 82 subjects were recruited in this case-control study. Treatment subjects (n = 41) received oral alendronic acid treatment for at least 1-year and were matched by gender and age (± 2) to control subjects (n = 41) not receiving any anti-osteoporotic medication. The prevalence, type, and extent of MCs were quantified upon T1 and T2-weighted MRIs of the lumbosacral spine. RESULTS: Treatment subjects received oral alendronic acid for 124.0 ± 62.1 weeks at the time of MRI assessment and exhibited a lower prevalence of MCs over the lumbosacral spine (18/41 vs. 30/41, p < 0.001) as compared to control subjects. Amongst both groups, type 2 MCs were predominant. Quantification of type 2 MCs in treatment subjects revealed a significant reduction in area (113 ± 106 mm2 vs. 231 ± 144 mm2, p < 0.01) and volume (453 ± 427 mm3 vs. 925 ± 575 mm3, p < 0.01) affected by type 2 MCs in comparison to matched controls. CONCLUSION: Oral alendronic acid may be useful in the treatment of MC-associated LBP in patients with concomitant osteoporosis.

Investigating the Underlying Factors of Corruption in the Public Construction Sector: Evidence from China.

Over recent years, the issue of corruption in the public construction sector has attracted increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers worldwide. However, limited efforts are available for investigating the underlying factors of corruption in this sector. Thus, this study attempted to bridge this knowledge gap by exploring the underlying factors of corruption in the public construction sector of China. To achieve this goal, a total of 14 structured interviews were first carried out, and a questionnaire survey was then administered to 188 professionals in China. Two iterations of multivariate analysis approaches, namely, stepwise multiple regression analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling were successively utilized to analyze the collected data. In addition, a case study was also conducted to triangulate the findings obtained from the statistical analysis. The results generated from these three research methods achieve the same conclusion: the most influential underlying factor leading to corruption was immorality, followed by opacity, unfairness, procedural violation, and contractual violation. This study has contributed to the body of knowledge by exploring the properties of corruption in the public construction sector. The findings from this study are also valuable to the construction authorities as they can assist in developing more effective anti-corruption strategies.

Detection of anti-diabetics in equine plasma and urine by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

AIM: Anti-diabetics such as sulfonylurea and thiazolidinedione derivatives are hypoglycemic drugs used for the treatment of diabetes. However, they can also be used as a stopper in horseracing. This paper describes a convenient method for the separation and simultaneous detection of 10 anti-diabetic drugs (namely glipizide, glibenclamide, glimepiride, gliclazide, tolazamide, tolbutamide, nateglinide, repaglinide, rosiglitazone and pioglitazone) in equine plasma and urine by LC-MS-MS. METHOD: The anti-diabetics were isolated from equine plasma and urine by liquid-liquid extraction with 1,2-dichloroethane at acidic pH, and analysed by LC-MS-MS in the positive electrospray ionisation mode. Separation of 10 anti-diabetic drugs was achieved with a reversed phase C8 column using a mixture of aqueous ammonium formate (pH 3.0, 10 mM) and methanol as the mobile phase. RESULTS: Detection and confirmation of the 10 anti-diabetic drugs at 10 ng/mL each in equine plasma and equine urine were achieved by full-scan MS-MS. All of these drugs were detected consistently at this concentration in spiked samples of different plasma and urine (n = 15 each). No significant matrix interferences were observed at the expected retention times of the targeted ions in blank urine samples (n = 30). This method has been used successfully in the analysis of drug-administration samples as well as official racing samples. CONCLUSION: An LC-MS-MS method has been developed for the simultaneous detection of 10 anti-diabetics in equine plasma and urine. This method can be used to detect the abuse of anti-diabetic drugs in racehorses.

Detection of endogenous boldenone in the entire male horses.

Boldenone (1,2-dehydrotestosterone) is a common veterinary anabolic agent. Its structure is very similar to testosterone. Testosterone is endogenous in the horse, whereas there has been no report concerning the detection of endogenous boldenone. This paper reports the direct observation of sulphate conjugate of boldenone in equine urine from entires. The detection procedures involved solid-phase extraction, immunoaffinity column (IAC) purification, and then LC-MS-MS analysis on a Q-ToF instrument. The identification of boldenone sulphate has provided direct evidence for the endogenous nature of boldenone in entire male horses. Quantification data for the normal level of boldenone in Hong Kong racehorses will also be discussed.