Military personnel often use ammunitions that contain lead. The present study aimed to identify the risks for lead exposure and lead poisoning among workers at indoor firing ranges. A special health examination, including blood lead level (BLL) testing, was performed for all 120 workers at the indoor firing ranges of the Republic of Korea's Air Force, Navy, and Armed Forces Athletic Corps. The overall mean BLL was 11.3 ± 9.4 µg/dL (range: 2.0-64.0 µg/dL). The arithmetic mean of the BLL for professional shooters belong to Armed Forces Athletic Corps was 14.0 ± 8.3 µg/dL, while those of shooting range managers and shooting range supervisors were 13.8 ± 11.1 µg/dL and 6.4 ± 3.1 µg/dL, respectively. One individual had a BLL of 64 µg/dL, and ultimately completed chelation treatment (with CaNa2-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) without any adverse effects. These findings indicate that indoor firing range workers are exposed to elevated levels of lead. Therefore, when constructing an indoor firing range, a specialist should be engaged to design and assess the ventilation system; and safety guidelines regarding ammunition and waste handling must be mandatory. Moreover, workplace environmental monitoring should be implemented for indoor firing ranges, and the workers should undergo regularly scheduled special health examinations.
Adult ; Air Pollutants/*blood ; Air Pollution, Indoor ; Drinking ; Edetic Acid/chemistry ; Female ; Firearms ; Humans ; Lead/*blood/chemistry ; Male ; Military Personnel ; Occupational Exposure/*analysis ; Odds Ratio ; Republic of Korea ; Risk Factors ; Spectrophotometry, Atomic ; Young Adult

To establish an EDTA complexation extraction pretreatment combining with GFAAS method for the determination of residual aluminium ion in Huoxiang zhengqi pellets without digestive treatment, systematical investigation was made on sample preparation, and EDTA was used for the complexation extraction of residual aluminium ion in samples. The pH, concentration and volume of extraction solution, the temperature and time of microwave extraction, and graphite furnace temperature program were investigated. The results were compared with the microwave digestion. It was showed that, 0.1 g of sample weight was added in 20 mL 0.05 mol x L(-1) EDTA solution (pH 3.5), followed by heating at 150 degrees C for 10 min in the microwave extraction device. The determination of GFAAS was performed at optimized detection wavelength (257.4 nm) as well as graphite furnace temperature program, the detection limits and quantification limits were 2.37 μg x L(-1) and 7.89 μg x L(-1), respectively. The precision (RSD) was less than 2.3%. The average recovery was 96.9% -101%. The present method is easy, rapid and accurate for the determination of residual aluminium ion in Huoxiang zhengqi pellets.
Aluminum ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; Drug Contamination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; Edetic Acid ; chemistry ; Graphite ; chemistry ; Spectrophotometry, Atomic ; methods ; Temperature

BACKGROUND: We evaluated the combined use of the modified Hodge test (MHT) and carbapenemase inhibition test (CIT) using phenylboronic acid (PBA) and EDTA to detect carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) and metallo-beta-lactamase (MBL)-producing Pseudomonas spp. METHODS: A total of 49 isolates of CPE (15 Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase [KPC], 5 Guiana extended-spectrum beta-lactamase [GES]-5, 9 New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase [NDM]-1, 5 Verona integron-encoded metallo-beta-lactamase [VIM]-2, 3 imipenem-hydrolyzing beta-lactamase [IMP], and 12 oxacillinase [OXA]-48-like), 25 isolates of MBL-producing Pseudomonas spp. (14 VIM-2 and 11 IMP), and 35 carbapenemase-negative controls were included. The MHT was performed for all isolates as recommended by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. Enhanced growth of the indicator strain was measured in mm with a ruler. The CIT was performed by directly dripping PBA and EDTA solutions onto carbapenem disks that were placed on Mueller-Hinton agar plates seeded with the test strain. RESULTS: Considering the results of the MHT with the ertapenem disk in Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas spp., the CIT with the meropenem disk in Enterobacteriaceae, and the imipenem disk in Pseudomonas spp., three combined disk tests, namely MHT-positive plus PBA-positive, EDTA-positive, and MHT-positive plus PBA-negative plus EDTA-negative, had excellent sensitivity and specificity for the detection of KPC- (100% sensitivity and 100% specificity), MBL- (94% sensitivity and 100% specificity), and OXA-48-like-producing isolates (100% sensitivity and 100% specificity), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Combined use of the MHT and CIT with PBA and EDTA, for the detection of CPE and MBL-producing Pseudomonas spp., is effective in detecting and characterizing carbapenemases in routine laboratories.
Bacterial Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors/*metabolism ; Boronic Acids/chemistry/pharmacology ; Disk Diffusion Antimicrobial Tests/*methods ; Edetic Acid/chemistry/pharmacology ; Enterobacteriaceae/drug effects/*enzymology ; Enterobacteriaceae Infections/diagnosis ; Humans ; Pseudomonas/drug effects/*enzymology ; Pseudomonas Infections/diagnosis ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; beta-Lactamases/chemistry/*metabolism

