Does Erector Spinae Plane Block Decrease Analgesia Requirements After Minimal-Invasive Posterior Transpedicular Stabilization in Patients With Vertebral Body Fracture? A Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind Controlled Study.

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective randomized placebo controlled double blind trial. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of ESP block after minimally invasive posterior stabilization for vertebral fractures on opioid consumption, pain, blood loss, disability level, and wound healing complications. METHODOLOGY: Patients indicated for minimal invasive posterior stabilisation were included to the study. Our primary outcome was the opioid consumption and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) measured during the first 48 hours. Secondary outcomes used to measure the short-term outcome included Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Patient Reported Outcome Spine Trauma (PROST). RESULTS: In total, 60 patients were included with a 93.3% follow-up. Average morphine consumption during the PACU (Post Anaesthesia Care Unit) period was 5.357 mg in ESP group and 8.607 mg in placebo group (P = .004). Average VAS during first 24 hour was 3.944 in ESP group and 5.193 in placebo group (P = .046). Blood loss was 14.8 g per screw in ESP group and 15.4 g in placebo group (P = .387). The day2 PROST value was 33.9 in ESP group and 28.8 in placebo group (P = .008) and after 4 weeks 55.2 in ESP group and 49.9 in placebo group (P = .036). No significant differences in ODI were detected. CONCLUSION: The use of ESP block in minimally invasive spinal surgery for posterior fracture stabilization leads to a significant reduction of opioid consumption during PACU stay by 37.7%. Reduction of opioid consumption was accompanied with lower pain (VAS). We found positive effect of the ESP block on short term outcome scores, but no effect on perioperative blood loss and wound healing.

Decrease in Aflatoxin M1 Concentration in Milk during Cholesterol Removal by Application of ß-Cyclodextrin.

Approximately one-third of humankind is chronically exposed to the carcinogenic aflatoxin M1 contained in milk. As ß-cyclodextrin is frequently used in the food industry, its effect on aflatoxin M1 concentration was investigated during cholesterol removal from milk due to the similarity among the physicochemical properties of aflatoxin M1 and cholesterol. Moreover, the elimination of cholesterol using ß-cyclodextrin has been successfully applied in many studies without any substantial effect on the quality of the treated milk. Therefore, milk samples were spiked with aflatoxin M1 within the range from 0.20 to 2.00 µg/kg, and cholesterol removal was carried out by 2.0% (w/w) ß-cyclodextrin addition, as this concentration is enough for the sufficient removal of cholesterol. It was found that the mean cholesterol concentration decreased by 92.3%, while the aflatoxin M1 concentration decreased to 0.53 ± 0.04 µg/kg, i.e., by 39.1% after treatment (n = 2). This mitigation procedure itself is easy and inexpensive and thus is fully applicable with a high potential for complete decontamination of aflatoxin M1 milk. This method will therefore considerably improve the food safety issues associated with aflatoxin M1 presence in milk and dairy products.

ß-Cyclodextrin as the Key Issue in Production of Acceptable Low-Cholesterol Dairy Products.

The application of cyclodextrins in food technology is extensive due to their unique ability to form complexes with many bioactive substances. Consumption of dairy products is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) due to its high content of saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, so the production of low-cholesterol content products would be one of the critical steps in CVD prevention with regards to lowered total daily cholesterol intake. To maintain consumer acceptance, organoleptic profiles of such products should be, in the optimal case, the same with comparison to original ones. So, this study deals with the development of set low cholesterol foods (milk, cream, butter, soft cheese, cottage cheese) by ß-cyclodextrin treatment and the characterization of their organoleptic profiles such as color and textural characteristics. During the experiments, high effectivity of cholesterol removal was reached as follows: milk-97.3%, cream-95.6%, butter-95.6%, cottage cheese-97.9%, soft cheese-97.7%, while color differences varied from 0.25 to 1.13 and textural characteristics were not influenced by cholesterol removal as well. So, it can be concluded that the proposed procedure is enabled to be substantial for the production of a new assortment of low-cholesterol dairy products with considerable health benefits toward the incidence of CVD.

Determination of Cholesterol Content in Butter by HPLC: Up-to-Date Optimization, and In-House Validation Using Reference Materials.

This work deals with up-to-date optimization of cholesterol content determination when saponification and extraction procedures as well as HPLC conditions were studied. As found, optimal conditions for saponification process were identified by 15 min heating in the presence of 0.015 L of methanolic KOH solution with a concentration 1 mol/L with subsequent 0.015 L n-hexane-chloroform binary mixture (1:1, v/v) double extraction. HPLC separation consisted of isocratic elution with flow rate of 0.5 mL/min mobile phase composed of acetonitrile/methanol 60:40 (v/v) and stationary phase Zorbax Eclipse Plus C18 column 2.1 × 100 mm, 3.5 µm particle size diameters with detector wavelength 205 nm. The method passed through in-house validation criteria and its suitability was verified by analysis of butter reference materials. In final, the average content of cholesterol content in butter was determined at 2271.0 mg/kg. Thus, the method is suitable for the determination of cholesterol content in butter and probably also in other dairy products.

