Trends in nurse-administered procedural sedation and analgesia across cardiac catheterisation laboratories in Australia and New Zealand : results of an electronic survey

Background Knowledge of current trends in nurse-administered procedural sedation and analgesia (PSA) in the cardiac catheterisation laboratory (CCL) may provide important insights into how to improve safety and effectiveness of this practice. Objective To characterise current practice as well as education and competency standards regarding nurse-administered PSA in Australian and New Zealand CCLs. Design A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive survey design was used. Methods Data were collected using a web-based questionnaire on practice, educational standards and protocols related to nurse-administered PSA. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. Results A sample of 62 nurses, each from a different CCL, completed a questionnaire that focused on PSA practice. Over half of the estimated total number of CCLs in Australia and New Zealand was represented. Nurse-administered PSA was used in 94% (n = 58) of respondents CCLs. All respondents indicated that benzodiazepines, opioids or a combination of both is used for PSA (n = 58). One respondent indicated that propofol was also used. 20% (n = 12) indicated that deep sedation is purposefully induced for defibrillation threshold testing and cardioversion without a second medical practitioner present. Sedation monitoring practices vary considerably between institutions. 31% (n = 18) indicated that comprehensive education about PSA is provided. 45% (n = 26) indicated that nurses who administer PSA should undergo competency assessment. Conclusion By characterising nurse-administered PSA in Australian and New Zealand CCLs, a baseline for future studies has been established. Areas of particular importance to improve include protocols for patient monitoring and comprehensive PSA education for CCL nurses in Australia and New Zealand.

Computer modeling of diffusion in biological tissues

Molecular-level computer simulations of restricted water diffusion can be used to develop models for relating diffusion tensor imaging measurements of anisotropic tissue to microstructural tissue characteristics. The diffusion tensors resulting from these simulations can then be analyzed in terms of their relationship to the structural anisotropy of the model used. As the translational motion of water molecules is essentially random, their dynamics can be effectively simulated using computers. In addition to modeling water dynamics and water-tissue interactions, the simulation software of the present study was developed to automatically generate collagen fiber networks from user-defined parameters. This flexibility provides the opportunity for further investigations of the relationship between the diffusion tensor of water and morphologically different models representing different anisotropic tissues.

Physico-chemical/biological properties of tripolyphosphate cross-linked chitosan based

In this study, chitosan-PEO blend, prepared in a 15 M acetic acid, was electrospun into nanofibers (~ 78 nm diameter) with bead free morphology. While investigating physico-chemical parameters of blend solutions, effect of yield stress on chitosan based nanofiber fabrication was clearly evidenced. Architectural stability of nanofiber mat in aqueous medium was achieved by ionotropic cross-linking of chitosan by tripolyphosphate (TPP) ions. The TPP cross-linked nanofiber mat showed swelling up to ~ 300 % in 1h and ~ 40 % degradation during 30 d study period. 3T3 fibroblast cells showed good attachment, proliferation and viability on TPP treated chitosan based nanofiber mats. The results indicate non-toxic nature of TPP cross-linked chitosan based nanofibers and their potential to be explored as a tissue engineering matrix.

Plant structure and systematics research at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane

This article provides a general overview of some of the plant research being conducted by a number of researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Brisbane. Details about student projects and research facilities have been limited to those of relevance to plant structure and systematics. Academics, technicians and research students involved in plant research are in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, mainly in the School of Earth, Environment and Biological Sciences (EEBS), with a few exceptions. Our offices and laboratories are housed in a number of different buildings at the Gardens Point campus (e.g., P, Q, R, S, M Blocks) and we have strong collaborative links with Queensland Herbarium (BRI) and Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.

