RESUMO

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a challenge in public health, as the prevalence of obesity and overweight has been increasing. It has been observed that serum ferritin (SF) levels are commonly elevated in NAFLD patients. PURPOSE: To assess the relationship between SF levels and NAFLD, exploring the role of SF as a non-invasive marker of NAFLD. METHODS: Clinical, anthropometric, laboratory, and histological data of patients with obesity who underwent bariatric surgery in a reference center in Brazil were retrospectively evaluated. Data were collected in the preoperative period up to the first year postoperatively. RESULTS: A total of 431 patients were analyzed. The prevalence of hyperferritinemia was 18% in the preoperative period and 14% 1 year after the surgery. After multiple regression analysis, elevated SF was not an independent predictor of steatosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), or liver fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: Increased SF levels are common in patients with NAFLD; however, SF was not considered an independent predictor of steatosis, NASH, or fibrosis.

Assuntos

RESUMO

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of replacing sodium chloride (NaCl) by 40% of potassium chloride (KCl), combined to the use of different proportions (0, 50, and 100%) of pale, soft, and exudative meat, on the technological and sensorial characteristics of restructured cooked hams. NaCl replacement and pale, soft, and exudative proportion did not change (P > 0.05) the products' chemical composition, water losses, pH, and color. The ham texture profile was not affected by pale, soft, and exudative meat, but the chewiness reduced (P < 0.05) with NaCl replacement. Pale, soft, and exudative meat reduced (P < 0.05) the ham sliceability from 94 to 88%, regardless of the proportion used. NaCl replacement did not affect the perceived saltiness and the products' acceptability, but pale, soft, and exudative products were more accepted, and consumers noticed a higher salty taste. It was concluded that reducing the sodium content by partially replacing NaCl with KCl is feasible even in restructured cooked hams made with high proportions of pale, soft, and exudative meat.

Assuntos

RESUMO

This study evaluated a microwave (Mw) cooking method for determining beef toughness using the Warner-Bratzler slice shear force (WBsSF) protocol. Longissimus thoracis muscles were aged for 1, 10, 19, and 28 days at 4C. They were then either cooked on a clam-shell grill until reaching an internal temperature of 72C, in a Mw for 100 s at maximum power (Mw100) or for 140 s at 60% of maximum power (Mw60). Cooking loss and shear force (SF) values were higher in Mw samples than in grilled ones. SF assessment by grill and Mw100 were able to discriminate tenderness by aging times in the same way as the sensory panel. The SF measured in a grilled sample had higher repeatability (R = .74) and correlation with sensory scores (r = -.79) than Mw100 (R = .61; r = -.62) and Mw60 (R = .51; r = -.53). Mw100 can be considered as an appropriate alternative for the WBsSF protocol. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Tenderness is the most important attribute for consumers. Many studies have evaluated tenderness in meat and different protocols for cooking. This work was intended to optimize and evaluate the use of the microwave as a cooking method for shear force determination, against a standard protocol and establish the correlation to sensory tenderness.

Assuntos

RESUMO

Semitendinosus (ST) muscle steaks were grouped according to three locations (proximal, middle, and distal end), grilled to endpoint temperature of 71C or cooked for 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60 s in a microwave oven (Mw). The location did not affect (p > .05) the cooking loss (CL) or shear force (SF) values. The CL increased (p < .05) with longer microwave cooking times, but only the Mw40 samples did not differ (p > .05) from the grill samples. None of the microwaves' SF values were different (p > .05) from the grill values, with treatments Mw30 to Mw50 showing moderate repeatability (R = 0.51-0.60) and Mw30 and Mw60 showing higher correlations (r > .71) with grill values. Cooking beef strips with a microwave is a potential method for tenderness evaluation, but requires additional study to evaluate and optimize this application in different muscles and for comparison to sensorial data. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: The work was intended to evaluate the possibility of using a microwave oven for cooking meat to be used in objective measurement protocols for meat tenderness and to optimize the conditions for this purpose. The use of a standardized microwave procedure allows a dramatic reduction in analysis time and may reduce error variance due to nonuniform cooking procedures.

RESUMO

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of core sampling on Warner-Bratzler shear force evaluations of beef and pork loins (Longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscles) and to determine the relationship between them. Steaks of 2.54 cm from beef and pork loins were cooked and five round cross-section cores and five square cross-section cores of each steak were taken for shear force evaluation. Core sampling influenced both beef and pork shear force values with higher (P<0.05) average values and standard deviations for square cross-section cores. There was a strong and linear relationship (P<0.01) between round and square cross-section cores for beef (R(2)=0.78), pork (R(2)=0.70) and for beef+pork (R(2)=0.82) samples. These results indicate that it is feasible to use square cross-section cores in Warner-Bratzler shear force protocol as an alternative and potential method to standardize sampling for shear force measurements.

