Nutraceutical properties of flour and tortillas made with an ecological nixtamalization process

The traditional nixtamalization (TN) process, used for obtaining maize-based products, negatively affects bioactive compounds because of its highly alkaline pH. Recently, an ecological nixtamalization (EN) process has been developed that retains the pericarp and maintains the nejayote (wastewater) within the acidic-neutral range. This study examines the effect of pH on the nutraceutical compounds (NC) of maize, such as polyphenolics and anthocyanins (ANT), as well as the effect on the antioxidant capacity (AC). The highest concentration of total phenolics (TP) in the maize kernel was found in the black and yellow genotypes, the highest concentration of ANT in the black genotypes, and the highest concentration of AC in the red and white genotypes. In the flour, TP levels were between 206 to 400 mg GA/100 g, ANT levels were 141 to 4107 mg cyanidin-3 glucoside/kg, and AC levels were 2544 to 3001 mg AA/kg. In tortillas, TP levels were 255 to 319 mg GA/100 g, ANT levels were 32 to 3420 mg cyanidin-3 glucoside/kg, and AC levels were from 1513 to 2695 mg AA/kg. The reduced loss of soluble solids, the pH, and the formation of compounds with proteins and carbohydrates from the EN process positively affected NC retention.

[Evaluation of a pharmaceutical care program to improve adherence to antiretroviral therapy]

OBJECTIVE

To establish the impact of a pharmaceutical care program on the improvement of adherence to antiretroviral therapy, and on patient immunologic and virologic outcome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A multicenter, observational, prospective study in a HIV-infected patient cohort under treatment with antiretrovirals selected by random sampling in 19 Spanish hospitals. The study lasted 12 months, in which the program was applied through a baseline preprocedural visit and 4 quarterly visits. Adherence estimation was based on pill counting. An adherence > or = 90, or > or = 95% was considered adequate (in two time points).

RESULTS

541 patients were included, most of them were males (68.8%) between 20 and 78 years of age. Major risk groups included injecting drug users (43.4%) and heterosexuals (29.4%). Sixty percent had already received treatment for more than 3 years. Mean baseline viral load and CD4 count values were 32,866 copies/ml and 485 cells/mm3, respectively. Throughout the study a slight increase in the percentage of adherent patients was seen; however, statistical significance was not reached (64.3 and 79.2% of patients showed an adherence > 95 and > 90%, respectively, during the fourth quarter, versus 59.8 and 75.5% at baseline). A statistically significant decrease in viral load and increase in CD4 cells was seen following program application. The percentage of patients with a viral load < 200 copies/ml was 72.2, 76.7, and 75.0% at the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters, respectively, versus 64.2% at baseline. CD4 cell counts increased by 50 cells/mm3 on average from the start to the end of follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients included in the program had a good immunologic and virologic outcome, and a trend towards an increased percentage of patients with good adherence was also seen. These results confirm the need to implement follow-up programs for patients receiving antiretrovirals in order to ensure maximum therapeutic benefits.

Exposure assessment must stop being local

Exposure assessment activities today are hampered by a narrow focus that is detrimental to preventive occupational health goals. Exposure data useful for disease prevention are not adequately collected, and exposure surveillance tools do not receive adequate attention. Professional recommendations to improve this state of affairs have been in existence since the early 1990s, but have not been widely adopted. Although the Government Performance and Results Act could help address these shortcomings--by enhancing exposure surveillance activities in the OSHA and NIOSH Strategic Plans--the agencies have not taken advantage of this opportunity. Their strategic plans rely largely on accident data to measure performance, despite the fact that occupational disease has a much larger toll. This article makes recommendations to address these shortcomings by increasing the role of exposure surveillance tools in the agency strategic plans.

