Search results for "biomedical engineering"

Antibacterial drug release from a biphasic gel system: Mathematical modelling

2019

Bacterial infections represent an important drawback in the orthopaedic field, as they can develop either immediately after surgery procedures or after some years. Specifically, in case of implants, they are alleged to be troublesome as their elimination often compels a surgical removal of the infected implant. A possible solution strategy could involve a local coating of the implant by an antibacterial system, which requires to be easily applicable, biocompatible and able to provide the desired release kinetics for the selected antibacterial drug. Thus, this work focusses on a biphasic system made up by a thermo-reversible gel matrix (Poloxamer 407/water system) hosting a dispersed phase (…

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles Containing Nimesulide: Preparation, Characterization and Cytotoxicity Studies

2009

The prospect of improved cancer therapy using Solid Lipid Nanoparticles (SLNs) as drug delivery system is promising. Sev- eral obstacles frequently encountered with anticancer compounds, such as poor drug solubility, are overcome by delivering them using SLN. Moreover, the intravenous administration of drugs into SLNs can potentially enhance drug blood circulation time and improve drug per- formance by inducing accumulation into tumours by enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. This paper deals with the devel- opment of SLN containing nimesulide, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug with antitumour effect and low solubility in water. Here, SLNs carrying nimesulide were prepared…

Monoclonal antibodies with subnanomolar affinity to tenofovir for monitoring adherence to antiretroviral therapies: from hapten synthesis to prototyp…

2020

Approximately 32 million people have died of HIV infection since the beginning of the outbreak, and 38 million are currently infected. Among strategies adopted by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to end the AIDS global epidemic, the treatment, diagnosis, and viral suppression of the infected subjects are considered crucial for HIV prevention and transmission. Although several antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are successfully used to manage HIV infection, their efficacy strictly relies on perfect adherence to the therapy, which is seldom achieved. Patient supervision, especially in HIV-endemic, low-resource settings, requires rapid, easy-to-use, and affordable analytical tools, such …

Microfibrillar polymeric ocular inserts for triamcinolone acetonide delivery.

2019

Abstract Despite eye drops generally represent the most convenient, simple and patient-friendly formulations to treat ocular diseases, they suffer from poor retention on the ocular surface and low drug bioavailability leading to the necessity of prolonged and continuous treatment over time. Therefore, ocular insert could represent an innovative way to benefit from ocular topical administration while minimizing all the relevant limitation related to this route of administration. Polymeric non-erodible mucoadhesive ocular inserts should be comfortable and should rapidly adhere on the ocular surface, remain in situ for prolonged period, assure a reproducible and controlled drug release as well…

Statistical tools and control of internal lubricant content of inhalation grade HPMC capsules during manufacture

2016

The internal lubricant content (ILC) of inhalation grade HPMC capsules is a key factor to ensure good powder release when the patient inhales a medicine from a dry powder inhaler (DPI). Powder release from capsules has been shown to be influenced by the ILC. The characteristics used to measure this are the emitted dose, fine particle fraction and mass median aerodynamic diameter. In addition the ILC level is critical for capsule shell manufacture because it is an essential part of the process that cannot work without it. An experiment has been applied to the manufacture of inhalation capsules with the required ILC. A full factorial model was used to identify the controlling factors and from…

Dynamic contrast‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging for monitoring angiogenesis during bone regeneration – a randomized pilot study in rabbits

2020

A Dynamic Simulation of a Human Gait Using the Hybrid Muscle Model and a QCT-Based Flexible Tibia

2009

The flexible multibody simulation [9] approach can be used in a wide variety of engineering applications. In a previous study of authors [1], flexible multibody simulation approach was used to estimate strains during walking at tibial midshaft. In the previous study, simple muscle models were used in conjunction with a flexible tibia model based on magnetic resonance images (MRI). This study is an extension of the previous developments [1], [2] demonstrating the potential of model improvement by introducing hybrid muscle models, along with the flexible tibia based model on computed tomography (CT). The computed tomography technique allows for the accounting of inhomogeneous density and elas…

Measuring psychosocial stress with heart rate variability-based methods in different health and age groups

2022

Abstract Objective. Autonomic nervous system function and thereby bodily stress and recovery reactions may be assessed by wearable devices measuring heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV). So far, the validity of HRV-based stress assessments has been mainly studied in healthy populations. In this study, we determined how psychosocial stress affects physiological and psychological stress responses in both young (18–30 years) and middle-aged (45–64 years) healthy individuals as well as in patients with arterial hypertension and/or either prior evidence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. We also studied how an HRV-based stress index (Relax-Stress Intensity, RSI) relates to perceived stress …

Atrial Fibrosis Hampers Non-invasive Localization of Atrial Ectopic Foci From Multi-Electrode Signals: A 3D Simulation Study

2018

[EN] Introduction: Focal atrial tachycardia is commonly treated by radio frequency ablation with an acceptable long-term success. Although the location of ectopic foci tends to appear in specific hot-spots, they can be located virtually in any atrial region. Multi-electrode surface ECG systems allow acquiring dense body surface potential maps (BSPM) for non-invasive therapy planning of cardiac arrhythmia. However, the activation of the atria could be affected by fibrosis and therefore biomarkers based on BSPM need to take these effects into account. We aim to analyze the effect of fibrosis on a BSPM derived index, and its potential application to predict the location of ectopic foci in the …

Incorporation of the acetylcholine receptor dimer from Torpedo californica in a peptide supported lipid membrane investigated by surface plasmon and …

1998

Abstract The dimer species (Mr 580 000) of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, isolated from the electric organ of Torpedo californica, was incorporated into a thiopeptide supported lipid bilayer. The incorporation was achieved by fusion of liposomes with reconstituted receptor onto a gold-supported thiopeptide lipid monolayer. Surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy (SPS) was used to monitor in real time the fusion process as well as the specific binding of the antagonist α-bungarotoxin. A recently developed extension of SPS offering enhanced sensitivity and specificity, surface plasmon fluorescence spectroscopy (SPFS), was then used to monitor subsequent binding of the monoclonal WF6 and…