High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) Assay Using Fluorescence Detection for the Simultaneous Determination of Gallopamil and Norgallopamil in Human Plasma

Gallopamil is a calcium-channel antagonist with reported activity in experimental animals three to five times higher than that of verapamil. An automated high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with fluorescence detection is described for the simultaneous determination of gallopamil and its metabolite norgallopamil in plasma. Gallopamil was well resolved from norgallopamil and other metabolites, allowing simultaneous quantitation of both drugs. The detection limit for both gallopamil and norgallopamil was 0.9 ng/ml. This method has been successfully used for the determination of gallopamil and norgallopamil following the administration of 25-, 37.5-, and 50-mg oral doses of drug.     

Ejection fraction by combined inverse Fourier analysis and second-derivative technique: Correlation with isocontour method

Summary In order to measure ejection fractions (EFs) from nuclear ventriculograms, we devised a semi-automated edge-detection technique based on a combination of inverse Fourier analysis and second-derivative techniques. Initial clinical studies showed that, for the left ventricle, our method gives EF values statistically identical with those obtained using a conventional isocontour technique. For the right ventricle, however, the values obtained using the two methods were somewhat more at variance. Despite requiring a longer processing time, the results obtained with our method are reproducible because less operator intervention is necessary.     

Hemophilia A: genetic prediction and linkage studies in all available families in Finland

RFLP studies were done in 82 (75%) of all known hemophilia A families in the Finnish population (approximately 5 million). Two intragenic RFLPs (Bc1I/F8A, XbaI/p482.6) and two extragenic markers (TaqI/St14, Bg1II/DX13) were used. Among 263 females at risk, carriership could be evaluated with an intragenic marker in 47% and with an extragenic marker in 26%. In 27% of the females, carriership could be neither excluded nor confirmed; 68% of these females were relatives of an isolated patient. Eight recombinations between the factor VIII gene (F8C) and DXS52 (lod 25.02 at theta max 0.06), eight recombinations between F8C and DXS15 (lod 21.91 at theta max 0.05), and two recombinations between DXS52 and DXS15 (lod 33.56 at theta max 0.01) were found. Using multipoint linkage analysis, the most likely order of loci supported by the data was: F8C-DXS15-DXS52-DXS134. RFLP segregation analysis provides a highly useful method of carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis of hemophilia A, but its limitations must be carefully taken into account.     

Automated lumen definition from 30 MHz intravascular ultrasound images

One prerequisite for standard clinical use of intravascular ultrasound imaging is rapid evaluation of the data. The main quantities to be extracted from the data are the size and the shape of the lumen. Until now, no accurate, robust and reproducible method to obtain the lumen boundaries from intravascular ultrasound images has been described. In this study, 21 different (semi-)automated binary-segmentation methods for determining the lumen are compared with manual segmentation to find an alternative for the laborious and subjective procedure of manual editing. After a preprocessing step in which the catheter area is filled with lumen-like grey values, all approaches consist of two steps: (i) smoothing the images with different filtering methods and (ii) extracting the lumen by an object definition method. The combination of different filtering methods and object definition methods results in a total of 21 methods and 80 experiments. The results are compared with a reference image, obtained from manual editing, by use of four different quality parameters—two based on squared distances and two based on Mahalanobis distances. The evaluation has been carried out on 15 images, of which seven are obtained before balloon dilation and eight after balloon dilation. While for the post-dilation images no definite conclusions can be drawn, an automated contour model applied to images smoothed with a large kernel appears to be a good alternative to manual contouring. For pre-dilation images a fully automated active contour model, initialized by thresholding, preceded by filtering with a small-scale median filter is the best alternative for manual delineation. The results of this method are even better than manual segmentation, i.e. they are consistently closer to the reference image than the average distance of all individual manual segmentations.     

Detection of Human Heart Rate in Exercises State

作者介绍了一种动态心率检测电路，它能准确、可靠地检出在运动状态下的人体心率。电路采用两种检测技术，一种为双时值ＱＲＳ波检测法，另一种为光电脉搏检测法。     

Using switching detection and variational equations for the shooting method

We study in this paper the resolution by single shooting of an optimal control problem with a bang‐bang control involving a large number of commutations. We focus on the handling of these commutations regarding the precise computation of the shooting function and its Jacobian. We first observe the impact of a switching detection algorithm on the shooting method results. Then, we study the computation of the Jacobian of the shooting function, by comparing classical finite differences to a formulation using the variational equations. We consider as an application a low thrust orbital transfer with payload maximization. This kind of problem presents a discontinuous optimal control, and involves up to 1800 commutations for the lowest thrust. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Plasma kinetics of 125I-labelled amyloid P component in {beta}2M amyloidosis: A possible approach to quantitate disease activity

