The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost and effectiveness of soft silicone foam dressings （SSFD, Mepilex） on the treatment of pressure ulcers. We searched electronic databases and retrieved articles to make a systematic evaluation, and then make a cost-effectiveness analysis by decision tree model combined with data from clinical treatments. The result shows that compared with the common sterile gauze, SSFD possesses an apparent advantage. The effective ratio is 96.3% versus 77.3%, although the cost of SSFD is much higher than that of sterile gauze, Mepilex appears to be more cost-effectiveness for preventive use.
Safflower is a popular Chinese medicinal plant and Safflower injection is extensively used for the clinical treatment of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. In this study, HPLC-DAD-ESI-MSn was utilized to study the stability and degradation of the two major but chemically unstable bioactive compounds hydroxysaffior yellow A and anhydrosaffior yellow B, in Safflower injection. The impact of light irradiation, temperature, and pH on the stability of these two compounds were studied. The results showed that hydroxysafflor yellow A and anhydrosafflor yellow B could degrade at high temperature （〉60 ℃） or extreme pHs （pH ≤ 3.0 or 〉7.0）, but not under light irradiation. The common degradation product was p-coumaric acid. Chemical structures of the other degradation products were characterized by LC-MS. Hypothetical degradation pathways were proposed. In addition, ADP-induced platelet aggregation tests showed that the degradation of anhydrosaffior yellow B could reduce the anticoagulation activities of Safflower injection. Our results suggest that temperature and pH are critically important for the preparation and storage of Safflower injection.
