Advances in Poly(4-aminodiphenylaniline) Nanofibers Preparation by Electrospinning Technique.

Polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers are drawing a great deal of interest from academia and industry due to their multiple applications, especially in biomedical field. PANI nanofibers were successfully electrospun for the first time by MacDiarmid and co-workers at the beginning of the millennium and since then many efforts have been addressed to improve their quality. However, traditional PANI prepared from aniline monomer shows some drawbacks, such as presence of toxic (i.e., benzidine) and inorganic (salts and metals) co-products, that complicate polymer post-treatment, and low solubility in common organic solvents, making hard its processing by electrospinning technique. Some industrial sectors, such as medical and biomedical, need to employ materials free from toxic and polluting species. In this regard, the oxidative polymerization of N-(4-aminophenyl)aniline, aniline dimer, to produce poly(4-aminodiphenylaniline), P4ADA, a kind of PANI, represents an innovative alternative to the traditional synthesis because the obtained polymer results free from carcinogenic and/or polluting co-products, and, moreover, more soluble than traditional PANI. This latter feature can be exploited to obtain P4ADA nanofibers by electrospinning technique. In this paper we report the advances obtained in the P4ADA nanofibers electrospinnig. A comparison among polyethylene oxide (PEO), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS), as the second polymer to facilitate the electrospinning process, is shown. In order to increase the conductivity of P4ADA nanofibers, two strategies were adopted and compared: selective insulating binder removal from electrospun nanofibers by a rinsing tratment, afterwards optimizing the minimum amount of binder necessary for the electrospinning process. Moreover, the effect of PEO/P4ADA weight ratio on the fibers morphology and conductivity was highlighted.

[Control of plasma aluminium in hemodialyzed patients. Optimization of the method]. / Controllo dell'alluminio plasmatico nei pazienti in emodialisi. Ottimizzazione del metodo.

As concerning biological matrix, the analytic technique in AA-ETA if on one hand shows remarkable sensitivity, on the other it offers reasons that make it not much reproducible. Our aim has been to optimize and standardize the methodic for the dosage of the Al-s paying a special attention on the contamination risks and on the interference problems in reading phase. If we choose accurately consumption materials and the reagents, aluminium contamination problems may be remarkably reduced avoiding all those decontamination operations often complicated; besides it is possible optimize a thermical program which allows the dosage of the Al-s without using chemical modificator. In this work has been practiced a quality control on 103 couples of samples relative to 62 dialyzed patients and blinded compared to the operator, obtaining a CV of 5.4% on the total average of 45.2 micrograms/l. We are convinced that at the present state the high quality of reagents and the utilisation of disposable materials individually wrapped, and even less the remarkable progress of electronics instrumentation of the last generation allow the use of this technique in a widespread way also in laboratories not particularly specialized.

Primary prevention: HBV vaccination in hemodialysis unit.

The authors evaluated the response rate to HBV vaccination in 27 dialyzed patients. In the 1st stage, the response was 70.37%; nonresponder patients (n = 8) were treated with thymostimulin and revaccinated. The total percentage increased to 85.18%. In order to restore a normal response, the authors suggest to treat nonresponder patients with thymostimulin before revaccination.

A product report: Osto-Zyme as an odor eliminator.

A product, Osto-Zyme, was clinically tested at our Institute for the elimination of odor. Thirteen clients were chosen by enterostomal therapists to be tested. The product was sprayed directly into pouch, peristomal skin, and into night drainage units. This product proved very effective in the elimination of odor. The manufacturer of Osto-Zyme is the Richard C. Shelton Co., Wright Brothers Branch, Dayton, Ohio.