Creatinine is the most important parameter to be determined in the diagnosis of renal, muscular and thyroid function. The most common method for the determination of creatinine is Jaffe's reaction, a routine practice for blood and urine analysis. However, in cases of icteric and haemolyzed blood samples, interference occurs during the estimation of creatinine by other constituents present in the blood like bilirubin, creatine, and urea, which lead to wrong diagnosis. To overcome such difficulty, we have developed a silver nanoparticle (Ag NPs) based sensor for the selective determination of creatinine. In this study, a new approach has been given to the traditional Jaffe's reaction, by coating Ag NPs with picric acid (PA) to form an assembly that can selectively detect creatinine. The Ag NPs based sensor proficiently and selectively recognizes creatinine due to the ability of picric acid to bind with it and form a complex. The nanoassembly and the interactions were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis, UV-Vis spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy and ESI-MS, which demonstrated the binding affinity of creatinine with PA-capped Ag NPs. A linear correlation was obtained in the range of 0.01 μM-1 μM with an R(2) value of 0.9998 and a lower detection limit of 8.4 nM. The sensor was successfully applied to different types of blood and CSF samples for the determination of creatinine, and the results were compared to that of the Jaffe's method. With the advantages of high sensitivity, selectivity and low sample volume, this method is potentially suitable for the on-site monitoring of creatinine.

Back ground: Severe anaemia is associated with negative impact on both the mother and the newborn. Foetal anaemia, low birth weight, preterm birth and still birth have been associated with anaemia. Women with iron deficiency are particularly susceptible to iron deficiency anaemia during pregnancy. Apart from that there was no consistency in the timing of haemoglobin considered for analysis. So we designed a study to look into these aspects. Material and methods:The study was carried out in obstratics and gynaecology department of B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad. A total number of 105 pregnant women, attending OPD were taken. 90 of them registered for antenatal clinic in the first trimester. The remaining 15 reported for registration only in 3 rd trimester. Blood was collected from all the subjects to measure the haemoglobin concentration between 16-18 weeks, 22-24 weeks and 34-36 weeks of pregnancy. Hematocrit and RBC were measured between 34-36 weeks and all the haemoglobin indices were calculated. Results: The prevalence of anaemia among pregnant women in this study was 71.43% with severity of anaemia higher in age between 25-30 years. The severity of anaemia that developed in the last trimester was closely related to haemoglobin levels found in the first trimester. Conclusion:The hematocrit, RBC count and haemoglobin indices were lower in women who did not received iron supplementation which was highly significant. Iron supplementation decrease the fall as compared to the group without iron supplementation. Antenatal care should be made available to pregnant women in both urban and rural areas.