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Objectives The objective of this study was to determine the effect of administration rate on propofol dose for induction of anesthesia and the effect of methadone on this dose. Methods This was a prospective, randomized, blinded clinical study. Forty male cats (mean ± SD age 1.5 ± 0.8 years) were admitted for orchiectomy. Cats were randomly allocated to receive acepromazine (0.05 mg/kg) with either methadone (MET; 0.3 mg/kg) or saline (SAL; 0.03 ml/kg). Each premedication group then received anesthetic induction with propofol at 5 (F) or 1.5 mg/kg/min (S), resulting in the following four groups: MET-F, SAL-F, MET-S and SAL-S. Sedation scores were assigned at 15 and 30 mins after premedication using a simple descriptive scale (SDS) and a visual analog scale (VAS). After assignment of sedation scores, respiratory frequency (fR) was recorded, and anesthetic induction began and was continued until cats lost their palpebral reflexes and jaw tone, and the eye globe rotated ventromedially. The time for induction and the total amount of propofol needed was recorded, and intubation was then performed. After intubation, fR was also recorded. Results SDS and VAS sedation scores were low at 15 and 30 mins after premedication. There was no significant difference in sedation scores by time or between the groups at any time on any scale. The amount of propofol needed to achieve anesthetic induction was 5.3 ± 1.1 mg/kg in group MET-F, which was statistically lower when compared with the other three groups, which demonstrated no difference among them. Conclusions and relevance Premedication with acepromazine and methadone was not able to produce adequate sedation in healthy cats. The slow induction rate is not adequate for use in cats considering that all of the animals demonstrated excitement during anesthetic induction. The fast administration rate was able to produce adequate induction of anesthesia and reduce the amount of propofol needed to achieve intubation only when using methadone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An accurate estimate of Plasmodium vivax prevalence is essential for the successful implementation of malaria control and elimination programmes. Prevalence estimates both inform control strategies and are used in their evaluation. Light microscopy is the main method for detecting Plasmodium parasitaemia in the peripheral blood, but compared to molecular diagnostics, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), has limited sensitivity. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effect of detection method on the prevalence of P. vivax and to quantify the extent to which P. vivax infections are undetected by microscopy. Embase, Medline and the Cochrane Database were searched for studies reporting prevalence by PCR and by microscopy and that contained all of the following key words: vivax, PCR, and malaria. Prevalence estimates and study meta-data were extracted systematically from each publication. Combined microscopy:PCR prevalence ratios were estimated by random effects meta-analysis. Sensitivity and specificity of microscopy were calculated using PCR as the gold standard. Results: Of 874 studies reviewed, 40 met the criteria for inclusion contributing 54 prevalence pairs. The prevalence of P. vivax infection measured by PCR was consistently higher than the prevalence measured by microscopy with sub-patent parasitaemia. The mean prevalence of infection detected by microscopy was 67 % (95 % CI 59-73 %) lower than the prevalence detected by PCR. The detection of sub-patent parasitaemia did not vary according to the microscopy method (thick or, thick and thin smears), the PCR prevalence (as a measure of the true P. vivax prevalence), the type of blood used or DNA extraction method. Conclusions: Quantifying P. vivax parasitaemia by PCR rather than microscopy consistently increased prevalence estimates by a factor of 2.3. Whilst the sensitivity of microscopy can be improved by better methods, molecular methods have potential to be scaled up to improve the detection of P. vivax transmission reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study deals with As speciation in white wine. Arsenic species were selectively determined by liquid chromatography–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LC–ICP–MS). Separation of As species was performed using an anion exchange column with ammonium phosphate solution (pH 6.00) as mobile phase. Samples of 14 white wine produced in South America were analysed. They were 10-fold diluted in the mobile phase prior to analysis by LC–ICP–MS. Accuracy was evaluated by recovery tests, whereas As species recovery ranged from 95% to 106%. Additionally, the sum of arsenic species concentration found by LC–ICP–MS was in agreement with the total arsenic concentration determined by ICP–MS after sample digestion. Arsenic species detected were arsenite [As(III)], arsenate [As(V)] and dimethylarsinic acid (DMA). As(III) and As(V) were detected in all analysed wine samples and DMA was detected only in wines produced in Argentina. Results for As determination in samples were from 2.9 to 10.3, 8.6 to 17.8, and<0.45 to 1.07μgL−1 for As(III), As(V) and DMA, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Chemically chlorinated organic matter as well as natural background humic acids contain significant amounts of organically bound halogens that must be determined for assessment of environmental pollution. In this work the use of ion chromatography (IC) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is proposed for the determination of total organic Cl, Br and I concentration in humic acids extracted from various forest soil horizons after a single digestion by microwave-induced combustion (MIC). Samples were pressed as pellets and combusted using 20bar of oxygen and ammonium nitrate solution as igniter. Analytes were absorbed in diluted alkaline solution (50mM (NH4)2CO3) and a reflux step was applied after combustion to improve analyte recoveries (5min, microwave power of 1400W). The accuracy was evaluated using certified reference materials (CRM) and spiked samples. Using MIC the agreement with CRM values and spike recoveries was higher than 97% for all analytes. As an advantage over conventional procedures, using MIC it was possible to digest up to eight samples in only 25min, obtaining a single solution suitable for all halogens determination in humic acids samples by different techniques (IC and ICP-MS). The limit of detection (3σ) for Cl, Br and I obtained by IC was 1.2, 2.5 and 4.3μgg−1 and by ICP-MS it was 1.4, 0.03 and 0.002μgg−1, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]