Mass spectrometry-based metabolomics towards understanding of gene functions with a diversity of biological contexts

Currently, mass spectrometry-based metabolomics studies extend beyond conventional chemical categorization and metabolic phenotype analysis to understanding gene function in various biological contexts (e.g., mammalian, plant, and microbial). These novel utilities have led to many innovative discoveries in the following areas: disease pathogenesis, therapeutic pathway or target identification, the biochemistry of animal and plant physiological and pathological activities in response to diverse stimuli, and molecular signatures of host-pathogen interactions during microbial infection. In this review, we critically evaluate the representative applications of mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to better understand gene function in diverse biological contexts, with special emphasis on working principles, study protocols, and possible future development of this technique. Collectively, this review raises awareness within the biomedical community of the scientific value and applicability of mass spectrometry-based metabolomics strategies to better understand gene function, thus advancing this application's utility in a broad range of biological fields

Mechanical and biological characterization of a porous poly-L-lactic acid-co-ε-caprolactone scaffold for tissue engineering

This article presents a method for making highly porous biodegradable scaffold that may ultimately be used for tissue engineering. Poly(L-lactic-co-1-caprolactone) acid (70:30) (PLCL) scaffold was produced using the solvent casting/leaching out method, which entails dissolving the polymer and adding a porogen that is then leached out by immersing the scaffold in distillated water. Tensile tests were performed for three types of scaffolds, namely pre-wetted, dried, and UV-irradiated scaffolds and their mechanical properties were measured. The prewetted PLCL scaffold possessed a modulus of elasticity 0.92+0.09 MPa, a tensile strength of 0.12+0.03 MPa and an ultimate strain of 23+5.3%. No significant differences in the modulus elasticity, tensile strength, nor ultimate strain were found between the pre-wetted, dried, and UV irradiated scaffolds. The PLCL scaffold was seeded by human fibroblasts in order to evaluate its biocompatibility by Alamar bluew assays. After 10 days of culture, the scaffolds showed good biocompatibility and allowed cell proliferation. However, the fibroblasts stayed essentially at the surface. This study shows the possibility to use the PLCL scaffold in dynamic mechanical conditions for tissue engineering

Sleepiness : how a biological drive can influence other risky road user behaviours

The Safe System approach to road safety utilises a holistic view of the interactions among vehicles, roads and road users. Yet, the contribution of each of these factors to crashes is vastly different. The role of road users is widely acknowledged as an overwhelming contributor to road crashes. Substantial gains have been made with improvements to vehicle and roads over a number of years. However, improvements of the road user’s behaviour has been (in some cases) less substantial. A road user behaviour that is relatively unregulated is driver sleepiness, which is part of the ‘fatal five’ of risky road user behaviours. The effect of sleepiness is ubiquitous – sleepiness is a state that most, if not all drivers on our roads has experienced, and is habitually exposed to. The quality and quantity of daily sleep is integral to our level of neurobehavioural performance during wakefulness and as such can have a compounding effect on a number of other risky driving behaviours. This paper will discuss the potential influence of sleepiness as an interceding factor for a number of risky driving behaviours. Little effort has been given to increasing awareness of the deleterious and wide ranging effects that sleepiness has on road safety. Given the wide ranging influence of sleepiness, improvements of ‘sleep health’ as a protective factor at the community or individual level could lead to significant reductions in road trauma and increases of general well being. A discussion of potential actions to reduce sleepiness is required if reductions of road trauma are to continue.

MS-based metabolomics facilitates the discovery of in vivo functional small molecules with a diversity of biological contexts

In vivo small molecules as necessary intermediates are involved in numerous critical metabolic pathways and biological processes associated with many essential biological functions and events. There is growing evidence that MS-based metabolomics is emerging as a powerful tool to facilitate the discovery of functional small molecules that can better our understanding of development, infection, nutrition, disease, toxicity, drug therapeutics, gene modifications and host-pathogen interaction from metabolic perspectives. However, further progress must still be made in MS-based metabolomics because of the shortcomings in the current technologies and knowledge. This technique-driven review aims to explore the discovery of in vivo functional small molecules facilitated by MS-based metabolomics and to highlight the analytic capabilities and promising applications of this discovery strategy. Moreover, the biological significance of the discovery of in vivo functional small molecules with different biological contexts is also interrogated at a metabolic perspective.

