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PubMedDate not supplied

Maximizing patient safety: filter needle use with glass ampules.

Particle contamination of medications obtained from glass ampules can pose serious hazards to patients. Particle contamination may be reduced by using a filter needle when obtaining medication from glass ampules prior to administration. The purpose of this article is 2-fold, to educate nursing staff caring for neonates about (1) the potential risk and resultant complications related to particle contamination and the benefit of utilizing a filter needle when obtaining medication from glass ampules, prior to administration of the medication to patients, and (2) the construction of a unit-specific filter needle protocol. The article promotes the continued change in nursing practice regarding nurses erring on the side of safety, with the ultimate goal of improving patient safety and outcome.

Clinical Protocols↗

PubMed1976

Fertility of frozen bovine spermatozoa packaged in continental straws or ampules.

Fertility of semen frozen in .25-ml Continental straws or 1.0-ml ampules was compared in two field trials. Semen from four bulls was used to inseminate 574 cows over 38 days in Trial 1. Rates of pregnancy for cows inseminated with semen in straws or ampules were 54 and 32% for first-service inseminations and 70 and 50% at the end of the breeding period. Semen from one bull was used to inseminate 204 cows over 44 days in Trial 2. Rates of pregnancy from single inseminations averaged 58 and 44%, while corresponding values at the end of the breeding period were 83 and 67% for semen in straws and ampules.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Validation of a microwave sterilizer for injection ampules.

A program for validating the microwave sterilizer, which is a new type of sterilizer, was established and implemented. This program includes the following tests specific to microwave sterilizers: the internal pressure strength of ampules, the acceptable range of sterilizing temperature, performance and calibration of the infrared thermometer and the plane blackbody, maintaining of sterilizing temperature, the processing speed (sterilizing time), the unacceptable ampules selection mechanism, microwave leaks, and a microbiological challenge test of the ampule head space using a biological indicator. Injectable preparations of mecobalamin and diprophylline were used as models for validation of the microwave sterilizer. The bioburden approach was used for injectable mecobalamin preparation, and the over-kill approach was used for injectable diprophylline preparation. The basis for practical use of this microwave sterilizer has been confirmed by the establishment and implementation of this validation program.

Drug Packaging↗

PubMed1982

Qualitative ampule and multitest for beta-lactam residues in fluid milk products: collaborative study.

A collaborative study was performed on a rapid Bacillus stearothermophilus agar diffusion ampule method to detect low levels of penicillin G in 7 types of fluid milk products. A multitest technique for processing a large number of samples simultaneously was also studied. Slight modifications were made in the original method to establish more uniformity and to eliminate doubtful responses by specifying a confirmation procedure. Twenty samples spiked with penicillin G (0.000 to 0.008 IU/mL) and tetracycline hydrochloride were frozen and sent to 20 laboratories in the ampule test, and 16 laboratories in the multitest. Each analyst was asked to do a screening run and a confirmation run. Results were reported by color reaction and also as positive or negative for beta-lactam inhibitors. The concentrations (penicillin G) where percent positive results equal 100 or not significantly less than 100 (alpha = 0.05) ranged from 0.005 to 0.007 IU/mL in the ampule test and from 0.004 to 0.007 IU/mL in the multitest. Both techniques have been adopted official first action.

Animals↗

PubMed1976

Stability and precision of a new ampuled quality-control system for pH and blood-gas measurements.

We describe an evaluation of the in-use stability and short-term precision of a three-level ampuled quality-control system for monitoring pH, pCO2, and pO2 measurements on clinical blood-gas analyzers. In three hospital laboratories, 324 such ampuls were opened and allowed to stand with their contents exposed to atmospheric conditions for accurately timed intervals up to 240 s. Contents were then analyzed for pH, pCO2, and pO2. Student's t-test was used to evaluate the significance of differences observed in recoveries after time exposure. At a signifcance level of P less than or equal to 0.05, the only significant changes observed throughout the first minute of exposure were average pO2 increases of 180 Pa (1.4 mmHg) (+ 1.4%) and 230 Pa (1.7 mmHg) (+ 2.9%) at levels of 13.4 and 7.7 kPa kPa (101 and 58 mmHg), respectively. The ampuled system was found to be stable precise convenient, and suitable for use in the routine laboratory.

Autoanalysis↗

PubMed2000

Small ampullate glands of Nephila clavipes.

