Efficacy and safety of escitalopram versus citalopram in major depressive disorder: a 6-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, flexible-dose study.

RATIONALE: S-citalopram (escitalopram) is the very active moiety of citalopram. It has been shown in many studies to be an effective and safe antidepressant for treating major depressive disorder (MDD). OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to compare the efficacy and safety of escitalopram vs citalopram in Chinese MDD patients. METHODS: In the double-blind study, 240 MDD patients were randomly assigned to treatment for 6 weeks either with escitalopram (10-20 mg/d) or citalopram (20-40 mg/d). The primary efficacy measurement was the change of 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) total score from baseline to the end of study. The secondary efficacy measurements were response and remission rates. The adverse events (AEs) were recorded by the investigator. RESULTS: Two hundred and three (85%) patients completed the trial. The average dose was 13.9 mg/d in the escitalopram group and 27.6 mg/d in the citalopram group. No significant differences were found between the two groups in the change in HAMD-17 total score, response, and remission rate. These results were similar in severe MDD patients. No significant differences were found between the two groups in AEs. No serious AEs were observed in this study. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that escitalopram 10-20 mg/d are as effective and safe as citalopram 20-40 mg/d in the short-term treatment for Chinese MDD patients.

[Study of nondestructive and fast identification of fabric fibers using near infrared spectroscopy].

A fast and nondestructive identification method to distinguish different types of fabric fibers is proposed in the present paper. A total of 214 fabric fiber samples, including wool, cashmere, terylene, polyamide, polyurethane, silk, flax, linen, cotton, viscose, cotton-flax blending, terylene-cotton blending, and wool-cashmere blending, were collected from Beijing Textile Fibre Inspection Institute. They contain yarns, raw wool or cashmere, and various fabric straps with different colors and different braid patterns. Sample presentation for measuring near infrared spectra of various textile fibers was tried to reduce the impact from the ununiformity of polymorphous fabric structure. Spectral data were pretreated using multiplicative signal correction (MSC) to reduce the influence of spectral noise and baseline shift. Classification of 12 kinds of fabric fibers in various braid patterns was studied using minimum spanning tree method and soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) classification based on principal component analysis of NIR spectra. The minimum spanning tree for the spectra of total samples shows that the samples in the same type fall almost into one cluster, but there are overlaps between some two different clusters of fabric fibers with very similar chemical compositions, such as wool and cashmere. Complete discrimination between cashmere and wool has been achieved using SIMCA. The results show that nondestructive and fast identification of fabric fibers using near infrared spectral technique is potentially feasible.

[Detection of streptomycin resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and DNA sequencing].

OBJECTIVE: To determine the rpsL and rrs gene mutation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) and compare the consistency between the results of denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) and those of DNA sequencing. METHODS: The values of streptomycin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against 215 M. tuberculosis clinical isolates, 115 being streptomycin-resistant and 100 being susceptible by a routine proportional method, were tested by DHPLC. DNA sequencing was conducted to detect the rpsL and rrs mutation. RESULTS: 98 of the 115 streptomycin-resistant isolates (85.2%) harbored rpsL and/or rrs mutation, 76.5% of which being rpsL mutation (88/115). There was no significant correlation between the MIC values and mutation types. No mutation was found in all the susceptible isolates. There was a complete consistency between the DHPLC results and those of DNA sequencing. CONCLUSION: DHPLC can be regarded as a useful and powerful tool to detect the streptomycin resistance detection in M. tuberculosis.