Consistency of food intake over four eating sessions in the laboratory

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to test the consistency (repeatability) of laboratory measures of food intake, including eating microstructure (cumulative food intake curves), in non-obese humans across four eating sessions, each separated by 1 week. A secondary aim was to test the effect of dietary restraint on the food intake of female participants. METHODS: Mixed model analyses were used to compare average food intake across sessions, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were employed to compare within subject variability to total variance. High and low restraint females and low restraint males consumed four lunches in a Universal Eating Monitor (UEM) laboratory. The lunches consisted of one type of sandwich (chicken salad sandwich squares) or three types of sandwiches (chicken salad, ham, and turkey sandwich squares) presented in counterbalanced order. RESULTS: Measures of food intake were stable for men and women, regardless of sandwich variety. In females, level of dietary restraint (high vs. low) did not significantly affect food intake. DISCUSSION: The results indicate that eating behavior in the laboratory is sufficiently stable over time to justify evaluation of interventions designed to alter food intake using within subject designs.     

Are alcohol intake and smoking associated with mycosis fungoides? A European multicentre case-control study

The incidence of mycosis fungoides (MF) is low, and the aetiology of the disease is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate whether wine consumption protects against the disease and whether smoking constitutes a risk factor. This paper is part of the European Rare Cancers Study that tries to determine the risk factors for seven selective rare cancers, including mycosis fungoides, involved in the development of cancer. A multicentre case-control study was conducted in six European countries. Only incident cases with confirmed histology were included in the analysis which include a total of 76 cases of MF and 2899 controls. Wine intake had no protective effect; on the contrary the consumption of more than 24 g of alcohol per day was associated with a high risk of MF (odds ratio (OR)=3.02, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.34-6.79), after adjusting for centre, country, age, sex and education. There was a dose-dependent increase in the risk of MF with increased smoking habits, albeit the observed trend was not statistically significant. A combined exposure to high tobacco and alcohol use yielded a significantly increased risk factor for MF (P=0.0073). Alcohol intake was associated with MF.     

Retrieving the optical parameters of biological tissues using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and Fourier series expansions. I. theory and application

The determination of optical parameters of biological tissues is essential for the application of optical techniques in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Diffuse Reflection Spectroscopy is a widely used technique to analyze the optical characteristics of biological tissues. In this paper we show that by using diffuse reflectance spectra and a new mathematical model we can retrieve the optical parameters by applying an adjustment of the data with nonlinear least squares. In our model we represent the spectra using a Fourier series expansion finding mathematical relations between the polynomial coefficients and the optical parameters. In this first paper we use spectra generated by the Monte Carlo Multilayered Technique to simulate the propagation of photons in turbid media. Using these spectra we determine the behavior of Fourier series coefficients when varying the optical parameters of the medium under study. With this procedure we find mathematical relations between Fourier series coefficients and optical parameters. Finally, the results show that our method can retrieve the optical parameters of biological tissues with accuracy that is adequate for medical applications.OCIS codes: (170.6935) Tissue characterization, (170.7050) Turbid media, (290.3200) Inverse scattering     

Heart-type fatty acid binding protein is an early marker of myocardial damage after radiofrequency catheter ablation

ObjectivesRadiofrequency (RF) ablation of arrhythmias induces myocardial damage and release of biomarkers. This study aimed to assess the kinetics of heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (h-FABP), a cytosolic protein released after myocardial injury incurred by both atrial and ventricular RF ablation, compared to other markers of myocardial injury.Design and methodsh-FABP, cTnI, CK-MB_mass and myoglobin were evaluated in 30 patients with atrial or ventricular tachyarrhythmias before, immediately after and at 3, 6 and 24 h after the procedure.Resultsh-FABP increased immediately after the procedure in all subjects (6.6 ± 1.2 μg/L vs 2.7 ± 0.3, p < 0.001) but increased significantly only in ventricular ablations. The peak of h-FABP significantly correlates with the values of time for mean power of RF application in both the entire patient cohort and in ventricular ablations.Conclusionsh-FABP may be an early parameter for monitoring RF-induced lesions and the site of ablation was relevant for biomarker increase.