The marine biological source of mineral drugs recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010 version) mainly including pearl, nacre, clam shell, common oyster shell, ark shell, cuttle bone, and sea-ear shell are widely used in clinical. Calcium carbonate and a small amount of protein are the main components in this type of drugs. In this paper, a systematical and comparable study were carried out by determination of calcium carbonate by EDTA titration method, the crystal of calcium carbonate by X-Ray powder diffraction and the total amino acids (TAAs) of the hydrolyzed samples by ultraviolet spectrophotometry method. As a result, the crystal structure is calcite for common oyster shell, mixture of calcite and aragonite for nacre and sea-ear shell, aragonite for the other drugs. The content of calcium carbonate ranged from 86% to 96%. Cuttle bone has the highest amount of TAAs among the seven drugs which reached 1.7% while clam shell has the lowest content of 0.16% on average. In conclusion, an effective method was developed for the quality control of marine mineral drugs by comprehensive analysis of calcium carbonate and TAAs in the seven marine mineral drugs.
Amino Acids ; analysis ; chemistry ; Animal Shells ; chemistry ; Animals ; Calcium Carbonate ; analysis ; chemistry ; Crystallization ; Edetic Acid ; chemistry ; Mollusca ; chemistry ; classification ; Pharmaceutical Preparations ; analysis ; chemistry ; standards ; Quality Control ; Reproducibility of Results ; Seawater ; Species Specificity ; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet ; X-Ray Diffraction

The concentrations of heavy metals in the extracting solutions of traditional Chinese medicine are usually very low. Furthermore, a vast number of organic components contained in the extracting solutions would be able to coordinate with heavy metals, which might lead to great difficulty in high efficient removal of them from the extracting solutions. This paper was focused on the removal of heavy metals of low concentrations from the extracting solution of Angelica sinensis by applying an EDTA-modified chitosan magnetic adsorbent (EDTA-modified chitosan/SiO2/Fe3O4, abbreviated as EDCMS). The results showed that EDCMS exhibited high efficiency for the removal of heavy metals, such as Cu, Cd and Pb, e.g. the removal percentage of Cd and Pb reached 90% and 94.7%, respectively. Besides, some amounts of other heavy metals like Zn and Mn were also removed by EDCMS. In addition, the total solid contents, the amount of ferulic acid and the HPLC fingerprints of the extracting solution were not changed significantly during the heavy metal removal process. These results indicate that EDCMS may act as an applicable and efficient candidate for the removal of heavy metals from the extracting solution of A. sinensis.
Adsorption ; Angelica sinensis ; chemistry ; Chitosan ; chemistry ; Drug Contamination ; prevention & control ; Edetic Acid ; analogs & derivatives ; chemistry ; Magnetics ; methods ; Metals, Heavy ; chemistry ; isolation & purification