Factors associated with exposure in Occupational Safety and Health Administration data

This study investigated the possibility of making compliance data from the public and private sectors more amenable for multiple uses, by studying data from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspections during 1979-1989. The potential association of five variables with mean and upper-end (in upper quartile) airborne exposures in similar exposure groups was investigated. The exposure groups reflected airborne exposures to lead in the battery manufacturing industry, to perchloroethylene among dry cleaners, and to iron oxide among welders in three metal fabrication industries. Variables examined were year, inspection type and scope, and size and union status of inspected establishments. Multiple linear regression and logistic regression models were used for the analyses. In small battery plants mean exposure levels were higher and the relative frequency of upper-end exposures (> 75th percentile) greater than in larger establishments. Evidence suggested a decline in mean lead exposures (5-9% per year). Neither type of inspection nor union status were associated with mean or upper-end levels of lead exposure, although the study's power to detect an association was sometimes modest. Some evidence showed that full scope inspections may be associated with higher mean exposures. Strong evidence showed a decline in mean perchloroethylene exposures among dry cleaners (7% per year), but no temporal trends for welder exposures to iron oxide. With few exceptions, the size, type, scope, and union variables were rarely associated with mean or upper-end exposure levels among dry cleaners or welders, although the power of the analyses to detect associations was at times modest. Results show that OSHA data is amenable to analysis that can provide valuable insights about workplace exposures. Several findings of the study are directly useful to the design of public policy.

[Experimental and pathological models that explain the regulation of cellular migration and axon's orientations]

Since Cajal discovery of nerve growth cones and their role in the growth, metabolism and destination of the axon in 1890 numerous studies have corroborated with more sophisticated techniques his original findings and ideas. The use of modified Golgi staining, drawing from the camera lucida in 2 combination with electron microscopy and t retrograde biochemical markers have helped to identify the neuronal sites of synapsis. Dynamic studies of the nerve growth cones using time-lapsed video microscopic images of living neuroblast in t culture or the intact animal have demonstrated their protactil and retractile membranes and exploratory filipodia properties. Interaction between growth cone membrane receptors and different molecules along the migrating axon determine also its final destination. Finally the role that genes play on neuronal migration and in guiding the axons to reach their targets have been identified in patients with Kallmann syndrome, a migrational disorder of olfactory axons and hypothalamic gonadotropic hormone-releasing hormone with absent gene at Xp22.3 locus manifested by anosmia and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.

The possible value of ascorbic acid as a prophylactic agent for urinary tract infection

The effect of ascorbic acid on urine pH was studied in spinal cord injury patients. Their urine was not colonized by urease positive microorganisms. The study was designed to compare the baseline urine pH value and the urine pH value after the administration of placebo or ascorbic acid 500 mg/6 h. The diet and medical treatment were not controlled. A significant decrease in urine pH value was not obtained. There was no clinical benefit from the use of ascorbic acid.

History of the tuberous sclerosis complex

How the concept of the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) has developed over a period of time spanning 160 years has come form simple clinical observations, pathological studies and technological advances of imaging methods. It all began with PFO Rayer's color plate of a drawing of a patient who apparently had facial angiofibroma, published in the year 1835, and continued with von Recklinghausen's report of cardiac myomas and cerebral sclerosis in a newborn who had died minutes after birth. The seminal contribution was provided by D.M. Bourneville who, in 1880, reported and named as tuberous sclerosis the neuropathological findings in a young patient with seizures, hemiplegia, and mental subnormality who also had renal tumors. We now know that TSC is a hamartomatosis, and thanks to studies of recent years using positional cloning and DNA analysis, we are beginning to understand the biological mechanisms of these disorders which include NF1, NF2 and von Hippel-Lindau disease. Unique to TSC is that it is both phenotypically and genotypically heterogeneous. One of two suspected genes found in chromosome 16 by positional cloning has been cloned (TSC2). Another one that was discovered earlier in chromosome 9 (TSC1) has not yet been characterized. The gene product from TSC2 has been named tuberin.

Occupational exposure to chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons and risk of astrocytic brain cancer

Chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs) were evaluated as potential risk factors for astrocytic brain tumors. Job-exposure matrices for six individual CAHs and for the general class of organic solvents were applied to data from a case-control study of brain cancer among white men. The matrices indicated whether the CAHs were likely to have been used in each industry and occupation by decade (1920-1980), and provided estimates of probability and intensity of exposure for "exposed" industries and occupations. Cumulative exposure indices were calculated for each subject. Associations of astrocytic brain cancer were observed with likely exposure to carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride, tetrachloroethylene, and trichloroethylene, but were strongest for methylene chloride. Exposure to chloroform or methyl chloroform showed little indication of an association with brain cancer. Risk of astrocytic brain tumors increased with probability and average intensity of exposure, and with duration of employment in jobs considered exposed to methylene chloride, but not with a cumulative exposure score. These trends could not be explained by exposures to the other solvents.