Rapid Analysis of Acrylamide in Tap and Well Water Samples by Solvent Terminated Dispersive Liquid-Liquid Microextraction Followed by GC-FID.

A fast, green and low cost method for analysis of acrylamide in tap and well water has been presented for the first time using solvent terminated-dispersive liquid liquid microextraction (ST-DLLME) with a simple equipment which does not need centrifugation step followed by GC-FID. The use of one variable at a time optimization method revealed that methanol and octanone were the superior disperser and extraction solvents, respectively. A central composite design (CCD) as a response surface methodology was used for multivariate optimization of five independent factors (volumes of extraction and dispersive solvents, pH, salt addition and extraction time) on the extraction efficiency. Under CCD optimal conditions, the linear range, detection limit (S/N = 3) and quantitation limit (S/N = 10) were 0.1, 0.3 and 0.3-550 ng mL-1, respectively. In these circumstances, the recoveries for real samples (tap and well water) spiked with 0.5, 1 and 10 ng g-1 were in the acceptable range (90.8%-94.1%). In comparison with other methods in the literature, the suggested ST-DLLME approach showed the best analytical performance. The presented green method has potential application as a routine method in the environmental and analytical laboratories for analysis of acrylamide in water samples.

Light Reflectance Spectroscopy to Detect Positive Surgical Margins on Prostate Cancer Specimens.

PURPOSE: Intraoperative frozen section analysis is not routinely performed to determine positive surgical margins at radical prostatectomy due to time requirements and unproven clinical usefulness. Light reflectance spectroscopy, which measures light intensity reflected or backscattered from tissues, can be applied to differentiate malignant from benign tissue. We used a novel light reflectance spectroscopy probe to evaluate positive surgical margins on ex vivo radical prostatectomy specimens and correlate its findings with pathological examination. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with intermediate to high risk disease undergoing radical prostatectomy were enrolled. Light reflectance spectroscopy was performed on suspected malignant and benign prostate capsule immediately following organ extraction. Each light reflectance spectroscopy at 530 to 830 nm was analyzed and correlated with pathological results. A regression model and forward sequential selection algorithm were developed for optimal feature selection. Eighty percent of light reflectance spectroscopy data were selected to train a logistic regression model, which was evaluated by the remaining 20% data. This was repeated 5 times to calculate averaged sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. RESULTS: Light reflectance spectroscopy analysis was performed on 17 ex vivo prostate specimens, on which a total of 11 histologically positive and 22 negative surgical margins were measured. Two select features from 700 to 830 nm were identified as unique to malignant tissue. Cross-validation when performing the predictive model showed that the optical probe predicted positive surgical margins with 85% sensitivity, 86% specificity, 86% accuracy and an AUC of 0.95. CONCLUSIONS: Light reflectance spectroscopy can identify positive surgical margins accurately in fresh ex vivo radical prostatectomy specimens. Further study is required to determine whether such analysis may be used in real time to improve surgical decision making and decrease positive surgical margin rates.

Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma in pleural effusion.

Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) is a rare mesenchymal tumor of vascular origin with variable morphological features and unpredictable biological behavior. EHE occasionally involves the pleural fluid. However, the cytomorphology of EHE found in pleural fluid has not been well characterized in the literature. Herein we describe a case of EHE, initially presenting as multiple liver lesions plus several small nodular densities at the bases of the lungs followed by bilateral pleural effusions.