BACKGROUND\nCombination therapy with the ADP receptor antagonist ticlopidine plus aspirin has emerged as standard care after coronary stenting. Clopidogrel, a new ADP receptor antagonist, has greater molar potency than ticlopidine and better safety/tolerability.\n\n\nMETHODS AND RESULTS\nPatients (n=1020) were randomized after successful stent placement and initiated on a 28-day regimen of either (1) 300-mg clopidogrel loading dose and 325 mg/d aspirin on day 1, followed by 75 mg/d clopidogrel and 325 mg/d aspirin; (2) 75 mg/d clopidogrel and 325 mg/d aspirin; or (3) 250 mg BID ticlopidine and 325 mg/d aspirin. The primary end point consisted of major peripheral or bleeding complications, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, or early discontinuation of study drug as the result of a noncardiac adverse event during the study-drug treatment period. The primary end point occurred in 9.1% of patients (n=31) in the ticlopidine group and 4.6% of patients (n=31) in the combined clopidogrel group (relative risk 0.50; 95% CI 0.31 to 0.81; P=0.005). Overall rates of major adverse cardiac events (cardiac death, myocardial infarction, target lesion revascularization) were low and comparable between treatment groups (0.9% with ticlopidine, 1.5% with 75 mg/d clopidogrel, 1.2% with the clopidogrel loading dose; P=NS for all comparisons).\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nThe safety/tolerability of clopidogrel (plus aspirin) is superior to that of ticlopidine (plus aspirin) (P=0.005). The 300-mg loading dose was well tolerated, notably with no increased risk of bleeding. Secondary end point data are consistent with the hypothesis that clopidogrel and ticlopidine have comparable efficacy with regard to cardiac events after successful stenting.

Interventional Cardiology AbstractsDouble-blind study of the safety of clopidogrel with and without a loading dose in combination with aspirin compared with ticlopidine in combination with aspirin after coronary stenting: the Clopidogrel Aspirin Stent International Cooperative Study (CLASSICS)

Production of large surface area activated carbon from a mixture of carrot juice pulp and pomegranate peel using microwave radiation-assisted ZnCl2 activation: An optimized removal process and tailored adsorption mechanism of crystal violet dye

Sir,– In addition to my normal work, I run a part-time orthodontic clinic in someone else’s surgery. I provide only removable appliances mostly to very young children. The GDC expect me to spend several thousand pounds on emergency equipment and cross-infection control and train the entire dental team in their use (does this include the cleaner?) While I entirely approve of the ethos, realities should not be ignored. My patients are more likely to stick a fork into themselves at a nearby restaurant than suffer harm in the surgery. Cross infection control sounds a great idea but even wise men sometimes fail to consider the long term consequences. If all cross infection contacts were effectively sterilised, our immune system would quickly break down. We depend on constant contact with bacteria and viruses to maintain our natural resistance — this might even apply to Hepatitis B and AIDS, if they were introduced in small enough doses. Deprived of this we would die from the first major assault from a range of normally benign diseases. Bugs are good for you, think about it. J. Mew Heathfield

Safety and cross infection.

Micelle sensitized synchronous spectrofluorimetric approaches for the simultaneous determination of simeprevir and ledipasvir: Application to pharmaceutical formulations and human plasma

Sensitive spectrofluorimetric assay based on micelle enhanced protocol for the determination of hepatitis C antiviral agent (simeprevir): Application to dosage form and human plasma

Water contamination with colours and heavy metals from textile effluents has harmed the ecology and food chain, with mutagenic and carcinogenic effects on human health. As a result, removing these harmful chemicals is critical for the environment and human health. Various standard physicochemical and biological treatment technologies are used; however, there are still some difficulties. Adsorption is described as a highly successful technology for removing contaminants from textile-effluents wastewater compared to other methods. Several adsorbent materials, including nanomaterials, natural materials, and biological biomasses, are identified as effective adsorbents for textile effluents. Activated carbon preparation from these different adsorbents is an excellent pre-treatment to remove the adsorption capacity. Therefore, through this study various adsorbent types, especially activated carbon adsorbents will be discussed in addition to the factors affecting adsorption and models applied for optimising the adsorption process. 

Review of activated carbon adsorbent material for textile dyes removal: Preparation, and modelling

Simultaneous quantification of simeprevir sodium: A hepatitis C protease inhibitor in binary and ternary mixtures with sofosbuvir and/or ledipasvir utilizing direct and H-point standard addition strategies

A sensitive and a precise method was developed for the quantification of different Sudan dyes in some Egyptian food samples. They were analyzed utilizing two-fragment ion transition under multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Separation was carried out on Kinetex 2.6u C18 100 A (75 mm × 4.6 mm) phenomenex using isocratic elution with 10:90% water and acetonitrile containing 2.0 mmol/L ammonium formate and 0.2% formic acid. The validation parameters were obtained and verified. The linearity was 0.2–10.0 ng/mL with r2 > 0.9975. LOD and LOQ were 0.06 and 0.19 ng/mL, respectively, for Sudan (I, II) whereas they were 0.07 and 0.23 ng/mL, respectively, for Sudan (III and IV), and Sudan orange G. Recoveries are ranged from 78.79 to 110.49%. The method has been successfully applied for the quantification of these dyes in 60 food samples such as spices, chili powder, turmeric, paprika, and curry. The results show that about 55% of the randomly selected food samples were adulterated with the banned dyes.

Evaluation of Different Sudan Dyes in Egyptian Food Samples Utilizing Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

A selective, simple and sensitive spectrophotometric methods were introduced for the quantification of Clopidogrel bisulfate (CLPB); an antiplatelet agent widely utilized in the prevention of ischemic stroke, in its raw material and pharmaceutical formulations These methods based on the formation of yellow colored ion-pairs between CLPB and sulphonphthalein acid dyes, bromophenol blue (BPB) and bromocresol purple (BCP), after extraction in chloroform, with absorption maximum at 407 nm Job’s plot indicated a ratio of 1:1 and 1:2 The conditional stability constants ( ) of the formed ion-pairs had been calculated The optimum conditions such as reagent concentration, time, and type of solvent were studied Reaction conditions were optimized to obtain the maximum color intensity Beer’s law was obeyed in the concentration range up to 800 and 1150 μg mL-1 upon using BPB and BCP, respectively The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were also reported The low relative standard deviation (RSD %) values indicate good precision and high recovery The determination of CLPB in tablets dosage forms was also proposed with acceptable recovery values The results of the proposed methods were compared statistically (F and t-test) with those of the reference method

Alyaa I. Salim

Papers

Review of activated carbon adsorbent material for textile dyes removal: Preparation, and modelling

Simultaneous quantification of simeprevir sodium: A hepatitis C protease inhibitor in binary and ternary mixtures with sofosbuvir and/or ledipasvir utilizing direct and H-point standard addition strategies

Evaluation of Different Sudan Dyes in Egyptian Food Samples Utilizing Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Quantitative determination of clopidogrel bisulfate using validated spectrophotometric methods

A review of coagulation explaining its definition, mechanism, coagulant types, and optimization models; RSM, and ANN