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Background: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have an independent increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease. Cardiovascular risk (CVR) assessment should be offered to all patients with COPD, according to the new Dutch CVR management (CVRM) guideline (May 2019)., Aim: To evaluate the impact of the new CVRM guideline on the care of patients with COPD in primary care., Design & Setting: A retrospective study took place within five primary healthcare centres located in The Netherlands., Method: In accordance with the guideline, the CVR of all patients with COPD was estimated and categorised. Data from 2014-2019 were used for the qualitative risk assessment based on comorbidities, and the quantitative Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE). In addition, the guideline-based follow-up was investigated., Results: Of the 391 patients with COPD, 84.1% ( n = 329) had complete data on CVR assessment: 90.3% ( n = 297) had a (very) high risk, and 9.7% ( n = 32) a low-to-moderate risk. Of the patients with (very) high risk, 73.4% ( n = 218) received guideline-based follow-up (primary care: 95.4%, secondary care: 4.6%). In 15.9% ( n = 62) of all patients with COPD, the CVR profile was not measured and of the (very) high-risk patients, 26.6% ( n = 79) were not enroled in a CV care programme., Conclusion: Whereas in the majority of patients with COPD the CVR is already known, for one out of six patients this CVR still has to be assessed according to the recently updated guideline. Moreover, once a (very) high risk has been assessed, as a consequence CV treatment of risk factors should be intensified in one out of four patients with COPD. Adherence to the new CVRM guideline could provide improvement in CVRM in more than a third of all patients with COPD., (Copyright © 2020, The Authors.)

The European Bioanalysis Forum dried blood spots/microsampling consortium is reporting back from the experiments they performed on further documenting the potential hurdles of the DBS technology. Their experiments focused on the impact of hematocrit changes, IS addition, spot homogeneity, aging of spots and stability of fresh blood and cards. Results from these experiments demonstrate that the issues of DBS in regulated bioanalysis are real and that the technology will need additional improvements to be ready for use as a general tool for regulated bioanalysis. In addition, results on fresh blood and card stability were shared at international meetings and will be reported at a later date.

Background: The European Bioanalysis Forum dried blood spots (DBS)/microsampling consortium is reporting back from the experiments they performed on further documenting the potential hurdles of the DBS technology. This paper is focused on the impact of hematocrit changes on DBS analyses., Results: The hematocrit can have an effect on the size of the blood spot, on spot homogeneity and on extraction recovery in a compound-dependent manner. The extraction recovery can change upon aging in an hematocrit-dependent way. Different card materials can give different outcomes., Conclusions: The results from the conducted experiments show that the issues of DBS in regulated bioanalysis are real and that the technology will need improvements to be ready for use as a general tool for regulated bioanalysis.

Background: At the start of their work, the European Bioanalysis Forum dried blood spots microsampling consortium did not form a dedicated team to investigate the spot homogeneity. However, two teams performed experiments that produced results relating to sample homogeneity., Results: The data, which were produced via two different approaches (a radiolabeled and a nonradiolabeled approach), are highly complementary and demonstrate clear effects on sample inhomogeneity due to the substrate type, compound and hematocrit levels., Conclusion: The results demonstrate that sample inhomogeneity is a significant hurdle to the use of dried blood spots for regulated bioanalysis that should be investigated further in the method establishment phase if the whole spot is not sampled.

Two simple and straightforward analytical procedures for the screening of sediment samples are reported. They involve extraction with ethyl acetate or methanol and subsequent analysis by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) using large-volume injection (LVI) or solid-phase extraction (SPE). The latter, which was originally developed for the analysis of aqueous samples, can be used without any modification. In general, 10 ml of organic solvent were added to 2 g of sediment, and the mixture was shaken and allowed to stand overnight. The methanolic extracts were then diluted in water and subjected to preconcentration and analysis using on-line SPE-GC-MS. The ethyl acetate extracts were injected directly into the GC using LVI. Both methods were used for the detection and identification of microcontaminants during a monitoring study of the river Nitra (Slovak Republic). They included polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), chlorofluorohydrocarbons, alkoxylated and alkylated phenols and benzothiazole derivatives. Semi-quantitative profiles of the contaminants were constructed and provisionally interpreted. The results indicate that SPE-GC-MS, and also LVI-GC-MS, have good potential for a rapid screening of sediment samples and the identification of microcontaminants. The analytical procedures pose no problems, and the on-line set-up is user-friendly.

Chemical analysis for the characterisation of micro-organisms is rapidly evolving, after the recent advent of new ionisation methods in mass spectrometry (MS): electrospray (ES) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation (MALDI). These methods allow quick characterisation of micro-organisms, either directly or after minimum sample preparation. This review provides a brief introduction to ES and MALDI MS and a discussion of micro-organism characterisation capabilities. Some attention is devoted to the analysis of mixtures of proteins, lipids and other compounds, to the combination of polymerase chain reaction technology and MS, and to the analysis of whole bacteria and their lysates. The review of results produced hitherto is concluded with an outlook on future developments.