​False-positive paracetamol levels in a patient with hyperbilirubinaemia: clinical perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. e234702
Author(s):  
Joel James ◽  
Madelena Stauss ◽  
Arvind Ponnusamy ◽  
Martin Myers
Keyword(s):  
False Positive ◽  
Colorimetric Assay ◽  
Liver Function Tests ◽  
The Body ◽  
Electromagnetic Spectrum ◽  
Important Interaction ◽  
Index Measurement ◽  
Icteric Index ◽  
Sliding Scale ◽  
By Products

​Serum concentrations of paracetamol are measured to investigate the cause of acute hepatitis, monitor the clearance of paracetamol from the body and to determine if supratherapeutic levels warrant treatment with N-acetylcysteine (NAC). ​A 49-year-old man treated for ischaemic colitis developed worsening renal and liver function tests. As part of the investigation of hepatorenal failure, paracetamol levels were requested, which were elevated at 14 mg/L (normal <4 mg/L) resulting in treatment with NAC. Despite treatment, levels of paracetamol remained elevated and the link between hyperbilirubinemia and false-positive paracetamol levels was identified. ​Bilirubin and its by-products have intense absorbance in the ultraviolet and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, causing interference in the enzymatic colorimetric assay most commonly used to measure paracetamol concentration, resulting in false-positive paracetamol levels. Laboratories correct for this interference above a predetermined bilirubin concentration, termed the Icteric Index; however, in our case this interference occurred at a lower level of hyperbilirubinaemia than previously identified as significant. This interaction was found to be more significant at lower bilirubin levels when low or no paracetamol levels were present in the serum, resulting in a change to laboratory practice and development of a ‘Sliding Scale’ approach to analysis. ​Concurrent bilirubin or Icteric Index measurement is recommended for all laboratories that use the enzymatic colorimetric assay for paracetamol measurement. Lower Icteric Index or bilirubin thresholds are required when low or no paracetamol levels are present in the serum to prevent false-positive paracetamol results. We describe a new ‘Sliding Scale’ approach to analysis, and highlight an important interaction for clinicians to be aware of.

scholarly journals Sustainable Sources from Aquatic Organisms for Cosmeceuticals Ingredients

Cosmetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Carmen G. Sotelo ◽  
María Blanco ◽  
Patricia Ramos ◽  
José A. Vázquez ◽  
Ricardo I. Perez-Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Good Condition ◽  
Aquatic Organisms ◽  
The Body ◽  
Fishing Activity ◽  
Marine Biomass ◽  
Cosmetic Industry ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Long Life ◽  
By Products

Long life expectancy of populations in the developing world together with some cultural and social issues has driven the need to pay special attention to health and physical appearance. Cosmeceuticals are gaining interest in the cosmetic industry as their uses fulfills a double purpose: the requirements of a cosmetic (clean, perfume, protect, change the appearance of the external parts of the body or keeping them in good condition) with a particular bioactivity function. The cosmetics industry, producing both cosmetics and cosmeceuticals, is currently facing numerous challenges to satisfy different attitudes of consumers (vegetarianism, veganism, cultural or religious concerns, health or safety reasons, eco-friendly process, etc.). A currently growing trend in the market is the interest in products of low environmental impact. Marine origin ingredients are increasingly being incorporated into cosmeceutical preparations because they are able to address several consumer requirements and also due to the wide range of bioactivities they present (antioxidant, whitening, anti-aging, etc.). Many companies claim “Marine” as a distinctive marketing signal; however, only a few indicate whether they use sustainable ingredient sources. Sustainable marine ingredients might be obtained using wild marine biomass through a sustainable extractive fishing activity; by adopting valorization strategies including the use of fish discards and fish by-products; and by sustainably farming and culturing marine organisms.

Studies on Tapeworm Physiology

1949 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
J. D. SMYTH
Keyword(s):  
Bacterial Infections ◽  
Detrimental Effect ◽  
Horse Serum ◽  
Body Cavity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Nutrient Media ◽  
Medium Strength ◽  
By Products ◽  
Histochemical Examination

