Clinical characteristics of vulnerable populations hospitalized and diagnosed with COVID-19 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

There is not in Argentina publications regarding the presentation of patients with COVID-19 requiring hospitalized and emergency care in vulnerable populations (lower incomes and less education tend at greater risk for poor health status and healthcare access), and it has few reports in developing countries. The objective is to determine whether in the care of vulnerable patients, to succeed against COVID-19, multiple public health tools and interventions will be needed to minimize morbidity and mortality. The study is a prospective cohort investigation of patients with lab-confirmed COVID-19, who required to any of the Health Centers response from April 8, 2020, to August 18, 2020. In Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), April 8, 2020 the virus was identified in patients hospitalized in the "Southeast Network" (SN), AMBA. SN covering an area of 661 square kilometers, with 1.8 million inhabitants residing in urban, and rural areas. A total of 14 health centers with different levels of care complexity provide care to patients in the region. The information of each patient with COVID-19 evaluated by SN, was incorporated in an Epidemiological Dashboard. The investigation was designed and reported with consideration of observational studies in epidemiology. We describe the hospitals presentation and care of persons who required SN response and were ultimately diagnosed with COVID-19. From April 8, 2020, to August 18, 2020, were included 1495 patients with lab-confirmed COVID-19 in SN. A total of 58% patients were men, and the mean age (SD) was 48.9 (15.59) years. Eighty one percent patients with pre-existing diseases, most frequent hypertension and diabetes, but hypertension, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease presented higher risk. A total of 13% were hospitalized in Intensive Therapy Unit. The mortality of the cohort was 9.77%. Mortality was higher for patients aged 65 or more (OR 5.09), and for those had some pre-existing disease (OR 2.61). Our observations are consistent with reports demonstrating older persons, and those with comorbidities have the highest risk of mortality related to COVID-19. However, unlike other reports from developed or some developing countries, the mortality in our study is lower. This finding may be related to age of our cohort is younger than other published. Also, the health system was able to respond to the demand.

Sensory and spectroscopic characterization of Argentinean wine and balsamic vinegars: A comparative study with European vinegars.

In Argentina, vinegars are cheap agro-food products without exhaustive regulation and the production of high-quality vinegars has not been exploited yet. In fact, Argentinean vinegars have not been studied. In this context, a first study of Argentinean balsamic and wine vinegars was carried out by a sensory and spectroscopic characterization and by a comparison with well-recognized European vinegars. For that, ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence spectroscopies were applied together with principal component analysis (PCA) and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) performed on each data set, respectively. Results showed differences between acetification processes, origin countries and a wide variability within Argentinean production. The sensory characterization on Argentinean wine vinegars was performed by triangular and ordering preference tests showing statistically significant preferences toward the traditional and the rapid vinegars. This work highlights the effect of production on quality in order to provide added value to the Argentinean vinegars.

Assessment of UV-visible spectroscopy as a useful tool for determining grape-must caramel in high-quality wine and balsamic vinegars.

The addition of E-150d caramel, known as grape-must caramel in vinegars, is a legal but without limitation practice in Spanish wine vinegars, as those with a protected designation of origin (PDO), for unifying the final colour of different batches and barrels. It is also used in the production of 'Balsamic vinegar of Modena' vinegars, with a maximum addition fixed at 2% v/v by law. Although its quantification in vinegars was studied by other techniques, there is still not any official method for it. Therefore, UV-vis spectroscopy was assessed as a quick analytical method able to quantify grape-must caramel in Balsamic vinegars of Modena and Spanish PDO wine vinegars. Univariate and multivariate calibrations were assessed for this quantification. Results demonstrated the ability of UV-vis spectroscopy coupled with multivariate calibration in the quantification of grape-must caramel, predicting caramel amounts under 2% v/v in both Balsamic and PDO wine vinegars.