The small ampullate glands of the orb-web spider, Nephila clavipes, have been studied and compared to other of the silk producing glands from this organism. They exhibit the same gross morphological features of the other glands. Electrophoretic analyses show that the gland's luminal contents migrate as a single band, while the contents of the secretory epithelium reveal a step-ladder array of peptides in addition to the full size product. Previous studies from our laboratory identified these peptides as products generated by translational pauses. This alternate mode of translation is typical of fibroin synthesis in all the spider glands thus far studied as well as in those of the silkworm. The correlation of the peptides to the process of fibroin synthesis is shown through experimental evidence in this paper. The gradual ultrastructural changes in Golgi vesicles elicited by the fibroin synthesis stimulus can be seen in this paper. The response to stimulation is of a higher magnitude in these glands than in any of those previously analyzed. These studies show the small ampullate glands are a promising and certainly exploitable model system for studies on the synthesis of tissue-specific protein product and its control. J. Exp. Zool. 286:114-119, 2000.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Spider minor ampullate silk proteins contain new repetitive sequences and highly conserved non-silk-like "spacer regions".

Spider minor ampullate silk is a strong non-elastic deformably stretchable silk used in web formation. This silk from Nephila clavipes is composed of two proteins, MiSp 1 and 2, whose transcripts are 9.5 and 7.5 kb, respectively, as determined by Northern blots. Both MiSp proteins are organized into a predominantly repetitive region and a small nonrepetitive carboxy terminal region. These highly repetitive regions are composed mainly of glycine and alanine, but also contain tyrosine, glutamine, and arginine. The sequences are mainly GGX and GA repeats. The repetitive regions are interrupted by nonrepetitive serine-rich spacer regions. Although the sequences of the spacer regions differ from the repetitive regions, sequences of the spacers from different regions of the proteins are nearly identical. The sequence differences between major and minor ampullate silks may explain the differing mechanical properties of the fibers.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2003

From EST sequence to spider silk spinning: identification and molecular characterisation of Nephila senegalensis major ampullate gland peroxidase NsPox.

Spider dragline silk is renowned as one of the toughest materials of its kind. In nature, spider silks are spun out of aqueous solutions under environmental conditions. This is in contrast to production of most synthetic fibres, where hazardous solvents, high temperatures and pressure are used. In order to identify some of the chemical processes involved in spider silk spinning, we have produced a collection of cDNA sequences from specific regions of Nephila senegalensis major ampullate gland. We examined in detail the sequence and expression of a putative Nephila senegalensis peroxidase gene (NsPox) from our EST collection. NsPox encodes a protein with similarity to Drosophila melanogaster and Aedes aegypti peroxidases. Northern analysis and in situ localisation experiments revealed that NsPox is expressed in major and minor ampullate glands of the spider where the main components of the dragline silk are produced. We suggest that NsPox plays a role in dragline silk fibre formation and/or processing.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Conserved C-termini of Spidroins are secreted by the major ampullate glands and retained in the silk thread.

The C-termini of Spidroins produced in the major and minor ampullate glands of spiders are highly conserved. Despite this conservation, no corresponding peptides have been identified in the spinning dopes or the silk filaments so far. To prove their presence or absence, polyclonal antibodies derived against fusion proteins containing the conserved C-terminal regions of both Spidroin 1 and 2 from the spider Nephila clavipes were generated. The antibodies reacted with high molecular weight polypeptides of the corresponding gland extracts and solubilized major ampullate filament and in addition to filament cross-sections. This demonstrates the existence of C-terminal specific peptides in the spinning dope and the mature Spidroins. Both the fusion proteins as well as the proteins contained within the gland lumen showed a reduction in their size under reducing conditions indicating the presence of disulfide bonds. Their high conservation and the biochemical data suggest crucial roles the C-termini play in the formation and/or structure of the corresponding silk filaments.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Secondary structures and conformational changes in flagelliform, cylindrical, major, and minor ampullate silk proteins. Temperature and concentration effects.

Orb weaver spiders use exceptionally complex spinning processes to transform soluble silk proteins into solid fibers with specific functions and mechanical properties. In this study, to understand the nature of this transformation we investigated the structural changes of the soluble silk proteins from the major ampullate gland (web radial threads and spider safety line); flagelliform gland (web sticky spiral threads); minor ampullate gland (web auxiliary spiral threads); and cylindrical gland (egg sac silk). Using circular dichroism, we elucidated (i) the different structures and folds for the various silk proteins; (ii) irreversible temperature-induced transitions of the various silk structures toward beta-sheet-rich final states; and (iii) the role of protein concentration in silk storage and transport. We discuss the implication of these results in the spinning process and a possible mechanism for temperature-induced beta-sheet formation.

Amino Acids↗

PubMed1985

An economic comparison of Tubex injection systems with traditional ampuls and vials.