1. Plerocercoid larvae of the pseudophyllidean cestode Ligula intestinalis from the body cavity of roach, were cultured in vitro at 40°C. in a variety of saline and nutrient media. About 65% of such cultures were aseptic. 2. During cultivation, larvae produced acid by-products (unidentified) and the pH fell rapidly. 3. The presence of these acid by-products slowed down development, or, if present in sufficient quantity, caused death. 4. In order to obtain development in nutrient media in a period (3 days) comparable to that required in a bird (the normal host) it was necessary to renew the medium 24-hourly. 5. 6% of the eggs produced from a worm cultured in horse serum were fertile. Fertile eggs were never obtained from larvae cultured in any other media. 6. Certain bacterial infections had no apparent detrimental effect on development, but others were toxic. 7. Some larvae underwent development in non-nutrient medium (¾ strength Locke's solution). The exact conditions under which this occurred was not determined. 8. Fragments (3 cm. long), of larvae or larvae with either scolex or posterior half removed, underwent development to the stage of oviposition in nutrient media. 9. Histochemical examination revealed that the plerocercoid larvae were almost fat-free. During cultivation, very large quantities of cytoplasmic fat were produced the quantity being proportional to the duration of cultivation. Fat was produced even under starvation conditions (i.e. during cultivation in saline) and can be considered a metabolic by-product. 10. The fresh plerocercoid contained great quantities of glycogen in the parenchyma and muscle regions. After cultivation in nutrient or saline media, considerable quantities were still present.

Spam classification: a comparative analysis of different boosted decision tree approaches

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shrawan Kumar Trivedi ◽  
Prabin Kumar Panigrahi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Tree ◽  
False Positive ◽  
False Positive Rate ◽  
False Negative ◽  
The Body ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Performance Accuracy ◽  
Tree Classifier ◽  
Boosted Decision Tree ◽  
Email Spam

PurposeEmail spam classification is now becoming a challenging area in the domain of text classification. Precise and robust classifiers are not only judged by classification accuracy but also by sensitivity (correctly classified legitimate emails) and specificity (correctly classified unsolicited emails) towards the accurate classification, captured by both false positive and false negative rates. This paper aims to present a comparative study between various decision tree classifiers (such as AD tree, decision stump and REP tree) with/without different boosting algorithms (bagging, boosting with re-sample and AdaBoost).Design/methodology/approachArtificial intelligence and text mining approaches have been incorporated in this study. Each decision tree classifier in this study is tested on informative words/features selected from the two publically available data sets (SpamAssassin and LingSpam) using a greedy step-wise feature search method.FindingsOutcomes of this study show that without boosting, the REP tree provides high performance accuracy with the AD tree ranking as the second-best performer. Decision stump is found to be the under-performing classifier of this study. However, with boosting, the combination of REP tree and AdaBoost compares favourably with other classification models. If the metrics false positive rate and performance accuracy are taken together, AD tree and REP tree with AdaBoost were both found to carry out an effective classification task. Greedy stepwise has proven its worth in this study by selecting a subset of valuable features to identify the correct class of emails.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is focussed on the classification of those email spams that are written in the English language only. The proposed models work with content (words/features) of email data that is mostly found in the body of the mail. Image spam has not been included in this study. Other messages such as short message service or multi-media messaging service were not included in this study.Practical implicationsIn this research, a boosted decision tree approach has been proposed and used to classify email spam and ham files; this is found to be a highly effective approach in comparison with other state-of-the-art modes used in other studies. This classifier may be tested for different applications and may provide new insights for developers and researchers.Originality/valueA comparison of decision tree classifiers with/without ensemble has been presented for spam classification.

scholarly journals Oxytetracycline Mineralization inside a UV/H2O2 System of Advanced Oxidation Processes: Inorganic By-Product

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-309
Author(s):  
Anisa Ur Rahmah ◽  
Sabtanti Harimurti ◽  
Kiki Adi Kurnia ◽  
Abdul Aziz Omar ◽  
Thanabalan Murugesan
Keyword(s):  
Advanced Oxidation Processes ◽  
Chloride Ions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Photochemical Degradation ◽  
Water Stream ◽  
Agricultural Industry ◽  
Oxidation Processes ◽  
By Products ◽  
Open Access Article ◽  
H2o2 System

Oxytetracycline (OTC) was widely used antibiotic in agricultural industry. However, most of them were secreted from the body and entered the water stream, due to low absorption. The occurrence of the antibiotics in water stream may led to serious health hazards. Hence, finding the effective method that capable to achieve total mineralization of antibiotic-contaminated wastewater, followed by the production of benign inorganic and organic by-product, was necessarily deemed. Photochemical degradation method, such as: UV/H2O2 system, was capable to achieve total mineralization of OTC at its optimized condition. In this paper, inorganic by-products of OTC mineralization inside a UV/H2O2 system at its optimum condition were analyzed. The presence of nitrate, ammonium, chloride ions, and chlorine were detected at the sample solution after mineralization. The presence of these inorganic by-product has proven that the experimental setup chosen was capable to achieve total mineralization. In addition, possible routes of the inorganic by-products detachment from the OTC’s structure, were also presented. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). 

