Determination of carnosic acid in Rosmarinus officinalis L. using square wave voltammetry and electrochemical behavior

A new, fast, sensitive and simple voltammetric method is established for the direct determination of carnosic acid (CA). And the electroreduction of carnosic acid (CA) was studied using electrochemical methods. The number of electrons transferred in electrode mechanisms were calculated for reversible and adsorption-controlled electrochemical reduction of CA at 17 mV versus Ag/AgCl at pH 7.0 in Britton–Robinson buffer (BR) on a hanging mercury drop electrode. Square-wave voltammetry was developed and validated for direct determination of CA. Square-wave parameters were optimized as accumulation potential = 0.0 mV, accumulation time = 5 s, frequency = 50 Hz, pulse amplitude = 50 mV, and staircase step potential = 5 mV. The developed method displays three linear responses from 2 to 9 μM, 10 to 30 and 40 to 90 μM for carnosic acid with a correlation coefficient of 0.996, 0.999 and 0.999. The detection limits were found to be 1.5 μM, 4.0 μM and 40.1 μM, respectively. The interference effect of most common organic and inorganic species was investigated. Proposed method was successfully applied for determination of CA in natural extract of rosemary and the average content was determined as 11.9 ± 1.0 (μg CA/1 g rosemary). The results were in agreement with that obtained by HPLC-UV comparison method. The developed method can be widely used in routine quality control of herbal materials as well as other in foods, medicinal, pharmaceutical and environmental analysis.     

Ocular injuries,attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder,and maternal anxiety/depression levels:Is there a link?

Purpose:Given the increased risk of accidents in patients with attention deficit and hyperactivity dis-order(ADHD)or maternal anxiety/depression,we aimed to investigate the frequency of the two diseases in children with penetrating eye injury(PEI).Methods:Altogether 79 children,39 with PEIs and 40 healthy individuals(control group),aged 5-15 years,underwent a complete ophthalmologic examination.Afterwards,schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-aged children was conducted to assess the psychiatric diagnosis of all children.Turgay diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders(DSM-Ⅳ)-based child and adolescent behavior disorders screening and rating scale(T-DSM-Ⅳ-S)was flled by parents to evaluate the severity of ADHD symptoms.The depression and anxiety levels of mothers of each group were evaluated by two self-report measures:the Beck depression scale and the state-trait anxiety inventory(STAI),respectively.Data were analyzed by IBM SPSS version 22.0.The Chi-square and Fisher's exact test were used to determine whether there is a significant difference between qualitative variables while independent sample t and Mann-Whitney U tests to compare quantitative variables.Results:The only diagnostic difference was a significantly higher frequency of ADHD among patients with PEIs(48.7%in PEI vs.17.5%in control group,χ^2=7.359,p=0.007).The total scores of the T-DSM-Ⅳ-S(attention subscale U=418.000,p=0.006;hyperactivity subscale U=472.000,p=0.022)and maternal state-trait anxiety inventory(maternal STAI-state U=243.00,p=0.003;maternal STAl-trait U=298.000,p=0.021)were significantly higher in the PEI group than in control group.In logistic regression,children with PEI had a tendency to have a 3.5-fold increased risk for ADHD(OR=3.538,CI=0.960-13.039,p=0.058).Conclusion:ADHD was detected almost 1 in 2 children with PEls.Besides,the maternal anxiety level was significantly higher in the PEI group than in the control group.This association should be further explored via a future prospective longitudinal study.Since a proper treatment of ADHD in children and anxiety treatment in mothers may prevent vision loss following PEIs in children.     

Surgical rehabilitation following ocular chemical injury

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the management of limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) secondary to chemical ocular burns.

Materials and methods: The charts of 48 eyes of 40 patients with grade 2 or higher chemical injury were evaluated retrospectively. Subjects with follow-up longer than 1 year were included. Medical treatment, surgical correction of abnormalities of ocular adnexial structures, limbal stem cell transplantation from patient’s fellow eye, from living relatives or from cadaveric donor, amniotic membrane transplantation, conjunctival epitheliectomy, chelation with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and penetrating keratoplasty were the treatment modalities. Outcome measures were ocular surface stability and corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA). Failure was defined as the appearance of persistent epithelial defect (nonhealing epithelial defect for more than 2 weeks) with progressive corneal conjunctivalization/vascularization and thinning, and also progression of conjunctivalization to the central 6?mm of the cornea in eyes with subsequent keratoplasty.

Results: The mean age of 31 male and 9 female patients were 32.32?±?12.6 years. LSCD was bilateral in 8 cases. The mean follow-up was 77.2?±?35.1 months. The presentations were in acute phase in 37.5%, in subacute phase in 32.5% and in chronic phase in 30% of the patients. Only 13 of 48 (27.1%) eyes obtained sufficient ocular surface stability through medical treatment; however, only 5 of these eyes achieved CDVA of less than 0.7 logMAR. Limbal stem cell transplantation was performed in 26 eyes as conjunctival limbal autograft, living-related conjunctival limbal allograft and keratolimbal allograft or as a combination of these transplantations. At the last visit, 30 eyes (62.5%) had an intact and stable ocular surface. Clear cornea was achieved in 11 (78.6%) of 14 eyes with grade 2 injury, in 9 (60%) of 15 eyes with grade 3 injury, in 5 (50%) of 10 eyes with grade 4 injury, in 1 (16.6%) of 6 eyes with grade 5 injury and in 1 (33.3%) of 3 eyes with grade 6 injury. The CDVA that was 1.66?±?0.99 logMAR initially improved to 0.87?±?0.85 logMAR at the last visit (p?Conclusion: While patients with low-grade chemical injury seem to benefit quite well from the medical treatment, amniotic membrane transplantation, limbal graft transplantation and subsequent keratoplasty; patients with severe injuries seem to be more prone to failure after all of the available treatment modalities.     

Can we enhance compliance to treatment by performing a continuous positive airway pressure trial in obstructive sleep apnea?

Sleep and Breathing - Although continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the most effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), it is not always easy to gain adherence to...