At the time of COVID-19 pandemic onset in spring 2020 a project CoroVent was initiated with the aim to design and produce emergency lung ventilators and distribute them to hospitals. No flow and tidal volume sensors were available for the project. The lack of tidal volume sensors was a consequence of the rapidly increased demand for mechanical lung ventilators and their consumables. The aim of the study was to develop a special flow sensor CoroQuant for the CoroVent ventilators. The sensor based on pneumotachographic principle, manufactured by the plastic injection moulding of polypropylene, meets the requirements for precision of tidal volume measurement defined by international standard ISO 80601-2-12 for mechanical lung ventilators. CoroVent ventilators with CoroQuant sensors were distributed to 27 hospitals in the Czech Republic for free upon the requests from the medical facilities and started to be clinically used, thus preventing lack of lung ventilators in hospitals in the Czech Republic.
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
Flow cytometry (FCM) is now the most widely used method to determine ploidy levels and genome size of plants. To get reliable estimates and allow reproducibility of measurements, the methodology should be standardized and follow the best practices in the field. In this article, we discuss instrument calibration and quality control and various instrument and acquisition settings (parameters, flow rate, number of events, scales, use of discriminators, peak positions). These settings must be decided before measurements because they determine the amount and quality of the data and thus influence all downstream analyses. We describe the two main approaches to raw data analysis (gating and histogram modeling), and we discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we provide a summary of best practice recommendations for data acquisition and raw data analysis in plant FCM.
- MeSH
- Genome Size MeSH
- Calibration MeSH
- Ploidies * MeSH
- Flow Cytometry methods MeSH
- Reproducibility of Results MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Review MeSH
331 s.
The CARMAT-Total Artificial Heart (C-TAH) is designed to provide heart replacement therapy for patients with end-stage biventricular failure. This report details the reliability and efficacy of the autoregulation device control mechanism (auto-mode), designed to mimic normal physiologic responses to changing patient needs. Hemodynamic data from a continuous cohort of 10 patients implanted with the device, recorded over 1,842 support days in auto-mode, were analyzed with respect to daily changing physiologic needs. The C-TAH uses embedded pressure sensors to regulate the pump output. Right and left ventricular outputs are automatically balanced. The operator sets target values and the inbuilt algorithm adjusts the stroke volume and beat rate, and hence cardiac output, automatically. Auto-mode is set perioperatively after initial postcardiopulmonary bypass hemodynamic stabilization. All patients showed a range of average inflow pressures of between 5 and 20 mm Hg during their daily activities, resulting in cardiac output responses of between 4.3 and 7.3 L/min. Operator adjustments were cumulatively only required on 20 occasions. This report demonstrates that the C-TAH auto-mode effectively produces appropriate physiologic responses reflective of changing patients' daily needs and represents one of the unique characteristics of this device in providing almost physiologic heart replacement therapy.
- MeSH
- Hemodynamics MeSH
- Homeostasis MeSH
- Blood Pressure MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Reproducibility of Results MeSH
- Heart Failure * surgery MeSH
- Heart, Artificial * MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
Two challenges in the management of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome are the difficulty in diagnosing cyclical atelectasis, and in individualising mechanical ventilation therapy in real-time. Commercial optical oxygen sensors can detect [Formula: see text] oscillations associated with cyclical atelectasis, but are not accurate at saturation levels below 90%, and contain a toxic fluorophore. We present a computer-controlled test rig, together with an in-house constructed ultra-rapid sensor to test the limitations of these sensors when exposed to rapidly changing [Formula: see text] in blood in vitro. We tested the sensors' responses to simulated respiratory rates between 10 and 60 breaths per minute. Our sensor was able to detect the whole amplitude of the imposed [Formula: see text] oscillations, even at the highest respiratory rate. We also examined our sensor's resistance to clot formation by continuous in vivo deployment in non-heparinised flowing animal blood for 24h, after which no adsorption of organic material on the sensor's surface was detectable by scanning electron microscopy.
- MeSH
- Analysis of Variance MeSH
- Pulmonary Atelectasis blood MeSH
- Biological Clocks MeSH
- Blood Coagulation physiology MeSH
- Blood Pressure physiology MeSH
- Oxygen blood MeSH
- Microscopy, Electron, Scanning MeSH
- Partial Pressure MeSH
- Computer Simulation * MeSH
- In Vitro Techniques MeSH
- Fiber Optic Technology * MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
Fruit of Terminalia chebula Retz. (Combretaceae) has male contraceptive folk medicine reputation but its molecular aspect regarding hypotesticular activity is still in dark. The study focused the hypotesticular efficacy of the most potent fraction out of n-hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions of hydro-methanolic (3:2) extract of Terminalia chebula in connection with male herbal contraceptive development. Treatment with above fractions of Terminalia chebula showed a significant diminution in the activities of androgenic key enzymes (Δ5, 3β-HSD, 17β-HSD) and inhibition in serum testosterone level in compare to the control. Significant up regulation of testicular Bax gene and down regulation of Bcl-2 gene indicated the hypotesticular activity of these fractions. Flow-cytometric study focused a significant diminution in sperm viability and sperm mitochondrial status after the treatment with different fractions. Out of these, ethyl acetate fraction showed most promising hypotesticular effect without impairing any toxicity in general which highlighted that the fraction may contains antitesticular agent(s) in threshold levels compare to other fractions as it decreases spermiological, testicular genomic sensors and elevates sperm apoptotic sensors that may lead to male contraception.
