Efficiency evaluation of food waste materials for the removal of metals and metalloids from complex multi-element solutions

Recent studies have shown the potential of food waste materials as low cost adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals and toxic elements from wastewater. However, the adsorption experiments have been performed in heterogeneous conditions, consequently it is difficult to compare the efficiency of the individual adsorbents. In this study, the adsorption capacities of 12 food waste materials were evaluated by comparing the adsorbents' efficiency for the removal of 23 elements from complex multi-element solutions, maintaining homogeneous experimental conditions. The examined materials resulted to be extremely efficient for the adsorption of many elements from synthetic multi-element solutions as well as from a heavy metal wastewater. The 12 adsorbent surfaces were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and showed different types and amounts of functional groups, which demonstrated to act as adsorption active sites for various elements. By multivariate statistical computations of the obtained data, the 12 food waste materials were grouped in five clusters characterized by different elements' removal efficiency which resulted to be in correlation with the specific adsorbents' chemical structures. Banana peel, watermelon peel and grape waste resulted the least selective and the most efficient food waste materials for the removal of most of the elements

The 99th percentile of reference population for cTnI and cTnT assay: Methodology, pathophysiology and clinical implications

According to recent international guidelines, including the 2012 Third Universal Definiton of Myocardial Infarction by the Joint ESC/ACCF/AHA/WHF Task Force, an increase in cardiac troponin (cTn) levels over the 99th percentile upper reference limit (99th URL) should be considered clinically relevant, this cut-off being measured with an imprecision â\u89¤10 CV%. In theory 99th URL values strongly depend not only on demographic and physiological variables (i.e. criteria for considering the reference population "healthy"), but also on the analytical performance of cTn methods and mathematical algorithms used for the calculation. The aim of the present article was therefore to review the methodological and pathophysiological factors affecting the evaluation and calculation of the 99th URL for cTn assay. The critical analysis made showed that no uniform procedure is followed, and nor have experts or regulatory bodies provided uniform guidelines for researchers or cTn assays manufacturers as an aid in "their quest to define normality". In particular, little attention has been paid to the way in which a healthy reference population is to be selected, or the criteria for calculating the 99th URL value for cTn assays, thus highlighting the need for international recommendations not only for demographic and physiological variables criteria for defining a healthy reference population, but also for calculating mathematical algorithms for establishing/calculating clinical decision values. An expert consensus group, comprising laboratory and clinical scientists, biomedical statisticians, industrial and regulatory representatives, should be responsible for drawing up these guidelines

Discrepancy between FLC assays: Only a problem of quantification?

Immunoglobulin light chains not associated with heavy chains (free light chains, FLC) are found in serum. A growing clinical importance has been assigned to the quantification of the kappa and lambda FLC in serum in the management of plasma cell dyscrasias. At present, automated immunoassays are the only available techniques allowing quantitative determination of serum FLC. Unfortunately, the two reagents available for FLC assay, provide sometimes divergent results. It has been proposed that the different results, unpredictably affecting individual serum samples, are due the different reactivity of reagents against FLC oligomers that are known to be present to a variable extent in serum, especially when lambda FLC are involved. We report a case where we demonstrated that the two reagents recognized differently FLC monomer and dimers

Evaluation of analytical performance of a novel immunoenzymometric assay for cTnI

Letter to the Editor. We evaluated the analytical performance of the immunoenzymometric assay for the cTnI, named ST AIA-PACK cTnI 3rd-Gen, using the automated AIA-2000 platform (Tosoh Corporation, Tokyo, Japan). This method is a two-site immunoenzymometric assay, which uses a combination of two monoclonal antibodies, respectively directed to 41–49 and 87–91 amino acids of the cTnI peptide chain, and the ternary troponin ITC complex as a calibration antigen [1]

Systematic differences between BNP immunoassays: Comparison of methods using standard protocols and quality control materials

Background: Recent studies suggested that there are marked systematic differences among BNP immunoassays. In this study we compared the BNP data and clinical results obtained with different immunoassays, including a new method (ST-AIA-PACK, TOSOH Corporation). Methods: BNP was measured on plasma-EDTA samples of healthy subjects (HS, n = 126) and patients with heart failure (HF, n = 31 NYHA I, II; n = 46 NYHA III, IV) using the ST-AIA-PACK and the Triage Biosite (Beckman Coulter) methods. Control samples distributed in the CardioOrmoCheck external quality assessment were also measured with TOSOH and the most used BNP immunoassays in Italy. Results: TOSOH method showed a good correlation (R = 0.976; n = 327) but a mean bias (−46.9%) compared to Triage Biosite. On the base of the results obtained in 10 samples of the CardioOrmoCheck study, TOSOH method showed a strict agreementwith ADVIA Centaur, while it underestimated BNP in comparisonwith Triage (−52.5%) and ARCHITECT methods (−39.4%). The agreement of ST-AIA-PACK and Triage Biosite methods for classification of HF patients was tested using 100 ng/L of BNP; the positive agreement between methods was 65%, overall agreement was 73%. Conclusions: Our results confirm that there are marked differences in measured values among commercial methods for BNP assay