scholarly journals The Assessment of the Integrated Antioxidant System of the Body in the Course of Radon Therapy: A Pilot Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jadwiga Kuciel-Lewandowska ◽  
Jan Gnus ◽  
Lilla Pawlik-Sobecka ◽  
Sylwia Płaczkowska ◽  
Izabela Kokot ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antioxidant System ◽  
Colorimetric Assay ◽  
Total Antioxidant Status ◽  
The Body ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Disc Disease ◽  
Total Antioxidant ◽  
Radon Water ◽  
And Control

Introduction. The sources of Reactive Oxidative Species (ROS) in the organism are the respiratory processes occurring in cells catalyzed by different enzymes. Operation of ROS is balanced by antioxidants, the compounds; although present in low concentrations, they significantly inhibit the degree of oxidation of particular molecules. The Aim of the Study. The aim of this study was to assess the changes in the integrated antioxidant system under the influence of radon therapy in osteoarthritis patients. Material and Methods. Observation included 35 patients suffering from degenerative joints and disc disease (mean age 56.5 years) undergoing radon water therapy and control group that consisted of 15 osteoarthritis patients (mean age 54.2) without contact with radon water. Before therapy and after 18 days of treatment, serum total antioxidant status (TAS) was assessed with the use of standard colorimetric assay. Results. In the study group, we observed trends to increase TAS concentration, whereas, in the control group, TAS concentration was decreasing. Conclusions. (1) Radon waters treatment influenced the level of TAS of osteoarthritis patients treated with the radon water. (2) The change in TAS concentrations in the study group may be the result of low doses of ionizing radiation, but further studies on larger patient’s groups are demanded. This study is registered with number NCT03274128.

Evaluation of electronic identification transponders implanted in the rumen of cattle

1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
PJS Hasker ◽  
J Bassingthwaite
Keyword(s):  
Retention Rate ◽  
The Body ◽  
Live Animal ◽  
Feedlot Steers ◽  
Reading Distance ◽  
By Products ◽  
Small Steel

The performance of electronic identification transponders encased in ceramic capsules inserted into the reticula-rumen was assessed in 3 groups of cattle: 1059 two-year-old feedlot steers, 11 penned calves and 46 grazing calves. Insertion of capsules presented little difficulty and at slaughter, examination of the reticulorumen showed no visible signs of damage to the reticula-endothelium due to the capsules. The retention rate of the capsules was 100% in adults when slaughtered 55-107 days after capsules were inserted. All losses of capsules from calves occurred before calves were 21 weeks of age. Transponders were successfully read both in the live animal and in the body on the slaughter chain. All transponders in the reticulorumen of grazing calves were functioning normally up to 46 weeks after being implanted. At slaughter, capsules were recovered easily with no risk of contaminating meat or by-products. Small steel metallic objects near the capsule appeared not to affect the reading distance of the transponder.

scholarly journals Vestibular–Somatosensory Interactions: A Mechanism in Search of a Function?

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 559-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Raffaella Ferrè ◽  
Patrick Haggard
Keyword(s):  
Multimodal Interaction ◽  
The Body ◽  
Multimodal Integration ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Vestibular Cortex ◽  
Sensory Modalities ◽  
Multisensory Interactions ◽  
Psychophysical Studies ◽  
By Products ◽  
Individual Body

No unimodal vestibular cortex has been identified in the human brain. Rather, vestibular inputs are strongly integrated with signals from other sensory modalities, such as vision, touch and proprioception. This convergence could reflect an important mechanism for maintaining a perception of the body, including individual body parts, relative to the rest of the environment. Neuroimaging, electrophysiological and psychophysical studies showed evidence for multisensory interactions between vestibular and somatosensory signals. However, no convincing overall theoretical framework has been proposed for vestibular–somatosensory interactions, and it remains unclear whether such percepts are by-products of neural convergence, or a functional multimodal integration. Here we review the current literature on vestibular–multisensory interactions in order to develop a framework for understanding the functions of such multimodal interaction. We propose that the target of vestibular–somatosensory interactions is a form of self-representation.

scholarly journals Correlation Between FNAC and Open Biopsy in Cervical Lymhadenopathy in Children

