Intravenous iron treatment is an important component of anemia therapy for patients on dialysis. Until recently iron dextran was the only parenteral form of iron available in the United States. This drug has been associated with occasional serious adverse reactions, including full-blown anaphylaxis. In 1999 the Food and Drug Administration approved a second form of iron for intravenous administration, sodium ferric gluconate in sucrose. It is expected that by the time of this publication, a third agent, iron saccharate will also be approved. In this review the comparative safety of these three agents is critically evaluated.

A detailed description of the thermal relaxation processes in MEH−PPV is reported. Bulk methods such as DMTA were employed in conjunction with other techniques that probe molecular motions, such as fluorescence spectroscopy, thermal stimulated current, and 13C NMR. From the two main transitions observed (glass transition process at 340 K and β-relaxation between 200 and 220 K), it was demonstrated that the first is strongly correlated with the dissociation of a fluorescent emissive interchain complex and that the second relaxation involves movements of the lateral substituents of the polymer backbone and, more specifically, their CH2 groups. NMR dipolar chemical shift correlation experiments pointed an increasing gain in mobility through the side chain, the lateral carbons close to the aromatic ring being more rigid than those located more distant from the main polymer chain. A kinetic model involving the dissociation of interchains to re-form intrachain excitons was proposed to explain the profiles of the photoluminescence spectra at higher temperatures.

Methods for determining fibrinolysis are not satisfactory. The reproducibility and accuracy of many known methods are doubtful, and it is difficult to say how far they reflect the processes and the fibrinolytic potential in the living organism, so in this paper will be presented the results of many years' experience with the euglobulin method.Methods and MaterialsReagents.-The reagents are 0.1 M ammonium oxalate in distilled water, and a borate solution made up of 9 g. sodium chloride and 1 g. sodium borate in 1,000 ml. distilled water.Streptokinase was purchased from Warszawska Wytw6rnia Surowic i Szczepionek.Fibrinogen was prepared by the method of Kekwick, Mackay, Nance, and Record (1955).Thrombin was prepared after separating prothrombin by the method of Lewis and Ferguson (1953) slightly modified. Prothrombin was converted to thrombin using the calcium-thromboplastin mixture, and thrombin was precipitated by acetone and extracted from the acetone-dried powder with distilled water.The euglobulin precipitation is based on an early observation of Milstone (1941)

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