Systematic differences between BNP immunoassays: comparison of methods using standard protocols and quality control materials

Background: Recent studies suggested that there are marked systematic differences among BNP immunoassays. In this study we compared the BNP data and clinical results obtained with different immunoassays, including a new method (ST-AIA-PACK, TOSOH Corporation). Methods: BNP was measured on plasma-EDTA samples of healthy subjects (HS, n = 126) and patients with heart failure (HF, n = 31 NYHA I, II; n = 46 NYHA III, IV) using the ST-AIA-PACK and the Triage Biosite (Beckman Coulter) methods. Control samples distributed in the CardioOrmoCheck external quality assessment were also measured with TOSOH and the most used BNP immunoassays in Italy. Results: TOSOH method showed a good correlation (R = 0.976; n = 327) but a mean bias (−46.9%) compared to Triage Biosite. On the base of the results obtained in 10 samples of the CardioOrmoCheck study, TOSOH method showed a strict agreementwith ADVIA Centaur, while it underestimated BNP in comparisonwith Triage (−52.5%) and ARCHITECT methods (−39.4%). The agreement of ST-AIA-PACK and Triage Biosite methods for classification of HF patients was tested using 100 ng/L of BNP; the positive agreement between methods was 65%, overall agreement was 73%. Conclusions: Our results confirm that there are marked differences in measured values among commercial methods for BNP assay

Monocytes/macrophages activation contributes to b-gamma-glutamyltransferase accumulation inside atherosclerotic plaques

Gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) is a well-established independent risk factor for cardiovascular mortality related to atherosclerotic disease. Four GGT fractions have been identified in plasma, but only b-GGT fraction accumulates in atherosclerotic plaques, and correlates with other histological markers of vulnerability. The present study was aimed to evaluate whether macrophagic lineage cells may provide a source of b-GGT within the atherosclerotic plaque

Evaluation of analytical performance and comparison of clinical results of the new generation method AccuTnI+3 for the measurement of cardiac troponin I using both patients and quality control plasma samples

The study aims are to evaluate the analytical performance and the clinical results of the chemiluminescent Access AccuTnI+3 immunoassay for the determination of cardiac troponin I (cTnI)with DxI 800 and Access2 platforms and to compare the clinical results obtained with this method with those of three cTnI immunoassays, recently introduced in the European market. The limits of blank (LoB), detection (LoD), and quantitation (LoQ) at 20% CV and 10% CV were 4.5 ng/L and 10.9 ng/L, 17.1 and 30.4 ng/L, respectively. The results of STAT Architect high Sensitive TnI (Abbott Diagnostics), ADVIA Centaur Troponin I Ultra (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics), ST AIA-Pack cTnI third generation (Tosoh Bioscience), and Access AccuTnI + 3 (Beckman Coulter Diagnostics) showed very close correlations (R ranging from 0.901 to 0.994) in 122 samples of patients admitted to the emergency department. However, on average there was a difference up to 2.4-fold between the method measuring the highest (ADVIA method) and lowest cTnI values (AccuTnI + 3 method). The consensus mean values between methods ranged from 6.2% to 29.6% in 18 quality control samples distributed in an external quality control study (cTnI concentrations ranging from 29.3 ng/L to 1557.5 ng/L). In conclusion, the results of our analytical evaluation concerning the AccuTnI + 3 method, using the DxI platform, are well in agreement with those suggested by the manufacturer as well as those reported by some recent studies using the Access2 platform. Our results confirm that the AccuTnI + 3 method for the Access2 and DxI 800 platforms is a clinically usable method for cTnI measurement

Stato dell’arte dell’immunodosaggio dei peptidi natriuretici di tipo B

State of the art of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) immunoassays. Recent studies have demonstrated that the precursor of BNP (proBNP) constitutes the major part of BNP-related peptides detectable in plasma of patients with heart failure by the commercially available immunoassays considered specific for the BNP hormone. Since proBNP significantly cross-reacts with commercial immunoassays for BNP, manufacturers should test and clearly declare the cross-reaction with proBNP in their BNP methods. Owing to the differences in cross-reaction with proBNP as well as in specificity, respectively, for the NH2- or COOH-terminal part of the peptide hormone chain, BNP immunoassays show significant between-method differences. Immunoassays for NT-proBNP, which all use standard materials and antibodies provided by the same company, show lower differences (generally <20%). Clinicians should take into account these differences among methods when they compare results obtained from different laboratories, which use different BNP immunoassays. Accordingly, the use of a common decisional limit for all BNP immunoassay methods, as suggested by the most recent international guidelines, may be unreliable