Intra-Individual Variability in Cognitive Performance Can Befuddle the Study of Cognitive Impairments and Decline

Using group-aggregated results and snapshot assessments of cognitive performance may prove problematic if the assessed construct shows substantial and rapid variation over time. To illustrate the significance of this issue, we analyzed cognitive performance data of ten older adults undergoing daily computerized cognitive assessments (CogState Brief Battery) for 36–93 days. In all cases, the day-to-day intra-individual variability was substantial when compared with group-level, between-person variability. This indicates that the results of studies using single snapshot assessments of cognitive functioning should be interpreted with caution. Additionally, group-aggregated measures of cognitive performance may not directly extrapolate to an individual.

Announcing new members of the Advisory Editorial Board

We on the Editorial Board of "Anaesthesiology Intensive Therapy" are committed to continuous improvement of the quality of our journal, and thus we are excited that two excellent clinician-scientists have joined us in this endeavour. It is our great honour to announce that Doctor Thomas Kander of Lund University (Sweden) and Doctor Dan Drzymal-ski of Tufts Medical Center (Boston, Massachusetts) have become members of the Advisory Editorial Board of "Anaesthesio-logy Intensive Therapy".

The plague of unexpected drug recalls and the pandemic of falsified medications in cardiovascular medicine as a threat to patient safety and global public health: A brief review

Valsartan, losartan, and irbesartan, are widely used in the treatment strategies of cardiovascular medicine diseases, including hypertension and heart failure. Recently, many formulations for the aforementioned diseases contained active pharmaceutical ingredients and had been abruptly recalled from the market due to safety concerns mainly associated with unwanted impurities — nitrosamines, which are highly carcinogenic substances accidentally produced during manufacturing. Along with cardiovascular medications, formulations containing ranitidine were also recalled from the market. This poses a particular threat to public health due to the non-prescription status of these drugs. Regulatory authorities, including the Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency among others, have taken action to minimize patient risk and improve the manufacturing quality as well as re-checking current guidelines and recommendations. While these steps are necessary to avoid further recalls, authorities should remember the growing concerns of patients regarding the safety and efficacy of pharmacotherapy. Apart from the genuine manufacturing mistakes mentioned above, falsified and counterfeit medications should be at the heart of global attention. The lack of a well-accepted definition of falsified/counterfeit medications has impeded political and scientific efforts to mitigate risk of this phenomenon. Falsified Medicines Directive should be considered the most pivotal legislation recently enacted to harmonize international cooperation. In summary, one should remember that only international and direct collaboration between patients, stakeholders, and authorities be considered a remedy for a pandemic of falsified medicines and plague of unexpected recalls due to safety concerns.

Patients' Perspective And Usefulness Of Pictograms In Short-Term Antibiotic Therapy - Multicenter, Randomized Trial

PURPOSE

To evaluate the practical utility of pharmaceutical pictograms in routine practice in community pharmacy. The primary outcome (composite endpoint) consisted of three elements: i) complete use of the whole package of medication, ii) taking the recommended dose twice a day, and iii) subjective assessment of patients' perspective on medical information about antibiotic therapy obtained during the pharmacy consultation measured by Net Promoter Score in scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is the lowest and 10 the highest possible rating.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A multicenter, randomized controlled study was conducted. Community pharmacies (n = 64) which agreed to participate in the study were assigned to one of two groups: i) study - providing an antibiotic with pictograms placed on the external packaging of the medicinal product containing information about drug regimen (n = 32); or ii) control - providing an antibiotic according to usual pharmacy practice (n = 32). Two semi-structured interviews were performed. Data were collected from 199 patients with a mean age ± SD of 45.5 ± 17.0 years.

RESULTS

In the control group, 15.7% of participants discontinued therapy before using the whole package compared with 13.4% of participants in the study group. In the control group, 81.3% of patients reported that they always took the medication twice a day as recommended by their healthcare providers compared with 80.4% of patients in the study group. The Net Promoter Score was higher for pharmacy practice with than without pictograms (71.3% vs 51.5%, respectively, p<0.005). The chance that a patient was an advocate of pharmaceutical services (scores 9 and 10) was twice as likely in the case of pharmaceutical practice supported by pictograms (p<0.02). The composite endpoint was achieved more frequently in the population using pictograms, however this difference was not statistically significant (p<0.34).

CONCLUSION

The pharmaceutical pictograms are readily accepted by patients and could prove to be a valuable support for pharmacists in conducting pharmaceutical care. Further representative research is needed to evaluate the true effectiveness of this solution.

An ion pair receptor facilitating the extraction of chloride salt from the aqueous to the organic phase

A squaramide supported molecular receptor with the ability to extract chloride salt from the aqueous to the organic phase was synthesized and characterized.

Cooperative ion pair recognition by multitopic l-ornithine based salt receptors

The development of l-ornithine based multitopic receptors allowed us to obtain an effective and selective salt receptor.

Ion pair binding by an l-tyrosine-based polymerizable molecular receptor

A polymerizable molecular receptor able to bind ion pairs and new functional polymers containing the receptor units were synthesized and characterized.