Routine protein assays are usually affected with various compounds, and we need to use different protein quantification protocol to deal with different interference. In order to simplify the procedure, we developed a new method, in which the components and concentrations of the reagents were modified mainly based on classic Folin-Ciocalteu's reagent for reducing the susceptibility to interfering substances. Standard curves of the new method were established with different levels of bovine serum albumin, and then, we assessed and evaluated the detectable wavelengths and stability. In particular, the tolerability to several interfering substances was analyzed by using cytolysis solutions containing different chemicals. Our data in this study show that the new method could be applied to detecting protein concentrations accurately, even in the presence of surfactants such as 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), 2% NP-40, or 1% TrintonX-100, chelators of 25 mmol/L EDTA or 1 mmol/L Ethylene glycol bis (2-aminoethyl) tetraacetic acid (EGTA), reductants of 1 mmol/L Dithiothretol (DTT) orbeta-Mercaptoethanol (ME), or nitrogen-containing compounds of 0.5 mol/L ammonium sulphate or 4 mol/L urea. Taken together, these results indicate that the new approach significantly improves the tolerance to the interfering substances, which could be potentially useful in measuring the contents of proteins interfered with such substances.
Animals ; Edetic Acid ; chemistry ; Egtazic Acid ; chemistry ; Indicators and Reagents ; chemistry ; Molybdenum ; chemistry ; Proteins ; analysis ; Serum Albumin, Bovine ; analysis ; Surface-Active Agents ; chemistry ; Tungsten Compounds ; chemistry

BACKGROUND: Specimen requirements such as type of anticoagulant and number of tube for body fluid analysis vary with specimen type and requested laboratory tests. We compared the results of six clinical chemistry tests between EDTA anticoagulated and anticoagulant-free body fluids. METHODS: A total of 191 body fluids (45 pleural, 28 bronchoalveolar lavage, 35 peritoneal, 45 peritosol, and 38 synovial fluids) were aliquoted into EDTA tubes and anticoagulant-free tubes, and were simultaneously tested for total protein, albumin, glucose, lactate dehydrogenase, adenosine deaminase, and amylase. RESULTS: The coefficient of determination (R2) for all six clinical chemistry test results between EDTA anticoagulated and anticoagulant-free body fluids are more than 0.95 with the exception of glucose in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (R2= 0.78). CONCLUSIONS: EDTA anticoagulated specimen could be used for testing routinely requested clinical chemistry tests in body fluid analysis, that only one tube of specimen is necessary to perform cell count, differential count, and clinical chemistry tests.
Adenosine Deaminase ; Anticoagulants ; Body Fluids ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage ; Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid ; Cell Count ; Chemistry, Clinical ; Clinical Chemistry Tests ; Edetic Acid ; Glucose ; L-Lactate Dehydrogenase

BACKGROUNDThe over increase of sympathetic drive in chronic heart failure (CHF) is with main responsibility for the deterioration and mortality of the disease. Myocardial (123)I-metaiodobenzylganidine (MIBG) scintigraphy is a non-invasive convenient method to assess sympathetic dysfunction in patients with CHF. The aim of the study was to detect if sympathetic antidrive analysed through myocardial MIBG scintigraphy plays a crucial role in long-term prognosis in CHF.

METHODSSixty-four enrolled patients underwent myocardial MIBG scintigraphy, and their plasma concentration of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), myocardial contractile reserve (MCR), rest left ventricular ejection fraction (rest LVEF) and New York Heart Association (NYHA) function class were assessed. They were separated into groups according to median of above parameters. Endpoint was cardiac death and it was recorded in each group during average 54 months' follow-up.

RESULTSAt the end of follow-up, group with lower ratio of heart/mediastinum (H/M) had more death events (P = 0.001), and its BNP level was higher and MCR level was lower (P = 0.003 and 0.001, respectively); but its rest LVEF and NYHA function class were not significantly different. H/M, MCR and BNP correlated closely with death (P = 0.000, 0.000 and 0.001, respectively). Among the three indicators the death risk ratio (RR) of H/M was 4.66, more than MCR and BNP (1.88 and 2.56, respectively). However, rest LVEF and NYHA function class did not correlate with death (P = 0.652 and 0.384, respectively). The group with lower H/M and MCR, higher BNP had much more death than that with higher H/M and MCR, lower BNP, the RR being 12.8.