- MeSH
- Spermatogenesis-Blocking Agents * chemistry isolation & purification MeSH
- Models, Animal MeSH
- Rats, Wistar MeSH
- Flow Cytometry MeSH
- Plant Extracts MeSH
- Spermatozoa drug effects MeSH
- Terminalia chemistry MeSH
- Testis enzymology chemistry drug effects MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Male MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
An automated, simple and inexpensive double-valve sequential injection analysis (DV-SIA) spectrophotometic method with online liquid-liquid extraction, for the determination of thiocyanate has been developed. The method has been based on the formation of an ion associate between thiocyanate and Astra Phloxine in acidic medium, and the subsequent extraction with amylacetate. The absorbance of the extracted ion associate was measured at 550nm. The calibration function was linear in the range 0.05-0.50mmolL(-1) and the regression equation was A=(1.887±0.053) [SCN(-)mmolL(-1)]+(0.037±0.014) with a correlation coefficient of 0.995. The precision of the proposed method was evaluated by the relative standard deviation (RSD) values at two concentration levels: 0.20 and 0.50mmolL(-1). The obtained results were 1.0 and 2.8%, respectively, for the intra-day precision, and 4.2 and 3.8%, respectively for the inter-day precision. The calculated detection limit was 0.02mmolL(-1). The developed method has been successfully applied for determining thiocyanate ions in human saliva samples.
- MeSH
- Indoles chemistry MeSH
- Calibration MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Limit of Detection MeSH
- Flow Injection Analysis methods MeSH
- Saliva chemistry MeSH
- Thiocyanates analysis chemistry MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
In this analysis, we present results from measurements performed to determine the stability of a hand tracking system and the accuracy of the detected palm and finger's position. Measurements were performed for the evaluation of the sensor for an application in an industrial robot-assisted assembly scenario. Human-robot interaction is a relevant topic in collaborative robotics. Intuitive and straightforward control tools for robot navigation and program flow control are essential for effective utilisation in production scenarios without unnecessary slowdowns caused by the operator. For the hand tracking and gesture-based control, it is necessary to know the sensor's accuracy. For gesture recognition with a moving target, the sensor must provide stable tracking results. This paper evaluates the sensor's real-world performance by measuring the localisation deviations of the hand being tracked as it moves in the workspace.
Background: Arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) represent a low resistant circuit. It is known that their opening leads to decreased systemic vascular resistance, increased cardiac output and other hemodynamic changes. Possible competition of AVF and perfusion of other organs has been observed before, however the specific impact of AVF has not been elucidated yet. Previous animal models studied long-term changes associated with a surgically created high flow AVF. The aim of this study was to create a simple AVF model for the analysis of acute hemodynamic changes. Methods: Domestic female pigs weighing 62.6 ± 5.2 kg were used. All the experiments were held under general anesthesia. The AVF was created using high-diameter ECMO cannulas inserted into femoral artery and vein. Continuous hemodynamic monitoring was performed throughout the protocol. Near-infrared spectroscopy sensors, flow probes and flow wires were inserted to study brain and heart perfusion. Results: AVF blood flow was 2.1 ± 0.5 L/min, which represented around 23% of cardiac output. We observed increase in cardiac output (from 7.02 ± 2.35 L/min to 9.19 ± 2.99 L/min, p = 0.0001) driven dominantly by increased heart rate, increased pulmonary artery pressure, and associated right ventricular work. Coronary artery flow velocity rose. On the contrary, carotid artery flow and brain and muscle tissue oxygenation measured by NIRS decreased significantly. Conclusions: Our new non-surgical AVF model is reproducible and demonstrated an acute decrease of brain and muscle perfusion.
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- MeSH
- Diagnostic Imaging methods instrumentation trends MeSH
- Photoplethysmography methods instrumentation utilization MeSH
- Skin Physiological Phenomena MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Optical Devices MeSH
- Perfusion Imaging methods utilization MeSH
- Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted MeSH
- Wounds and Injuries diagnosis MeSH
- Regional Blood Flow MeSH
- Heart Rate MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
