A simple competitive enzyme immunoassay for the detection of the trypanocidal drug isometamidium

A new competitive enzyme immunoassay technique has been developed for the determination of concentrations of the trypanocidal drug isometamidium chloride (Samorin) in bovine serum. The method has been shown to be highly repeatable and reproducible, and it has several advantages over previous immunoassay techniques for the drug. There are fewer incubation steps overall; microtitre plates may be of coated in batches and stored frozen for future use; and the competition incubation is overnight and is followed only by a brief colour development stage of 10 min. Coefficients of variation (CVs) of duplicate samples were similar to 5%, and mean response variances of untreated cattle (n = 57) were small (CV, 10%). Partitioning of variance showed 77% of this variability to be intrinsic to the samples, and the remaining 23% was due to the procedure. The limit of detection was approximately 0.5 ng ml(-1), which was considered to be satisfactory for the intended use of the method. The drug could be detected in serum of treated cattle for up to 10 weeks following treatment, and determinations showed a high level of reproducibility.

Development of a risk model for adverse drug events in the elderly

The aim of this study was to develop a predictive model for adverse drug events (ADEs) in elderly patients. Socio-demographic and medical data were collected from chart reviews, computerised information and a patient interview, for a population of 929 elderly patients (aged greater than or equal to 65 years) whose admission to the Waveney/B raid Valley Hospital in Northern Ireland was not scheduled. A further 204 patients formed a validation group. An ADE score was assigned to each patient using a modified Naranjo algorithm scoring system. The ADE scores ranged from 0 to 8. For the purposes of developing a risk model, scores of 4 or more were considered to constitute a high risk of an ADE.