Shear wave elastography safety in fetus: A quantitative health risk assessment.

PURPOSE: To identify the effects of shear wave elastography in the fetus for evaluation in widespread use. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Health Risk Assessment method proposed by the National Research Council was used with literature to evaluate the safety of shear wave elastography for the fetus regarding its potential effects in human tissues. RESULTS: The experimental and epidemiologic data from 25 articles showed that shear wave elastography maintained the same thermal effect as pulsed Doppler ultrasound already authorized in obstetrics, and that cavitation effect on fetal tissue is improbable. Nonetheless, the vibratory character of shear waves could induce displacement of fetal tissue while potential effects of very short duration energy peaks of the radiation force focused wave front remain unknown. CONCLUSION: The actual knowledge does not provide enough information to assess the effects of shear wave elastography on fetal tissues, thus these points have to be explored by further experimental studies.

Olive orchard amended with olive mill wastewater: effects on olive fruit and olive oil quality.

The aim of this work was to study the effects of agronomic application of olive mill wastewater (OMW) in a field of olive trees on olive fruit and olive oil quality. Agronomic application of OMW increased significantly the fungal:bacteria ratio, whereas the root colonisation and the photosynthetic rates decreased significantly. Consequently, the oil content expressed as a percentage of dry weight, decreased significantly after agronomic application of OMW. Land spreading of OMW altered the relative proportion of individual olive fruit sugar and decreased significantly the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) of the fruit. A significant increase was observed in total phenol content of oil after agronomic application of OMW. alpha-Tocopherol content, on the contrary, decreased with OMW application. The fatty acid composition of the oil was not affected by the treatments. To our knowledge, this is the first report of change in the olive fruit and olive oil quality following agronomic application of OMW.