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-126
Author(s):  
Tahmina Hossain ◽  
Md. Ruhul Amin ◽  
MTH Siddiqui ◽  
Md. Ashraf Ul Huq ◽  
Md. Matiur Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Lymph Nodes ◽  
False Positive ◽  
False Negative ◽  
Neck Region ◽  
The Body ◽  
Clinical Impression ◽  
Open Biopsy ◽  
Surgical Biopsy ◽  
Cervical Lymph Nodes ◽  
Histopathological Findings

Background: Head and Neck region of the body has a rich network of lymphatic channel and intervening nodes. Out of total approximately 800 lymph nodes in the body about 300 are scattered in organized fashion in the neck region which are affected by various regional and systemic diseases. The conventional method of excisional biopsy is used to diagnose etiological causes of lymphadenopathy. In comparison to open surgical biopsy, FNAC is a simple, reliable and acceptable tool for the etiological diagnosis of lymphadenopathies. FNAC was first practiced by Grieg and Gray for the diagnosis of trypanosome in lymphnode in 1904. Now a day it is widely practiced in United States, United Kingdom and many other countries. In Bangladesh, many studies on FNAC are carried out and the results are highly appreciable and reliable.Methods: A prospective study for a period of 24 months was carried out on 50 patients with enlarged cervical lymph nodes from July 2003 to June 2005. During the two years study period, 56 patients with cervical lymphadenopathies were selected for FNAC and openbiopsy following certain inclusion and exclusion criteria, in the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujiib Medical University, Dhaka. Patients with acute lymphadenitis and lymphadenopathy due to leukaemia were excluded. Six cases were deleted from the study as smears from those revealed inadequate material and hence only 50 cases were available for study in the present series. Clinical findings, FNAC and biopsy reports were available in all the cases and were correlated with each other.Results: On biopsy, 27 cases were diagnosed as tuberculous lymphadenopathies, 15 cases as lymphoma and 8 cases as reactive changes. On FNAC, there were 2 false positive and 5 false negative cases in case of tuberculosis; 2 false positive and 1 false negative cases in lymphoma; 4 false positive and 2 false negative cases in cases with reactive hyperplasia. Sensitivity of FNAC in comparison to histopathological findings was 92.6% in case of tuberculosis; 86.7% in case of lymphoma and 50% in case of nonspecific lymphadenitis. Specificity of FNAC in comparison to histological findings was 78.3% in case of tuberculosis; 94.2% in case of lymphoma and 95.3% in case of nonspecific lymphadenitis. Accuracy of FNAC in comparison to histopathological findings was 86% in case of tuberculosis; 94% in case of lymphoma and 88% in case of reactive changes.Conclusions: The present study indicates that, FNAC is a simple, reliable and acceptable procedure for various lesions of cervical lymph nodes. It can be repeated if necessary. It also concludes that FNAC helps to confirm the clinical impression without open biopsy. Open biopsy can be avoided in many benign and malignant lesions of cervical lymph nodes. Fine needle aspiration cytodiagnosis can eliminate the need of hospitalization and surgery.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jpsb.v1i2.19526

scholarly journals Infrared Thermography in Equine Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-116
Author(s):  
Nina Čebulj Kadunc ◽  
Robert Frangež  ◽  
Peter Kruljc
Keyword(s):  
Infrared Radiation ◽  
Environmental Influence ◽  
Diagnostic Procedures ◽  
Skin Surface ◽  
The Body ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Heat Radiation ◽  
Electromagnetic Spectrum ◽  
Imaging Method ◽  
Blood Flow Patterns

Thermography is a non-invasive diagnostic imaging method for the detection of mid to long-wave infrared radiation emitted from the body surface that allows visualization and quantification of changes in skin surface temperature. Within the electromagnetic spectrum, the wavelength of infrared radiation is too large to be detected by the human eye, although it is normally perceived as heat. Electromagnetic heat radiation can be registered with a thermal camera and visualized in the form of a temperature distribution map - a thermogram. The procedure is performed without physical contact with the examined object, including animals. Thermography can be used to determine physiological and pathological changes that induce variations of superficial temperature in a horse. These changes reflect blood flow patterns and the metabolic rate in the horse due to variations in heat production, such as exercise, injury, illness and environmental influence. Thermography has been used to evaluate several different clinical syndromes not only in the diagnosis of inflammation, but also to monitor the progression of healing. Thermography has important applications in research for the detection of illegal performance-enhancing procedures at athletic events and to determine the welfare of horses. Despite several advantages, it is also important to be aware of certain limitations surrounding the practical application of thermography. Therefore, the method should be used in combination with other diagnostic procedures rather than as a replacement.

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