Sir,—In a clinical evaluation of ethanol as an anaesthetic agent, Isaac and Dundee (1969) and Dundee and coworkers (1970) established that 8% w/v (10% v/v) ethanol in Hartmann's solution was the most satisfactory concentration for i.v. infusion in man and was associated with a low frequency of thrombophlebitis. Sanderson and co-workers (1970) confirmed that in vitro ethanol solutions in concent...

The presence of cell-free microRNAs (miRNAs) has been detected in a range of body fluids. The miRNA content of plasma/serum in particular has been proposed as a potential source of novel biomarkers for a number of diseases. Nevertheless, the quantification of miRNAs from plasma or serum is made difficult due to inefficient isolation and lack of consensus regarding the optimal reference miRNA. T...

Prevention of medical errors is a major goal of healthcare, though healthcare workers themselves have not yet fully accepted or implemented reliable models of system error, and neither has the public. While there is widespread perception that most medical errors arise from an inappropriate or delayed clinical management, the issue of laboratory errors is receiving a great deal of attention due ...

Comparison of c.d. spectra of Zn-insulin with Zn2+-free insulin demonstrated significant differences. It has been proposed that these differences are due to either changes in the structure of insulin monomers within aggregated insulins or the results of insulin aggregation. The effect of Zn2+ on the immunological activity of insulin indicated that the antigenic determinants of insulin were also...

1. Changes in the perfusate activities of aspartate transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase, its ‘LD-5’ component, sorbitol dehydrogenase, ornithine carbamoyltransferase, and the isoenzyme patterns of lactate dehydrogenase and aspartate transaminase, were investigated in eleven perfusions of pig liver with human blood in order to assess liver cell damage during perfusion. 2. The aspartate transamin...

Fragrances are widely used in topical formulations and can cause photoallergic or phototoxic reactions. To identify phototoxic effects, 43 fragrances were evaluated in vitro with a photohaemolysis test using suspensions of human erythrocytes exposed to radiation sources rich in ultraviolet (UV) A or B in the presence of the test compounds. Haemolysis was measured by reading the absorbance value...

Haemolysis of erythrocytes from different species (sheep, bovine, swine and human), caused by various combinations of phosphatidylcholine (PC)-preferring phospholipase C (PC-PLC), sphingomyelinase (SMase) and the three-component, pore-forming toxin haemolysin BL (HBL) from Bacillus cereus was analysed. The lytic potency of HBL did not correlate with phospholipid (PL) content, but lysis by the i...