A biological staging model for operable non-small cell lung cancer

Background Currently the best prognostic index for operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the TNM staging system. Molecular biology holds the promise of predicting outcome for the individual patient and identifying novel therapeutic targets. Angiogenesis, matrix metalloproteinases (MMP)-2 and -9, and the erb/HER type I tyrosine kinase receptors are all implicated in the pathogenesis of NSCLC. Methods A retrospective analysis of 167 patients with resected stage I-IIIa NSCLC and >60 days postoperative survival with a minimum follow up of 2 years was undertaken. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed on paraffin embedded sections for the microvessel marker CD34, MMP-2 and MMP-9, EGFR, and c-erbB-2 to evaluate the relationships between and impact on survival of these molecular markers. Results Tumour cell MMP-9 (HR 1.91 (1.23-2.97)), a high microvessel count (HR 1.97 (1.28-3.03)), and stage (stage II HR 1.44 (0.87-2.40), stage IIIa HR 2.21 (1.31-3.74)) were independent prognostic factors. Patients with a high microvessel count and tumour cell MMP-9 expression had a worse outcome than cases with only one (HR 1.68 (1.04-2.73)) or neither (HR 4.43 (2.29-8.57)) of these markers. EGFR expression correlated with tumour cell MMP-9 expression (p<0.001). Immunoreactivity for both of these factors within the same tumour was associated with a poor prognosis (HR 2.22 (1.45-3.41)). Conclusion Angiogenesis, EGFR, and MMP-9 expression provide prognostic information independent of TNM stage, allowing a more accurate outcome prediction for the individual patient. The development of novel anti-angiogenic agents, EGFR targeted therapies, and MMP inhibitors suggests that target specific adjuvant treatments may become a therapeutic option in patients with resected NSCLC.

Clinico-pathological and biological prognostic factors in pleural malignant mesothelioma

In the UK mortality from malignant mesothelioma (MM) is likely to more than double over the next 20 years and despite advances in surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment the overall prognosis for patients remains poor. A number of scoring systems based on assessment of clinicopathological features of patients with the disease have been developed but the search continues for further prognostic indicators. Angiogenesis, tumour necrosis (TN), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been linked with poor prognosis in some types of solid tumour and their relevance as prognostic factors in malignant mesothelioma is examined in this paper. © 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design, implementation and multisite evaluation of a system suitability protocol for the quantitative assessment of instrument performance in liquid chromatography-multiple reaction monitoring-MS (LC-MRM-MS)

Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mass spectrometry coupled with stable isotope dilution (SID) and liquid chromatography (LC) is increasingly used in biological and clinical studies for precise and reproducible quantification of peptides and proteins in complex sample matrices. Robust LC-SID-MRM-MS-based assays that can be replicated across laboratories and ultimately in clinical laboratory settings require standardized protocols to demonstrate that the analysis platforms are performing adequately. We developed a system suitability protocol (SSP), which employs a predigested mixture of six proteins, to facilitate performance evaluation of LC-SID-MRM-MS instrument platforms, configured with nanoflow-LC systems interfaced to triple quadrupole mass spectrometers. The SSP was designed for use with low multiplex analyses as well as high multiplex approaches when software-driven scheduling of data acquisition is required. Performance was assessed by monitoring of a range of chromatographic and mass spectrometric metrics including peak width, chromatographic resolution, peak capacity, and the variability in peak area and analyte retention time (RT) stability. The SSP, which was evaluated in 11 laboratories on a total of 15 different instruments, enabled early diagnoses of LC and MS anomalies that indicated suboptimal LC-MRM-MS performance. The observed range in variation of each of the metrics scrutinized serves to define the criteria for optimized LC-SID-MRM-MS platforms for routine use, with pass/fail criteria for system suitability performance measures defined as peak area coefficient of variation <0.15, peak width coefficient of variation <0.15, standard deviation of RT <0.15 min (9 s), and the RT drift <0.5min (30 s). The deleterious effect of a marginally performing LC-SID-MRM-MS system on the limit of quantification (LOQ) in targeted quantitative assays illustrates the use and need for a SSP to establish robust and reliable system performance. Use of a SSP helps to ensure that analyte quantification measurements can be replicated with good precision within and across multiple laboratories and should facilitate more widespread use of MRM-MS technology by the basic biomedical and clinical laboratory research communities.