Modern Procedures for Removal of Hazardous Compounds From Foods.

This chapter deals with interactions between foods or food additives and plastic package materials oriented to elimination of hazardous compounds from foods. As found, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can be effectively eliminated from liquid smoke flavors and smoked meat products by migration of PAHs into low-density polyethylene (LDPE), when the limiting factor of the elimination is diffusion in food matrix. After leaving food bulk, PAHs migrate deeper into LDPE bulk what brings about permanent renewal of material imbalance on LDPE/food matrix interface that maintains the migration process in an intensive regime causing extensive lowering of PAH content in food matrix. To the opposite, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in contact with vegetable oils is able to absorb only PAHs on active center deposited on its surface without deeper migration into plastic bulk and therefore this type of elimination process is less effective. Overall, migration processes are affected by polarity of food matrix and package materials, presence of compounds able to compete for adsorption center on PET surface, the time of interactions, and, of course, imbalance of PAH chemical potentials in individual systems.

Elimination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from smoked sausages by migration into polyethylene packaging.

The objective of this work was a study of interactions between a smoked meat product and plastic packaging to find a possibility of elimination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) from smoked sausages by migration into the packaging. Smoked meat sausages were packed into o-polyamide/low density polyethylene laminated film and content of four PAH was determined at 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 120, 150 and 180 min by HPLC. During this time, total PAH4 content decreased from 30.1 to 5.7 µg/kg, benzo[a]anthracene decreased from 11.5 to 2.1 µg/kg, chrysene from 9.4 to 1.9 µg/kg, benzo[b]fluoranthene from 5.3 to 0.6 µg/kg and benzo[a]pyrene from 3.9 to 1.1 µg/kg while PAH4 content in non-packed sausages remained at a constant level. So, while sausages did not meet European safety limits set for PAH4 content of 12 µg/kg and 2 µg/kg for benzo[a]pyrene before packaging, these limits were met at the end of the experiment. This decrease was brought about by migration of PAH4 from sausages into low density polyethylene packaging bulk and the measure of decrease can be predicted by a kinetic equation, making it possible to calculate PAH content equal to any time of experiment as well as the time of interaction necessary to fulfil EU legislative limits.

Factors affecting elimination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from smoked meat foods and liquid smoke flavorings.

This review deals with effects of environmental and physicochemical factors affecting polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) elimination from smoked meat products and liquid smoke flavoring (LSF). In the introductory part, some essential information are aimed at principles of food smoking and PAH formation during smoke generation as a result of incomplete wood combustion. Also, an application of alternative technology for food aromatization using LSF is briefly mentioned. Similarly, latest European legislation, biological effects, and analytical aspects of PAHs are mentioned concisely. The main part is devoted to physicochemical factors affecting the PAH content in smoked meat products, such as light, additional cooking, and packaging, which are able to decrease considerably PAH content in some meat products. The most important effect on PAH concentration decrease in LSF has low-density polyethylene (LDPE) package due to sorption processes on a surface of the plastic with subsequent diffusion into the plastic bulk. A less effective material is polyethylene terephthalate (PET), when only a surface adsorption process comes into account. Moreover, this process is affected also by other compounds presented in liquid media able to compete for the adsorption center on the PET surface.

Using capillary isotachophoresis for the determination of biogenic amines and D-isocitric acid in food products.

This paper presents results achieved in the determination of biogenic amines in various food products and quality evaluation of some commercial orange juices by capillary isotachophoresis. The highest amount of histamine was determined in frankfurters (146.75 mg x kg(-1)); the content of tyramine was either under detection limit of method or it was present in very low concentrations. The highest amount of cadaverine was determined in Karicka cheese (666.36 mg x kg(-1)). The limit of determination was 1.59 mg x kg(-1) for histamine and 1.25 mg x kg(-1) for tyramine. The recovery of method ranged from 95.4 to 104.9%. Surprisingly it was found that many organge juice samples did not reach required values according to the Code of Practice. The lowest ratio of citric to D-isocitric acids was found in Happy day juice (44.1). Limit of determination was 1.62 mg x dm(-3) for citric acid and 2.00 mg x dm(-3) for D-isocitric acid. The recovery of the method ranged from 89 to 96.5%.

Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in smoked meat products and smoke flavouring food additives.

Formation, factors affecting concentrations, legal limits and occurrence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in smoked meat products and smoke flavour additives are briefly reviewed. The most used techniques such as thin-layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are evaluated. Also, sample preparation, pre-separation procedures, separation and detection systems being used for determination are discussed with emphasis to latest development in applied food analysis and the chosen data regarding the concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in smoked meat products and smoke flavour additives are summarised.