I have an assignment and the details are below

INTRODUCTION

The balance between paracetamol therapy and poisoning.

Background

Paracetamol is a drug which has been around since the 1950s and is widely available, frequently prescribed and available over the counter. However, in recent years there have been restrictions on the amount of paracetamol that can be bought in one purchase, due to the ease with which it is possible to overdose either intentionally or otherwise. Paracetamol is a useful analgesic and antipyretic.

In the UK it is the commonest agent used in self-harm and it has been suggested that it’s responsible for about 70,000 such cases per annum. Restrictions on purchases initially drastically reduced poisoning events, but this initial success has waned and Paracetamol related overdoses are on the rise again.

It is important to remember that paracetamol is very safe when used at therapeutic doses and that accidental overdoses generally occur due to concomitant use with paracetamol-combination products that are available over the counter.


Toxicity

Because paracetamol is metabolised by the liver, it is the commonest cause of acute liver failure. Serious or fatal adverse effects can occur at around 150 mg/kg for the average adult. This value is higher for children who are more susceptible, and similarly alcoholics who have a lower threshold for toxicity at around 75 mg/kg. Susceptible adults/patients may show severe effects with as few as 20 tablets (about 10 g) and toxicity can be increased with any factor that impairs liver metabolism, such as ethanol excess, malnutrition or metabolic enzyme inducing drugs. One of the main routes for excretion of paracetamol is via conjugate with glucuronic acid (oxidised glucose) with paracetamol to make it more water soluble that will be removed in the urine.



What you have to do:


Imagine the scenario;
You are a member of the staff at the National Poisons Unit at New Cross Hospital in London. Your role in the laboratory is to aid clinicians in the diagnosis of accidental poisonings as well as monitor therapeutic medication for chronic drug users (e.g. antidepressants, immunosuppressive drugs).

Today you have been sent samples from three patients, who are suspected paracetamol poisonings and in order to inform treatment you have to identify which individuals actually are overdosed. The key tests you will need to perform are to determine the serum paracetamol levels.

Once you have made the measurements for the serum paracetamol you should plot your graphs, and answer the questions in the booklet as indicated, which will then be used to write up your laboratory report.

You are also charged with developing a method so that it could be used at the point-of-need, that could be used by relatively untrained staff at Accident and Emergency based on a the RGB function of a Smartphone of similar device.


DETERMINATION OF SERUM PARACETAMOL

Create standard solutions to concentrations already described from 10 mM paracetamol stock into 10 ml volumetric flasks.

Concentration of standard solution (mM) 0.25 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00
volume of 10 mM stock standard (ml) 0.25 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00

Add 2 ml of each standard solution/blank(water)/patient sample to a test tube.
Add 0.4 ml of 0.02 M iron(III) chloride solution
Add 0.8 ml of 0.002 M potassium ferricyanide solution
Wait for 10 minutes
Add 0.2 ml of 3 M HCl and 6.6 ml of water (to make 10 ml total volume)
Wait for 20 minutes
Read samples at 700 nm on the spectrometer after zeroing with the blank (first time only).
Read the RGB reading for your blank, standards and samples.

Prepare a standard curve by plotting absorbance against paracetamol concentration in your write up. Use this to determine the concentration of paracetamol in each of the sample solution. Record your RGB results for each in the table below.

Paracetamol Results

Solution (mM) 0(blank) 0.25 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 Pt1 Pt2 Pt3
Spectrometry Absorbance
RGB values


Smart Sensors: paracetamol toxicity practical CW


This assessed practical write up is to be submitted 2pm, 02/05/2023 ONLINE.

Please attach your graphs of paracetamol (RGB and absorbance spectrometry) concentrations to the report. These can be in cut and pasted into or report, scanned or photographs, but in all cases, please ensure that are readable.

1. Please write a brief abstract summarising the practical, the results and conclusion. (15 marks)

2. From your results plot a graph of absorbance results obtained by spectrometry against paracetamol concentration (the standard curve). (5 marks)

3. Use this to determine the paracetamol concentrations for the patient sera supplied. Mark and label these on your graph and complete the table below (3 marks)

Patient Paracetamol conc (mM) via absorbance spectrometry Paracetamol conc (mM) via RGB analysis
1
2
3








Please include your standard curve for the RGB paracetamol measurements to your practical report.

Examination of RGB results
4. Examining your results, can you use the RGB data to plot a standard curve against paracetamol concentration? Explain how you have achieved this. (15 marks)

5. Is it possible to use this to calculate the concentrations of paracetamol in the patient samples? (6 marks)

6. How do these concentrations compare to those found by absorbance spectrometry (above)? (4 marks)

7. References must be in the UWE Harvard style (https://www.uwe.ac.uk/study/study-support/study-skills/referencing/uwe-bristol-harvard) (2 marks)

Please include your RGB and spectrometry standard curves for the paracetamol measurements to your practical report.


 Below are the values resulting from the experiments:

Paracetamol, mM Absorbance (700nm)
0 0
0.25 0.022
0.5 0.056
1 0.125
1.5 0.239
2 0.27
Pt 1 0.07
Pt 2 0.185
Pt 3 0.079


Smartphone RGB values

Paracetamol, mM R G B
0 160 157 140
0.25 129 131 117
0.5 110 121 110
1 83 112 106
1.5 70 111 108
2 58 112 113
Pt 1 101 118 108
Pt 2 80 122 119
Pt 3 111 129 119


Smart sensing practical report

Smart Sensing Practical Report, Radius -1
Blank 5 10 20 30 40 UK1 UK2 UK3
Red 174 143 125 131 122 127 120 098 134
Green 173 152 130 141 136 132 125 117 136
Blue 153 133 116 131 129 118 111 113 123



Smart Sensing Practical Report, Radius 50
Blank 5 10 20 30 40 UK1 UK2 UK3
Red 160.4 146.5 123.5 128.3 123.0 131.7 122.4 101.6 131.2
Green 162.4 155.8 128.4 138.3 135.8 136.7 127.4 120.2 133.2
Blue 139.4 135.9 114.9 128.3 128.5 122.1 113.9 116.1 120.2


Using all of the information i have provided, tell me all the graphs i need to generate.