Background True intramedullary epidermoid cysts (IECs) not associated with congenital anomalies or previous spinal procedures are extremely rare. In a review of the literature since 1992, only 29 such cases have been reported. Here, we add three new cases in this category. Case Description Three adults presented with spastic paraparesis attributed to thoracic IECs. Gross total microsurgical removal was achieved in two cases, while one case was a partial resection due to capsular adherence to the cord. In all three cases, patients sustained complete recoveries of neurological function and remained symptom free for an average of 5 years follow-up. Conclusion IECs are rare lesions; here, the three located in the thoracic spine, contributed to slow, progressive spastic paraparesis with/without incontinence, and resolved following total (2 patients) and partial (1 patient) resection. Copyright © 2020 Surgical Neurology International.Background Hemostasis plays an important role in safe brain tumor resection and also reduces the risk for surgical complications. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of FLOSEAL®, a topical hemostatic agent that contains thrombin and gelatin granules, in brain tumor resections. Methods We evaluated the hemostatic effect of FLOSEAL by scoring the intensity of bleeding from 1 (mild) to 4 (life threatening). We assessed the rate of success of hemostasis with 100 patients who underwent intracranial tumor resection. We also investigated the duration of the operation, the amount of intra- and postoperative bleeding, the number of hospital stays, and adverse events in patients who used FLOSEAL compared with those who did not use FLOSEAL. Results FLOSEAL was applied to a total of 109 bleeding areas in 100 patients. A total of 95 bleeding areas had a score of 1 and 91 (96%) showed successful hemostasis. Thirteen bleeding areas scored 2 and 8 (62%) showed hemostasis with the first application of FLOSEAL. The second application was attempted with five bleeding areas and four showed hemostasis. About 94% (103/109 areas) of bleeding points successfully achieved hemostasis by FLOSEAL. Moreover, FLOSEAL significantly decreased the amount of intraoperative bleeding and postoperative bleeding as assessed with computed tomography on 1 day postoperatively compared with no use of FLOSEAL. There were no adverse events related to FLOSEAL use. click here Conclusion Our results indicate that FLOSEAL is a reliable, convenient, and safe topical hemostatic agent for intracranial tumor resection. Copyright © 2020 Surgical Neurology International.Enrichment of trace bioactive constituents and metabolites from complex biological samples is challenging. This study presented a one-pot synthesis of magnetic polydopamine nanoparticles (Fe3O4@SiO2@PDA NPs) with multiple recognition sites for the magnetic dispersive solid-phase extraction (MDSPE) of ginsenosides from rat plasma treated with white ginseng. The extracted ginsenosides were characterized by combining an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a high-resolution mass spectrometry with supplemental UNIFI libraries. Response surface methodology was statistically used to optimize the extraction procedure of the ginsenosides. The reusability of Fe3O4@SiO2@PDA NPs was also examined and the results showed that the recovery rate exceeded 80% after recycling 6 times. Furthermore, the proposed method showed greater enrichment efficiency and could rapidly determine and characterize 23 ginsenoside prototypes and metabolites from plasma. In comparison, conventional methanol method can only detect 8 ginsenosides from the same plasma samples. The proposed approach can provide methodological reference for the trace determination and characterization of different bioactive ingredients and metabolites of traditional Chinese medicines and food. © 2019 Xi’an Jiaotong University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.An understanding of the thermodynamics of the complexation process utilized in sustaining drug release in clay matrices is of great importance. Several characterisation techniques as well as isothermal calorimetry were utilized in investigating the adsorption process of a model cationic drug (diltiazem hydrochloride, DIL) onto a pharmaceutical clay system (magnesium aluminium silicate, MAS). X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and optical microscopy confirmed the successful formation of the DIL-MAS complexes. Drug quantification from the complexes demonstrated variable behaviour in the differing media used with DIL degrading to desacetyl diltiazem hydrochloride (DC-DIL) in the 2 M HCl media. Here also, the authors report for the first time two binding processes that occurred for DIL and MAS. A competitor binding model was thus proposed and the thermodynamics obtained suggested their binding processes to be enthalpy driven and entropically unfavourable. This information is of great importance for a formulator as care and consideration should be given with appropriate media selection as well as the nature of binding in complexes. © 2019 Xi’an Jiaotong University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.An analytical methodology based on an O-[2-(methacryloyloxy)-ethylcarbamoyl]-10,11-dihydroquinidine (MQD)-silica hybrid monolithic column was developed for the enantioseparation of 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (FMOC) derivatized amino acids by nano-liquid chromatography. The mobile phase was optimized including the apparent pH, content of ACN, and concentration of the buffer to obtain a satisfactory enantioresolution performance. 27 FMOC derivatized amino acids including 19 protein and 8 non-protein amino acids were tested, and 19 out of them were enantiomerically discriminated obtaining baseline separation for 11 of them. Analytical characteristics of the method were evaluated for norvaline and tryptophan in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, limits of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) showing good performance to be applied to the enantiomeric determination of these amino acids in dietary supplements. LOD and LOQ values were 9.3 and 31 μM for norvaline enantiomers and 7.5 and 25 μM for tryptophan enantiomers, respectively.