Dialysis amyloidosis is one of the most incapacitating complicationsof long-term dialysis treatment. Quantitative assessment ofamyloid deposition using radiolabelled tracers has been recentlyproposed but convincing evidence of its validity in uraemicpatients remains to be provided. We studied the plasma kineticsof i.v. administered ¹²⁵I-labelled serum amyloid P component(¹²⁵I-SAP) in 20 chronic haemodialysis patients compared withthose of nine healthy volunteers and three non-dialysed patientswith systemic amyloidosis. Plasma clearance of the tracer wasabnormal in 17 of 20 dialysis patients in whom plasma radioactivitydeclined in a bi-exponential mode, in contrast to the single-exponentialslope observed in all healthy controls. ¹²⁵I-SAP plasma half-lifeof the second component, probably reflecting metabolic clearance,was significantly prolonged in these dialysis patients comparedwith the healthy controls (35.3 versus 24.6 h, P<0.001).Among the long-term haemodialysis patients the calculated extravasculardistribution of ¹²⁵I-SAP was significantly greater in thosewith severe arthropathy than in asymptomatic patients. Thesefindings demonstrate for the first time that SAP clearance isdisturbed in haemodialysis patients due to both failing renalelimination and retention in extravascular sites. The extravasculardiffusion is greatly enhanced in patients with clinical evidenceof amyloidosis. Therefore the study of plasma ¹²⁵I-SAP kineticspromises to be a valuable tool to quantitate the extent of amyloidosis.     

Facilitation of stimulus detection performance of rats with d-amphetamine: a function of dose and level of training

 Conditions under which amphetamine may facilitate stimulus detection task choice performance in rats were investigated. Rats (n=15) were trained in a two-choice, light-detection task to three successively more stringent criterion levels of task training (minimal, intermediate, and extended) and then tested after administration of saline, 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 mg/kg d-amphetamine (AMP). For each training level, baseline levels of choice accuracy were maintained at approximately 82% by manipulating the animals’ cue duration. No aspect of performance was enhanced by any dose of AMP after minimal criteria training, and there was a dose-dependent decrease in the number of trials completed. After the intermediate level of training, the 0.25 mg/kg dose of AMP reliably increased choice accuracy, there was no reliable change in choice reaction time, and there was a dose-dependent decrease in the number of trials completed. After the extended training, the 0.25 mg/kg dose of AMP reliably increased choice response accuracy, the 0.25 and 0.50 mg/kg doses of AMP reliably decreased choice reaction time, and there was no reliable change in the number of trials completed at any dose of AMP. These results support the contention that psychostimulants can facilitate the choice performance of rats in stimulus detection tasks if an appropriately low dose is used and the animal’s behavior is strongly controlled by the stimulus-reinforcement contingencies of the task. Received: 24 September 1997 / Final version: 9 May 1998     

Extrapolating global visual field indices from local parameters in the nasal region

The local mean and the average difference of four pairs of test locations within the 26° visual field, situated above and below the horizontal nasal meridian, were used to predict the global field indices MD and CLV of the Gl glaucoma program. Out of 539 examinations (194 eyes suspected of having glaucoma), the local indices NDIFF (describing asymmetrical behavior around the nasal horizontal meridian), ND0 (the mean defect in the nasal region), and the global indices MD and CLV were calculated. Seven hundred fifty-five examinations (446 normal eyes) served as a control group. First and second examinations of 146 glaucoma suspect eyes were used to calculate the retest reliability scores for the indices in question. When analyzing the glaucoma suspects, the local index NDIFF, together with the local mean defect, ND0, yielded highly reliable estimates of the global indices MD and CLV, with a retest correlation r = 0.86 for NDIFF, and r = 0.96 for ND0. The covariance of NDIFF with CLV was r = 0.67, while the co-variance of MD with ND0 was r = 0.95.The ranges of the local indices ND0 and NDIFF were each classified into normal range and range of suspected pathology, in analogy to the normal and pathological ranges of the global field indices. Equivalence of the local indices with the corresponding ranges of MD and CLV was investigated and the results are shown. The establishment of local indices may prove to be a powerful tool in early detection of glaucomatous damage.     

基于支持向量机的脊柱离体组织电阻抗识别

目的 测量不同脊柱组织的电阻抗,基于支持向量机建立电阻抗数据的组织分类算法并验证算法的准确性,寻找不同组织电阻抗分类阈值。 方法 取离体脊柱组织,应用电化学分析仪采集10~100 kHz频率范围内皮质骨、松质骨、脊髓、肌肉、髓核的电阻抗。将两只猪采集的数据集分别作为训练集和测试集,应用主成分分析降维至二维数据,训练和验证基于支持向量机(SVM)建立的分类算法,应用集成学习的方法计算不同组织分类的电阻抗阈值。 结果 5种组织在10~100 kHz的测量频率内,电阻抗值差异有统计学意义(P<0.001)。应用主成分分析降维的数据集建立的支持向量机分类算法识别不同组织的准确率为100%。应用集成学习建立的多个分类器计算出了不同组织的电阻抗分类阈值。 结论 基于支持向量机可以实现脊柱术区组织电阻抗的准确识别,有望应用于临床协助医生提升组织识别准确率。