Assuntos

RESUMO

O desenvolvimento dos métodos de imagem criou uma série de alternativas para a investigação não-invasiva dos pacientes com suspeita de doença hepática. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a sensibilidade e especificidade da doppler-ultra-sonografia com contraste endovenoso no diagnóstico dos tumores hepáticos. Foram estudados 50 pacientes com nódulos hepátiacos de qualquer etiologia. As ultra-sonografias foram obtidas com o equipamento ATL5000 antes e após a injeção de contraste (10ml de Levovist - 300µg/ml). A análise estatística foi realiada considerando-se um nível de significâancia de 5por cento. As lesões foram consideradas benignas em35 e malignas em 15 casos. A doppler-ultra-sonografia estabeleceu o diagnóstico de benignidade em 30/35 casos e de malignidade em 11/15 casos. Assim, para o diagnóstico de neoplasia, a sensibilidade foi de 73,3por cento, a especificidade de 85,7por cento, com VPP de 68,7por cento e VPN de 88,2por cento. A utilização do contraste permitiu o diagnóstico das lesões benignas em 34/35 casos e das malignas em 12/15 casos. Dessa forma quando o diagnóstico de tumores malignos, a sensibilidade foi de 80por cento. A especificidade de 97,1por cento, com VPP de 91,9 por centoe VPN de 92,3por cento. Conclui-se que a utilização do contraste durante adoppler-ultra-sonografia permitiu a definição diagnóstica em5/9 casos cujo diagnóstico não havia sido possível através do exame incial sem doppler-ultra-sonografia, sendo seu uso recomendado.

Assuntos

RESUMO

In an attempt to correlate the TP53 mutation pattern of squamous cell carcinomas of the esophagus (ESCC) and life style factors of patients from the high risk area Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 135 ESCC were analyzed, after prescreening by p53 immunohistochemistry, by SSCP and DNA sequencing of TP53, exon 5-9. Forty-nine somatic TP53 mutations (and 1 case with p53 polymorphism) were identified as missense (n = 39), frameshift (n = 6), silent (n = 1), amber (n = 1) or intron border mutations (n = 2) that cause splicing aberrations. They were preferentially found in exon 5 (36.7%) and exon 8 (32.7%). Several mutations were located in the mutation hot spot codons 248, 273 and 282, mainly at CpG sites. Transition mutations were observed in 53.1% (among them 50% G > A), transversion mutations in 34.7% (among them 47.1% G > T) and frameshifts in 12.2%, the latter 2 mainly in smokers and alcohol drinkers. Transitions were more prevalent in females than in males (p < 0.05). TP53 mutations, mainly transversions, were more frequently found in heavy smokers (p = 0.03), with the same tendency after chronic alcohol consumption. Comparison with the worldwide IARC database disclosed differences in the TP53 mutation pattern of the Brazilian tumors, with a higher accumulation of TP53 mutations in exon 8 and a higher prevalence of transition mutations. Mutations at the reported hot spot codon 176 were missing. Although difficult because of the documented coexposure to various life style risk factors in most patients of this series, the hypothesis is proposed that besides smoking and alcohol drinking the commonly consumed hot mate tea in this high risk area for ESCC is responsible for this different pattern of TP53 mutations because of chronic hyperthermic irritation and inflammation in the esophagus with an endogenous formation of radicals or carcinogenic factors that lead to a higher prevalence of transition mutations.

Assuntos

RESUMO

Os autores relatam o caso de um paciente adulto portador de hérnias femorais e de Spiegel bilaterais e hérnia umbilical simultâneas, todas de surgimento espontâneo. Apenas um caso semelhante foi encontrado na literatura. Säo abordados aspectos clínicos e diagnósticos de tais situaçöes e ressaltada a raridade do caso

Assuntos

RESUMO

Em paciente de 67 anos queixando-se de anemia, fadiga e melena, endoscopia digestiva alta, Rx contrastado do êsofago-estômago-duodeno, ecografia e tomografia computadorizada abdominal evidenciaram lesao tumoral em topografia de bulbo duodenal, tratada cirurgicamente diagnóstico anatomo-patológico de Leiomiossarcoma Duodenal.

Assuntos