This prospective study aimed to determine the extent of contamination of fentanyl solutions used for central neuraxial injection by wiping the neck of the ampoules with 70% isopropyl alcohol swabs (Kendall) before breaking open the ampoules and aspiration of fentanyl solutions using a 5 microm Filter Straw (B. Braun). In Group A, fifty fentanyl ampoules were wiped with 70% isopropyl alcohol swab prior to opening and the contents were aspirated immediately using a 21G needle and a 5 microm filter straw for culture. The same steps were repeated on the remaining solutions after two hours. In Group B, all the above steps were repeated but without wiping the ampoules with 70% isopropyl alcohol swabs. None of the samples from the wiped ampoules or aspiration using filter straw grew microorganisms. Six percent of the samples from unwiped group grew microorganisms when fentanyl were aspirated using a 21G needle and the contamination increased to 16% when repeated after two hours. Wiping the outsides of the fentanyl ampoules with 70% isopropyl alcohol swabs before opening or aspirating the contents using a 5 pm filter straw has been shown to be equally effective in avoiding bacterial contamination and should be practiced routinely when performing regional anaesthesia.
KEY WORDS: Fentanyl solution, Isopropyl alcohol swab, Filter straw, Contamination, Regional anaesthesia, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A sustainable super-hydrophobic coating composed of silica from palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was synthesised using isopropanol as a solvent and coated on a glass substrate. FESEM and AFM analyses were conducted to study the surface morphology of the coating. The super-hydrophobicity of the material was validated through goniometry, which showed a water contact angle of 151°. Cytotoxicity studies were conducted by assessing the cell viability and cell morphology of mouse fibroblast cell line (L929) and hamster lung fibroblast cell line (V79) via tetrazolium salt 3-(4-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and microscopic methods, respectively. The clonogenic assay was performed on cell line V79 and the cell proliferation assay was performed on cell line L929. Both results validate that the toxicity of PDMS: SS coatings is dependent on the concentration of the super-hydrophobic coating. The results also indicate that concentrations above 12.5 mg/mL invariably leads to cell toxicity. These results conclusively support the possible utilisation of the synthesised super-hydrophobic coating for biomedical applications.
Cancer still presents enormous challenges in the medical world. Currently, the search for
anticancer compounds has garnered a lot of interest, especially in finding them from the natural
sources. In this study, by using Sulforhodamine B (SRB) colorimetric assay, compounds,
extracted from supermeal worm (Zophobas morio) larvae using two types of acidified organic
solvent (ethanol and isopropanol), were shown to inhibit the growth of a breast cancer line,
MCF-7. A comparative study of the effect was carried out on a normal cell line, Vero. Results
showed that, the two types of extracts inhibits growth of MCF-7 cell at varying degrees, on
the other hand, have much less effect on Vero cell. Extracts analysed by UV-vis spectroscopy,
showed peaks in the range of 260 to 280 nm, inferring the presence of aromatic amino acids,
whereas the highest peak of 3.608 AU at 230 nm indicates the presence of peptide bonds. By
Raman spectroscopy, peaks are observed at 1349 cm-1, 944 cm-1 and 841 cm-1 indicating the
presence of Tyr, Try and Gly, confirming the UV-vis analyses. All results of analyses implied
that the anticancer compounds contain peptides.
The purification of thermo-acidic amylase enzyme from red pitaya (Hylocereus polyrhizus) peel for the first time was investigated using a novel aqueous two-phase system (ATPS) consisting of a thermo-separating copolymer and an organic solvent. The effectiveness of different parameters such as molecular weight of the thermo-separating ethylene oxide-propylene oxide (EOPO) copolymer and type and concentration of organic solvent on the partitioning behavior of amylase was investigated. In addition, the effects of phase components, volume ratio (VR), pH and crude load of purification factor and yield of amylase were evaluated to achieve the optimum partition conditions of the enzyme. In the novel ATPS method, the enzyme was satisfactorily partitioned into the polymer-rich top phase in the system composed of 30% (w/w) EOPO 2500 and 15% (w/w) 2-propanol, at a volume ratio of 1.94 and with a crude load scale of 25% (w/w) at pH 5.0. Recovery and recycling of components was also measured in each successive step of the ATPS process. The enzyme was successfully recovered by the method with a high purification factor of 14.3 and yield of 96.6% and copolymer was also recovered and recycled at a rate above 97%, making the method was more economical than the traditional ATPS method.