Developing a methodology for assigning glycaemic index values to foods consumed across Europe.

There is growing evidence that the glycaemic index (GI) of the diet is important with respect to body weight and metabolic disease risk. However, research is limited by the paucity of GI values for commonly consumed carbohydrate-rich foods in European countries. A new methodology has been developed for consistent assignment of GI values to foods across five European databases used in the Diogenes intervention study. GI values were assigned according to five decreasing levels of confidence (1) Measured values for specific foods; (2) Published values from published sources; (3) Equivalent values where published values for similar foods existed; (4) Estimated values assigned as one of three values representing low/medium/high GI ranges and (5) Nominal values assigned as 70, where no other value could be assigned with sufficient confidence. GI values were assigned to 5105 foods. In food records collected at baseline, the contribution to carbohydrate intake of foods assigned levels 1-2 ranged from 16% to 43% depending on country, and this increased to 53-81% including level 3 foods. The degree of confidence to assigned GI values differed across Europe. This standardized approach of assigning GI values will be made available to other researchers to facilitate further investigation into the effects of dietary GI on health.

Radiocesium activity reduction in boar meat by brining.

Meat of wild boar with an intial (137)Cs activity concentration of 103 Bq kg(-1) of fresh mass was treated by brining. Dry-salting reduced the (137)Cs activity only by about 12-18%. Subsequent brining was done by using both pure sodium chloride and a mixture of sodium chloride and potassium nitrate. After double-brine exchange, the (137)Cs activity concentration was reduced by at least 72%. The double-brine exchanges were done for two time intervals (the first each 24 h and the second each 7 days). There were no differences in the (137)Cs activity reduction for these two time intervals. From the technological point of view, the repeated exchange of the brine solution represents a relative easy method of (137)Cs activity reduction in contaminated pork meat.

A ten-year follow-up study of urinary screening for inherited metabolic disorders.

Urine samples of 200,000 sucklings in 6th-8th month after delivery was analyzed by means of chromatographic screening test for amino acids, sugars and muccopolysacharides. In 1.4% of them persistent and in 51.6% transitory hyperaminoacidurias, in 0.15% persistent and 12.5% transitory melliturias and in 0.05% alcaptonuria were detected. No one case of muccopolysacharidosis was detected. 239 persistent metabolic disorders were detected. These disorders were not possible to detect by means of an obligatory screening test performed on 5th-6th day after delivery from capillary blood. All positive detected cases were verified by detailed metabolic investigation (thin layer, liquid and gas-chromatography).

Results of phenylalanine tolerance tests and EEG examination in patients under treatment for phenylketonuria.

The EEG of 10 phenylketonuric children treated by a diet and of 4 children with hyperphenylalaninaemia on a normal diet was recorded during L-phenylalanine tolerance tests. The first recording was made before administering the L-phenylalanine load (100 mg/kg b.w.) and the second 60-120 min after. In 6 of the phenylketonuric children, nonspecific abnormality became more pronounced or increased, or previously absent epileptic graphoelements appeared. A pathological EEG response to a L-phenylalanine load was found in 1 child with hyperphenylalaninaemia. The authors do not recommend relaxation of the diet in children with a pathological EEG response to a L-phenylalanine load.

Screening of amino acid enzymopathies in pregnancy and possibilities of their prenatal diagnosis.

The report discusses the first results obtained by chromatographic screening of the blood amino acids in pregnant women at the outset of pregnancy. Typical cases of maternal phenylketonuria and maternal hyperphenylalaninaemia found among 2,000 women examined are described in detail, giving a concise metabolic, clinical and genetic picture. The biochemical possibilities of diagnosing congenital disorders of amino acid metabolism before birth are also discussed.

Hypertyrosinaemia.

Screening tests of tyrosine levels in the newborn population showed that an elevated blood tyrosine level is the second commonest, and diagnostically the most serious, problem of neonatal age. Almost 1% of all newborn infants have a raised tyrosine level. The classic form of tyrosinosis and secondary hypertyrosinaemia in particular must be differentiated from benign, transitory forms. Methods for a differential diagnosis after loading the organism with ascorbic acid, pyridoxine or folic acid have been described. L-tyrosine tolerance tests proved ineffective. The results of the dietary treatment of transitory and classic forms of hypertyrosinaemia, using phenylalanine- and tyrosine-free hydrolysates, are described. The incidence of these diseases at different ages is shown in a table. Study of psychomotric development shows that untreated children do not display a subnormal IQ until they are of pre-school or school age.

Hyperglycinaemia without ketosis.

When screening mentally backward children we detected a 5-year-old child with elevated urinary glycine excretion and a high blood glycine level. The report discusses the results of a clinical, metabolic and genetic examination of the child and the members of his family with reference to this rare metabolic disorder.