A time and motion study was performed at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to measure and compare the direct and indirect costs of the original Tubex and Tubex Fast-Trak injection systems with comparable costs associated with single dose ampuls, vials, and multi-dose vials. Data collection involved observation of 170 injections prepared by 29 nurses on two oncology units over a 7-week period. The time and nondrug supply costs of the Tubex Fast-Trak were lower than those of all other injection systems observed, including the original Tubex. Although the drug acquisition component was higher for the Tubex systems than for conventional injection methods, an analysis of the total cost of the use of Tubex Fast-Trak demonstrated that on an annual basis, the system is nearly equal in cost to the use of single ampuls and vials. Important advantages of the prefilled cartridge system should be considered in addition to labor, supply, and drug costs when selecting cost-effective injection systems. Systems like Tubex offer advantages that may lower total cost of care, such as reduction in wastage, pilferage, contamination, dosage error, and improved cost allocation accuracy. When polled about their opinion, the majority of nurses who participated in the study indicated that Tubex Fast-Trek was their first choice over other injection methods observed.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

PubMed2004

Brown widow (Latrodectus geometricus) major ampullate silk protein and its material properties.

Major ampullate (dragline) silk is the main web component as well as the silk that spiders use for a lifeline when they fall. This silk has a breaking stress of 4.6 GPa, which is similar to that of Kevlar. The majority of the previous mechanical testing studies involved the major ampullate silk from orb-weaving spiders. To date, there have been no reports on dragline silk mechanical properties from a cob-weaver, brown widow Latrodectus geometricus. L. geometricus dragline was found to be composed of MaSp1, MaSp2, and MaSp-like proteins all of which have highly conserved amino acid motifs, especially the GGX, GA and poly A for MaSp1 and GPGGX and poly A for MaSp2. These sequences are the same as those found in the silks of orb-weaving spiders. To determine if protein sequences influence the material properties of the silk, mechanical testing was performed on single strands of silk fibers from adult female L. geometricus spiders. The 3 cm long silk fibers were tested for breaking stress and strain with a MTS Synergie 100 mechanical testing system using a 50 g load cell with the cross-head speed set at 10 mm/min. The breaking stress and strain were measured for 20 replicate samples and averaged. The values of 0.83 +/- 0.19 GPa for stress and 0.14 +/- 0.06 for strain shows that brown widow dragline is weaker than the orb-weaving spiders.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of high-temperature and short-time sterilization of injection ampules by microwave heating.

The high-temperature and short-time sterilization by microwave heating with a continuous microwave sterilizer (MWS) was evaluated. The evaluation were performed with respect to: [1] lethal effect against microorganisms corresponding to F-value, and [2] reliability of MWS sterilization process. Bacillus stearothermophilus ATCC 7953 spores were used as the biological indicator and the heat-resistance of spores was evaluated with conventional heating method (121-129 degrees C). In MWS sterilization (125-135 degrees C), the actual lethal effect against B. stearothermophilus spores was almost in agreement with the F-value and the survival curve against the F-value was quite consistent with that for the autoclave. These results suggest that the actual lethal effect could be estimated by the F-value with heat-resistance parameters of spores from lower than actual temperatures and that there was no nonthermal effect of the microwave on B. stearothermophilus spores. The reliability of sterilization with the MWS was confirmed using more than 25,000 test ampules containing biological indicators. All biological indicators were killed, thus the present study shows that the MWS was completely reliable for all ampules.

Geobacillus stearothermophilus↗

PubMed1997

Non-periodic lattice crystals in the hierarchical microstructure of spider (major ampullate) silk.

A commonly adopted model for the microstructure of Nephila clavipes major ampullate silk (MAS) is similar to that used for Bombyx mori (silkworm) silk: a simple composite wherein discrete, essentially perfect crystals are dispersed throughout an amorphous protein matrix. However, inconsistencies arise when researchers using complementary microstructural characterisation techniques attempt to explain their results within that framework. We present here the findings of our parallel studies in x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and molecular modeling. These results, combined with other data gleaned from the literature, lead us to propose a revised description of the spider silk microstructure. The new model recognizes that the 70-500 nm sized ordered regions in MAS cannot be constructed from a simple motif of repeating monomers, and develops the concept of non-periodic lattice (NPL) crystals to characterize these structures. The local composition, symmetry, and perfection of order vary over distances that are small compared to the size of an NPL crystal.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

Ultrastructure of the major ampullate gland of the black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus.

Silk production in the spider occurs within specialized glands that are capable of the synthesis of large fibrous proteins and the post-translational processing of those proteins to form an insoluble fiber. The major ampullate gland of Latrodectus hesperus (black widow) is similar in morphology to those found in the Araneid spiders. The tail domain of this gland is highly protein synthetic, giving rise to a core, fibrous protein product. In addition to a storage function, the ampulla region also synthesizes and exports an electron dense material that appears to form a 'coat' surrounding the silk generated within the tail. The duct of the gland consists of at least two distinct cell types: one type contains 'honeycomb' vesicles of unknown function, while the other possesses elaborate apical microvilli that may be involved in the reabsorption of water and subsequent dehydration of the silk. As the silk product transits through these various stages of assembly, it can been seen to undergo a condensation or concentration, possibly reflecting the influence of both the shear forces induced by movement into the duct and the dehydration that is thought to occur there.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Analysis of major ampullate silk cDNAs from two non-orb-weaving spiders.

