Continuous Flow and Liquid Chromatographic Determination of p-Toluenesulfonamide in Ice Cream: Interlaboratory Study

A collaborative study of the continuous flow (CF) and liquid chromatographic determination of p-toluenesulfonamide (p-TSA) in ice cream was conducted by the Project Group on Collaborative Studies (PCS) of the Inspectorate for Health Protection, Food Inspection Service, The Netherlands. The procedure involves extraction of samples with water followed by cleanup of the extracts by dialysis in the CF system. Dialysates are injected by using a loop injector (500 μL) on a reversed-phase octadecylsilane bonded-phase (C18) column, chromatographed with methanol-water (25 + 75, v/v) as mobile phase, and quantitated by fluorescence detection at 230 nm (excitation) and 295 nm (emission). Seven ice-cream samples containing 0-6.35 mg/kg p-TSA at 4 different levels (1 blank and 3 pairs of split-level samples) were singularly analyzed according to the proposed procedure by 11 laboratories. The data were analyzed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry/ International Organization for Standardization/ AOAC protocol for statistics. No Cochran and Grubbs outliers were found among the participants. For all samples analyzed, repeatability relative standard deviations (RSDr) varied from 2.08 to 3.67%, whereas the reproducibility relative standard deviations (RSDR) ranged from 7.79 to 11.68%. The average p-TSA values for the split levels 1,2, and 3 were 0.55, 1.02, and 4.44 mg p-TSA/kg, respectively, with mean recoveries ranging from 76 to 79% (overall recovery range for all levels, 63-101%). No false-positive results were reported for the blank sample, and no interference was encountered by the presence of vanilla in samples.

Lassa fever in children in Sierra Leone, West Africa

A systematic study of Lassa fever in febrile children was undertaken over a four-year period, from August 1977 to August 1981, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, West Africa. 479 patients were studied; of these, 245 had adequate specimens to confirm or exclude the laboratory diagnosis of Lassa fever. 51 cases of Lassa fever were identified (21% of patients from whom diagnosis was possible). Virus was isolated from 23 patients. All children had fever; cough and vomiting were present in over 60% of cases studied. The five to nine-year age group had the highest prevalence rate (41% of cases). Seasonal clustering occurred in April, May, and August. A significantly higher proportion of females than males had Lassa fever, a finding which remains to be explained. It is concluded that Lassa fever is a disease of significant concern in the paediatric age group.