Urine Reagent Strip (Blood-Ketone-Glucose-Protein-Leukocyte-Bilirubin)

Introduction and Objective: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are a major cause of patient morbidity and mortality. Despite many attempts to design biomaterials that might reduce the risk, none has had a profound impact on reducing the incidence of this most common nosocomial infection. Recent in vitro work, however, has shown promise for a silver-based biomaterial coating composed of methoxylated polyethylene glycol 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (mPEG-DOPA(3)) in reducing uropathogen attachment and biofilm formation. The aim of this work was to investigate whether these results translate into a meaningful impact on infection development and bacterial adherence in an in vivo rabbit model. Materials and Methods: New Zealand white rabbits were randomized into groups of 12 and had the following catheters inserted: Group 1-uncoated polyurethane, Group 2-Coating A (mPEG-DOPA(3) + 2 mg/mL AgNO3), and Group 3-Coating B (mPEG-DOPA(3) + 10 mg/mL AgNO3). Each rabbit was challenged with 10(8) colony-forming units of Escherichia coli GR-12 instilled directly into the bladder at the time of catheter insertion and urine was monitored over 7 days for bacterial counts. Catheters were retrieved and evaluated for encrustation and attachment analysis, and tissues collected for histopathologic characterization and bacterial invasion. Results: Urinary bacterial colony counts were lower among rabbits in the Coating A group vs controls (4/11 vs 10/12, respectively) (p = 0.029), and there were fewer rabbits with invasive infections (3/12 vs 9/12, p = 0.02). More encrustation was observed among animals in the Coating B group vs controls (7.22 vs 2.69 mg/cm(2), p = 0.033). There were no significant differences in tissue effects between groups. Conclusions: The use of a mPEG-DOPA(3) urinary catheter coating effectively reduced urinary pathogen counts, while not causing adverse tissue effects in this model. Further clinical evaluation is warranted.

In this study, goethiete (alpha-FeOOH) -biochar (BC) composites were successfully developed from a coprecipitation reaction under alkaline conditions (pH = 11.93) and used as the adsorbent for phosphate recovery from urine. The morphology and crystallinity of alpha-FeOOH-BC composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. alpha-FeOOH loaded BC was found to be amorphous. This may be caused by the Si residue in BC. The Elovich model and the Langmuir model fit better to the kinetic and isotherm results of alpha-FeOOH-600BC, respectively, indicating that phosphate adsorption is mainly a chemisorption and monolayer adsorption process. The alpha-FeOOH-600BC with amorphous structure showed higher adsorption capacity than crystalline alpha-FeOOH, and the maximum phosphate sorption capacity reached 57.39 mg g(-1). Additionally, the extractable phosphate of this material was approximately 967.5 mg P.kg(-1) suggesting the alpha-FeOOH-600BC after adsorption could be a promising alternative as a slow-phosphate-release fertilizer. Fourier-transform infrared and X-ray induced photoelectron spectroscopy results showed that the active sites of the adsorption of phosphate were the Fe-OH bonds that formed inner-sphere complexes (Fe-O-P). (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.