Tumour necrosis is an independent prognostic marker in non-small cell lung cancer : correlation with biological variables

Background Tumour necrosis (TN) is recognized to be a consequence of chronic cellular hypoxia. TN and hypoxia correlate with poor prognosis in solid tumours. Methods In a retrospective study the prognostic implications of the extent of TN was evaluated in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and correlated with clinicopathological variables and expression of epidermal growth factor receptor, Bcl-2, p53 and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). Tissue specimens from 178 surgically resected cases of stage I-IIIA NSCLC with curative intent were studied. The specimens were routinely processed, formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded. TN was graded as extensive or either limited or absent by two independent observers; disagreements were resolved using a double-headed microscope. The degree of reproducibility was estimated by re-interpreting 40 randomly selected cases after a 4 month interval. Results Reproducibility was attained in 36/40 cases, Kappa score=0.8 P<0.001. TN correlated with T-stage (P=0.001), platelet count (P=0.004) and p53 expression (P=0.031). Near significant associations of TN with N-stage (P=0.063) and MMP-9 expression (P=0.058) were seen. No association was found with angiogenesis (P=0.98). On univariate (P=0.0016) and multivariate analysis (P=0.023) TN was prognostic. Conclusion These results indicate that extensive TN reflects an aggressive tumour phenotype in NSCLC and may improve the predictive power of the TMN staging system. The lack of association between TN and angiogenesis may be important although these variables were not evaluated on serial sections. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identification and elimination of a matrix-induced systematic error in LA–ICP–MS 206Pb/238U dating of zircon

Black et al. (2004) identified a systematic difference between LA–ICP–MS and TIMS measurements of 206Pb/238U in zircons, which they correlated with the incompatible trace element content of the zircon. We show that the offset between the LA–ICP–MS and TIMS measured 206Pb/238U correlates more strongly with the total radiogenic Pb than with any incompatible trace element. This suggests that the cause of the 206Pb/238U offset is related to differences in the radiation damage (alpha dose) between the reference and unknowns. We test this hypothesis in two ways. First, we show that there is a strong correlation between the difference in the LA–ICP–MS and TIMS measured 206Pb/238U and the difference in the alpha dose received by unknown and reference zircons. The LA–ICP–MS ages for the zircons we have dated can be as much as 5.1% younger than their TIMS age to 2.1% older, depending on whether the unknown or reference received the higher alpha dose. Second, we show that by annealing both reference and unknown zircons at 850 °C for 48 h in air we can eliminate the alpha-dose-induced differences in measured 206Pb/238U. This was achieved by analyzing six reference zircons a minimum of 16 times in two round robin experiments: the first consisting of unannealed zircons and the second of annealed grains. The maximum offset between the LA–ICP–MS and TIMS measured 206Pb/238U for the unannealed zircons was 2.3%, which reduced to 0.5% for the annealed grains, as predicted by within-session precision based on counting statistics. Annealing unknown zircons and references to the same state prior to analysis holds the promise of reducing the 3% external error for the measurement of 206Pb/238U of zircon by LA–ICP–MS, indicated by Klötzli et al. (2009), to better than 1%, but more analyses of annealed zircons by other laboratories are required to evaluate the true potential of the annealing method.

Biological values of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine : impact on the life science

Editorial paper

Pooled biological specimens for human biomonitoring of environmental chemicals : opportunities and limitations

Biomonitoring has become the ‘gold standard’ in assessing chemical exposures, and plays an important role in risk assessment. The pooling of biological specimens – combining multiple individual specimens into a single sample – can be used in biomonitoring studies to monitor levels of exposure and identify exposure trends, or to identify susceptible populations in a cost-effective manner. Pooled samples provide an estimate of central tendency, and may also reveal information about variation within the population. The development of a pooling strategy requires careful consideration of the type and number of samples collected, the number of pools required, and the number of specimens to combine per pool in order to maximize the type and robustness of the data. Creative pooling strategies can be used to explore exposure-outcome associations, and extrapolation from other larger studies can be useful in identifying elevated exposures in specific individuals. The use of pooled specimens is advantageous as it saves significantly on analytical costs, may reduce the time and resources required for recruitment, and in certain circumstances, allows quantification of samples approaching the limit of detection. In addition, use of pooled samples can provide population estimates while avoiding ethical difficulties that may be associated with reporting individual results.