Hb levels evaluated by color analysis of ONH photographs had high reproducibility, a high sensitivity-specificity balance, and moderate to strong agreement with other structural and functional tests.

No abstract

SummaryA sensitive HPLC assay for the determination of grepafloxacin (GRE) in biological samples is described. Sample preparations were carried out by adding phosphate buffer (pH 7.4, 0.1M), followed by extraction with trichloromethane. GRE and the internal standard, enrofloxacin (ENR), were separated on a reversed-phase column using an aqueous phosphate solution-acetonitrile (78 : 22) mobile phase. The concentrations of ENR and GRE eluting of the column with retention times of 2.55, and 4.90 min, respectively were monitored by fluorescence at 2ex 338 and 2em 425 nm. The method was shown to be linear from 5 to 4000 ng mL -1. The detection and quantitation limits were 5 and 10 ng mL q, respectively. Mean recovery was determined as 90 %. Inter-and intra-assay precisions were 3.0 % and 3.5 % respectively. The method was applied to the determination of GRE in plasma samples collected during clinical pharmacokinetic studies.oquinoline-3-carboxylic acid, is a new antibacterial fluoroquinolone agent (Figure 1), that has been developed for use in the treatment of patients with a variety of disorders, such as pneumonia and urinary infections, and possibly for use in human ophthalmology-medicine [6][7][8][9]. Numerous methods have been developed for the analysis offluoroquinolones in biological samples. The analysis of fluoroquinolones has traditionally been performed using microbiological methods. However, these are slow and suffer from poor precision and specificity, and therefore HPLC methods have become an important tool for the routine determination offluoroquinolones in biological samples [ 10]. To our knowledge, information concerning HPLC assays of GRE from biological samples is very limited [11]. Thus, in this paper, our objective has been to develop and validate a simple, specific, rapid, and costsaving method for the determination of GRE in biological samples by way of HPLC using fluorescence detection. Finally, we have tested this method by describing the pharmacokinetics of GRE after intravenous administration in rabbits.

Both anesthetic methods provide high levels of pain control without additional sedation during surgery. The use of contact-topical anesthesia avoids pain and reduces the possibility of complications during administration of anesthetics.

Aims To evaluate a new method for measuring haemoglobin (Hb) levels and quantifying the colour changes in the optic nerve head of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to detect axonal loss and consequently optic disc atrophy. Material and methods 40 MS patients and 40 age and sex-matched healthy subjects were included in this prospective cross-sectional study and underwent a full ophthalmological examination, including three photographs of the optic disc. The Laguna ONhE ('optic nerve hemoglobin'; Insoft SL, Tenerife, Spain) software was used to obtain the Hb analysis in each of the 24 sectors and average Hb of optic disc photographs acquired. Reproducibility of measurements provided by Laguna ONhE program was analysed. Results MS patients showed significant reduction of optic disc Hb percentages in average Hb (58.99% in MS, 65.39% in healthy subjects; p<0.001) and in almost all analysed sectors with the largest differences in temporal sectors. Laguna ONhE program showed good reproducibility measuring Hb percentages in MS patients and healthy subjects. Conclusions Measurements of optic disc Hb levels obtained with Laguna ONhE software had good ability detecting optic atrophy and axonal loss in MS patients. This method had good reliability and is easy to implement in routine clinical practice.