Compared to other arthropods, spiders are unique in their use of silk throughout their life span and the extraordinary mechanical properties of the silk threads they produce. Studies on orb-weaving spider silk proteins have shown that silk proteins are composed of highly repetitive regions, characterized by alanine and glycine-rich units. We have isolated and sequenced four partial cDNA clones representing major ampullate spider silk gene transcripts from two non-orb weavers: three for Kukulcania hibernalis and one for Agelenopsis aperta. These cDNA sequences were compared to each other, as well as to the previously published orb-weaver silk gene sequences. The results indicate that the repeats encoding conserved amino acid motifs such as polyA and polyGA that are characteristic of some orb-weaving spider silks are also found in some of the cDNAs reported in this study. However, we also found other motifs such as polyGS and polyGV in the cDNA sequences from the two non-orb-weaving spiders. The amino acid composition of the silk gland extracts shows that alanine and glycine are the major components of the silk of these two non-orb weavers as is the case in orb-weaver silks. Sequence alignment shows that A. aperta's cDNA displays a C-terminal encoding region that is about 44% similar to the one present in N. clavipes's MaSp1 cDNA. In addition, as previously observed for spider silk sequences, the analysis of the codon usage for these four cDNAs demonstrates a bias for A or T in the wobble base position.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed1969

Changes in fine structure during silk protein production in the ampullate gland of the spider Araneus sericatus.

The ampullate silk gland of the spider, Araneus sericatus, produces the silk fiber for the scaffolding of the web. The fine structure of the various parts of the gland is described. The distal portion of the duct consist of a tube of epithelial cells which appear to secrete a substance which forms the tunica intima of the duct wall. At the proximal end of the duct there is a region of secretory cells. The epithelium of the sac portion contains five morphologically distinct types of granules. The bulk of the synthesis of silk occurs in the tail of the gland, and in this region only a single type of secretory droplet is seen in the epithelium. Protein synthesis can be stimulated by the injection of 1 mg/kg acetylcholine into the body fluids. 10 min after injection, much of the protein stored in the cytoplasm of the epithelial cells has been secreted into the lumen. 20 min after stimulation, the ergastoplasmic sacs form large whorls in the cytoplasm. Protein, similar in electron-opacity to protein found in the lumen, begins to form in that portion of the cytoplasm which is enclosed by the whorls. The limiting membrane of these droplets is formed by ergastoplasmic membranes which lose their ribosomes. No Golgi material has been found in these cells. Protein appears to be manufactured in the cytoplasm of the tail cells in a form which is ready for secretion.

Acetylcholine↗

PubMed1983

Evaluation of calcium alginate-tipped aluminum swabs transported in Culturettes containing ampules of 2-sucrose phosphate medium for recovery of Chlamydia trachomatis.

Two calcium alginate-tipped wire swab specimens were obtained from 94 men and 106 women attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic. One swab was extracted thoroughly in 2-sucrose phosphate (2SP) immediately after obtaining the specimen. The second swab was returned to the Culturette cylinder (Marion Scientific, Kansas City, MO), and the ampule containing 2SP was crushed to moisten the swab during transport to the laboratory. After receipt in the laboratory, the swab was removed from the Culturette and extracted into 2 mL of 2SP. Both specimens then were cultured for the presence of Chlamydia trachomatis in McCoy's cells. C. trachomatis was recovered from 22 of 94 men (23.4%); 16 isolates came from both the Culturette swabs and vials. Six isolates were recovered exclusively from vials. Of 106 women, 13 (12.3%) were positive for C. trachomatis. In five instances, both vials and swabs yielded C. trachomatis; the organism was recovered eight times from vials but not swabs. The 2SP transport system for the 200 specimens was superior to the Culturettes for the recovery of C. trachomatis (P less than 0.01). Based on our results, swab specimens taken for laboratory diagnosis of C. trachomatis should be extracted immediately after collection in a vial containing 2SP. In addition, experiments comparing swab fibers indicated that there was a trend indicating higher inclusion counts with rayon-tipped swabs, compared with those containing calcium alginate. Because of possible toxicity of substances in calcium alginate fibers for several organisms causing sexually transmitted disease, rayon-tipped swabs or swabs of other composition should be used.

Alginates↗