In vitro fertilisation in domestic mammals—a brief overview

Many factors influence the final oocyte maturation, fertilisation, and early embryo development, and there are both similarities and differences between species. When comparing the advancement of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), the development in the bovine species is not far behind the medical front, with around one million in vitro-produced bovine embryos each year. This rate of progress is not seen in the other domestic species. This review aims to give an overview of the development and specific difficulties of in vitro embryo production in various domestic animal species, with the main focus on cows, pigs, and cats. In production animals, the aim of ARTs is commonly to increase the genetic progress, not to treat reproductive failure. The ARTs are also used for preservation of genetic diversity for the future. However, specifically for oocyte maturation, fertilisation, and early embryonic development, domestic mammals such as the cow and pig can be used as models for humans. This is particularly attractive from an animal welfare point of view since bovine and porcine oocytes are available in large numbers from discarded slaughterhouse material, thereby decreasing the need for research animals. Both for researchers on the animal and human medical fronts, we aim for the development of in vitro production systems that will produce embryos and offspring that are no different from those conceived and developed in vivo. Species-comparative research and development can provide us with crucial knowledge to achieve this aim and hopefully help us avoid unnecessary problems in the future.     

湖南省郴州市一起新型冠状病毒肺炎聚集性疫情流行病学调查

目的 通过分析郴州市一起新冠肺炎聚集性疫情相关病例发病确诊过程,探讨新冠病例早发现、早报告以及病例诊断和隔离观察解除的策略依据。 方法 对该起新冠肺炎聚集性疫情的病例和密切接触者进行现场流行病学调查,描述性分析流行病学史、临床和实验室资料。 结果 利用大数据比对监测,在转送监测对象至集中场所隔离医学观察时发现了新冠肺炎确诊病例何某华,由此发现一起新冠肺炎家庭聚集性疫情,何某的5名密切接触者中有3人发病确诊（包含1名重症病例）,其中重症病例黄某第7次新型冠状病毒核酸检测阳性进而确诊,密切接触者中胡某有流行病学史、血常规白细胞下降和肺炎影像学改变,但是5次咽拭子核酸检测阴性,未确诊。 结论 大数据比对监测对发现传染病有积极作用;早期对有流行病学史人员单独隔离医学观察对防止聚集性疫情发生有重要意义;将2次核酸检测阴性作为新冠肺炎病例的排除标准和将核酸检测阳性作为确诊新冠肺炎病例的必备条件,值得探讨,这都可能放走传染源,导致新冠肺炎传播。     

Characteristics of American Scholars' Research on Chinese Medical Classics and Their Contributions

Chinese medical classics are important carriers for the inheritance, innovation and development of academic thoughts of Chinese medicine (CM), containing rich thoughts on diagnosis and treatment as well as therapeutic principles of CM. The international exchange of CM has a very long history. With the development of society, Western scholars in modern times are deepening their researches on Chinese medical classics. This would provide a new way for promoting CM in Western countries to investigate researches made by famed American scholars and their academic viewpoints.     

Improvement of anticoagulant treatment using a dynamic decision support algorithm: A Danish Cohort study

Introduction

Warfarin is the most widely prescribed vitamin K antagonist and in the United States and Europe more than 10 million people are currently in long-term oral anticoagulant treatment. This study aims to retrospectively validate a dynamic statistical model providing dosage suggestions to patients in warfarin treatment.

Materials and methods

The model was validated on a cohort of 553 patients with a mean TTR of 83%. Patients in the cohort were self-monitoring and managed by a highly specialised anticoagulation clinic. The predictive model essentially consists of three parts handling INR history, warfarin dosage and biological noise, which allows for prediction of future INR values and optimal warfarin dose to stay on INR target. Further, the model is based on parameters initially being set to population values and gradually individualised during monitoring of patients.

Primary outcome

Time in therapeutic range was used as surrogate quality measure of the treatment, and model-suggested dosage of warfarin was used to assess the accuracy of the model performance.

Results

The accuracy of the model predictions measured as median absolute error was 0.53 mg/day (interquartile range from 0.25 to 1.0). The model performance was evaluated by the difference between observed and predicted warfarin intake in the preceding week of an INR measurement. In more than 70% of the cases where INR measurements were outside the therapeutic range, the model suggested a more reasonable dose than the observed intake.

Conclusion

Applying the proposed dosing algorithm can potentially further increase the time in INR target range beyond 83%.     

Evaluation and comparison of in-vitro dissolution profiles for different brands of amoxicillin capsules

Background

Amoxicillin is an oral semi-synthetic, β-lactam antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections caused by susceptible micro organisms. It is usually prepared in capsule, tablet and powder for oral suspension form. Solid dosage forms for oral administration pose bioavailability problems related to the absorption process The World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted the use of generic brands in order to make the cost of medicines affordable. Generic substitution could be considered when a generic copy of a reference drug contains identical amounts of the same active ingredient in the same dose formulation and route of administration. However, the presences of generic products those are not interchangeable with that of the innovator and/or with each others have been reported.

Objectives

To evaluate and compare the in-vitro dissolution profiles of different generic brands of amoxicillin capsules with the innovator that are available in Ethiopian market.

Methods

Dissolution profiles for nine brands of amoxicillin capsules contained amoxicillin 500 mg which are available in Ethiopian market were determined using a method from the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP, 2009). The obtained dissolution profile data of the eight brands were evaluated and compared with the innovator brand (Amoxil™) using two different statistical methods: the fit factors (f1 & f2) and the dissolution efficiency (D.E.) model. Most generic brands of amoxicillin capsules (62.5% of the tested brands) are not interchangeable with the innovator brand.

Results

The calculated f1 factor for Brand A and Brand G are 10.1 and 1.1 respectively. However, for the rest six brands the f1 factors are greater than 15. The f2 factor for Brand G is 74.1 and for Brand A is 48.5 which is near to 50. Similarly, the f2 factors for the six brands are less than 50 which support the result of the f1 factors for the dissimilarity of these brands with the innovator brand. The mean dissolution efficiencies as well as the 95% confidence intervals are within ±10% only for two brands, Brand F and Brand G.

Conclusions

Most generic brands of amoxicillin capsules (62.5%) are not interchangeable with the innovator brand (Amoxil™).     

CAD/CAM氧化锆及Empress全瓷冠修复三年临床效果比较

目的:比较CAD/CAM氧化锆及Empress全瓷冠修复3年的临床效果。方法:选择350例患者共838个全冠修复体(其中CAD/CAM氧化锆全冠428颗、Empress铸瓷全冠410颗),平均观察期36.2±5月,随访检查基牙和修复体情况,分别对两组全瓷冠的存留率和修复成功率进行统计学分析。结果:观察期内共有41颗全瓷冠(19颗为氧化锆,22颗为Empress铸瓷)完全失败,需重新制作。氧化锆全瓷冠和Empress铸瓷全冠的存留率分别为95.1%和95.8%,成功率分别为90.7%和91.2%,其差异均无统计学意义。结论:CAD/CAM氧化锆和Empres铸瓷全冠均能满足临床需要,有较好的修复效果。