Levels of Alzheimer's disease blood biomarkers are altered after food intake—A pilot intervention study in healthy adults

INTRODUCTION: Blood biomarkers accurately identify Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathophysiology and axonal injury. We investigated the influence of food intake on AD-related biomarkers in cognitively healthy, obese adults at high metabolic risk. METHODS: One-hundred eleven participants underwent repeated blood sampling during 3 h after a standardized meal (postprandial group, PG). For comparison, blood was sampled from a fasting subgroup over 3 h (fasting group, FG). Plasma neurofilament light (NfL), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), amyloid-beta (Aβ) 42/40, phosphorylated tau (p-tau) 181 and 231, and total-tau were measured via single molecule array assays. RESULTS: Significant differences were found for NfL, GFAP, Aβ42/40, p-tau181, and p-tau231 between FG and PG. The greatest change to baseline occurred for GFAP and p-tau181 (120 min postprandially, p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that AD-related biomarkers are altered by food intake. Further studies are needed to verify whether blood biomarker sampling should be performed in the fasting state. Highlights: Acute food intake alters plasma biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease in obese, otherwise healthy adults. We also found dynamic fluctuations in plasma biomarkers concentration in the fasting state suggesting physiological diurnal variations. Further investigations are highly needed to verify if biomarker measurements should be performed in the fasting state and at a standardized time of day to improve the diagnostic accuracy

Rapid progression of hepatocellular carcinoma after Radiofrequency Ablation.

AIM: To report the results of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in cirrhotic patients and to describe the treatment related complications (mainly the rapid intrahepatic neoplastic progression). METHODS: Eighty-seven consecutive cirrhotic patients with 104 HCC (mean diameter 3.9 cm, 1.3 SD) were submitted to RFA between January 1998 and June 2003. In all cases RFA was performed with percutaneous approach under ultrasound guidance using expandable electrode needles. Treatment efficacy (necrosis and recurrence) was estimated with dual phase computed tomography (CT) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level. RESULTS: Complete necrosis rate after single or multiple treatment was 100%, 87.7% and 57.1% in HCC smaller than 3 cm, between 3 and 5 cm and larger than 5 cm respectively (P = 0.02). Seventeen lesions of 88(19.3%) developed local recurrence after complete necrosis during a mean follow up of 19.2 mo. There were no treatment-related deaths in 130 procedures and major complications occurred in 8 patients (6.1 %). In 4 patients, although complete local necrosis was achieved, we observed rapid intrahepatic neoplastic progression after treatment. Risk factors for rapid neoplastic progression were high preoperative AFP values and location of the tumor near segmental portal branches. CONCLUSION: RFA is an effective treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma smaller than 5 cm with complete necrosis in more than 80% of lesions. Patients with elevated AFP levels and tumors located near the main portal branch are at risk for rapid neoplastic progression after RFA. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the incidence and pathogenesis of this underestimated complication

Remediation of Contaminated Groundwater

In order to decrease the health risk deriving from a contamination event,a number of cleanup and corrective actions, collectively called remediation, can beimplemented. Remediation can be applied directly at the site of contamination (insitu) or off site (ex situ), in which case the contaminated environmental compo-nent is physically extracted and treated in dedicated facilities at the surface. Thereare three main remedial approaches, generally categorized as: containment, whichaims at preventing the migration of the contamination and hence the exposure ofsensitive targets; active restoration, which entails removing or treating the contami-nation; and natural attenuation, which relies on naturally occurring biological, chem-ical and physical degradation or transformation processes that convert contaminantsinto harmless compounds. This Chapter reviews the main containment and remedialstrategies available for the management of a groundwater contamination event, andprovides valuable information to support the choice of the most suitable approach.The presented strategies include: free product recovery for light non-aqueous phaseliquid removal; vacuum enhanced extraction; subsurface containment; pump andtreat; air- and bio-sparging; permeable reactive barriers; in situ flushing; in situ oxi-dation;insitubioremediation.Applicability,designoptionsandoperatingconditions,as well as advantages and drawbacks of the presented methods are illustrated