CONCLUSIONSMyocardial MIBG scintigraphy is a long-term prognostic marker in CHF. BNP, MCR are also excellent predictors of long-term prognosis in CHF, but not stronger than myocardial MIBG scintigraphy. If the three indicators were joined together, the prediction would become most powerful. Rest LVEF and NYHA have no significance in long-term prediction of CHF.

3-Iodobenzylguanidine ; Adult ; Aged ; Aprotinin ; chemistry ; Brain ; metabolism ; Echocardiography ; Edetic Acid ; chemistry ; Female ; Heart Failure ; metabolism ; pathology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging ; methods ; Natriuretic Peptides ; metabolism ; Prognosis ; Prospective Studies

OBJECTIVETo investigate the physicochemical constants such as equilibrium solubility and apparent partition coefficients (Papp), and study the effects of temperature, pH value and antioxidants on the stability of breviscapine solution.

METHODThe equilibrium solubility of breviscapine in various medium and the Papp of breviscapine under different pH conditions were determinated by RP-HPLC, and the effects of temperature, pH value and antioxidants on the stability of solution were investigated by taking change rates of drug content in 10 h as detection index.

RESULTThe equilibrium solubility of breviscapine in saline, distilled water, pH 7.0 PBS, pH 7.5 PBS, Ringer's fluid, methanol and ethanol were (20.68 +/- 1.12), (79.35 +/- 0.68), (7954.62 +/- 34.90), (18,708.17 +/- 253.05), (3670.40 +/- 27.64), (210.71 +/- 0.74), (184.34 +/- 1.47) mg x L(-1) respectively; while in pH value 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.5, 7.0 solution, the Papp were 5.362, 0.542, 0.371, 0.328 and 0.143 respectively. The stability of breviscapine in the Ringer's fluid was the worst and the stability was significantly decreased with the increase of temperature and pH value and it could be improved by EDTA-2Na.

CONCLUSIONThe established HPLC assay was accurate and convenient. The Papp of breviscapine is decreased by increased the pH value, while in the aqueous solution the equilibrium solubility of breviscapine increase with the pH in crese. EDTA-2Na can be used as an antioxidant of breviscapine solution.

Antioxidants ; chemistry ; Chemical Phenomena ; Drug Stability ; Edetic Acid ; chemistry ; Flavonoids ; chemistry ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Solutions ; Solvents ; chemistry ; Temperature

OBJECTIVETo observe the different impacts of electrolytic iron, FeSO4, and NaFeEDTA on body iron store of anemic school students.

METHODSFour hundreds anemic students at the age of 11-18 years were divided into four groups. Of which, three consumed different iron fortificants from wheat flour as food vehicle for six months and one consumed non-fortified flour (control). The fortification level of electrolytic iron, FeSO4, and NaFeEDTA was 60 mg Fe/kg, 30 mg Fe/kg, and 20 mg Fe/kg, respectively. Blood samples were collected at 0, 2, 4, and 6 months and hemoglobin (Hb), serum ferritin (SF), and transferrin receptor (TfR) were measured.

RESULTSThe hemoglobin levels in three intervention groups increased, the increments of Hb in the NaFeEDTA group were significantly higher than that in the other groups. SF and TfR levels increased in the tested groups and body iron store in the NaFeEDTA group was higher than that in the other groups. These parameters did not show any significant changes in the control group.

CONCLUSIONNaFeEDTA and FeSO4 fortified wheat flour has positive impacts on iron status in anemic students and NaFeEDTA is more effective than FeSO4, while electrolytic iron is less effective in improving iron store in anemic students.

Adolescent ; Anemia, Iron-Deficiency ; drug therapy ; Child ; Dietary Supplements ; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ; Edetic Acid ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Female ; Ferric Compounds ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Flour ; analysis ; Food, Fortified ; Humans ; Iron ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Iron, Dietary ; Male ; Nutritional Status ; Triticum