The challenge of COVID-19 for a Clinical Microbiology Department.

OBJECTIVES: To quantify the workload and cost overload that the COVID-19 pandemic has meant for a Clinical Microbiology laboratory in a real-life scenario. METHODS: We compared the number of samples received, their distribution, the human resources, and the budget of a Microbiology laboratory in the COVID pandemic (March-December 2020) with the same months of the previous year. RESULTS: the total number of samples processed in the Clinical Microbiology laboratory in March to December 2020 increased 96.70% with respect to 2019 (from 246,060 to 483,993 samples), reflecting an increment of 127.50% when expressed as samples/1000 admissions (from 6057 to 13,780). The increase in workload was mainly at the expense of the virology (+2058%) and serology (+86%) areas. Despite additional personnel hiring, the samples processed per technician increased 12.5%. The extra cost attributed to Microbiology amounts to 6,616,511 euros (114.8%). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to provide quantitative figures about workload and cost increase caused by the COVID-19 in a Microbiology laboratory.

Bioactive Sugarcane Lipids in a Circular Economy Context.

Most of the global sugar and ethanol supply trade comes from the harvesting of Saccharum officinarum (i.e., sugarcane). Its industrial processing results in numerous by-products and waste streams, such as tops, straw, filter cake, molasses and bagasse. The recovery of lipids (i.e., octacosanol, phytosterols, long-chain aldehydes and triterpenoids) from these residues is an excellent starting point for the development of new products for various application fields, such as health and well-being, representing an important feature of the circular economy. By selecting green scalable extraction procedures, industry can reduce its environmental impact. Refluxed ethanol extraction methods have been demonstrated to meet these characteristics. On the other hand, effective non-solvent methodologies such as molecular distillation and supercritical CO2 extraction can fractionate lipids based on high temperature and pressure application with similar yields. Sugarcane lipophilic extracts are usually analyzed through gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) techniques. In many cases, the identification of such compounds involves the development of high-temperature GC-MS/FID techniques. On the other hand, for the identification and quantification of thermolabile lipids, LC-MS techniques are suitable for the separation and identification of major lipid classes. Generically, its composition includes terpenes, phytosterols, tocopherol, free fatty acids, fatty alcohols, wax esters, triglycerides, diglycerides and monoglycerides. These compounds are already known for their interesting application in various fields such as pharma and cosmetics due to their anti-hypercholesterolemic, anti-hyperglycemic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

HCV core-antigen assay as an alternative to HCV RNA quantification: A correlation study for the assessment of HCV viremia.

INTRODUCTION: Detection of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA and the HCV core antigen assay (HCV-Ag) are reliable techniques for the diagnosis of active and chronic HCV infection. Our aim was to evaluate the HCV-Ag assay as an alternative to quantification of HVC RNA. METHODS: A comparison was made of the sensitivity and specificity of an HCV-Ag assay (204 serum samples) with those of a PCR assay, and the correlation between the two techniques was determined. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of HCV-Ag was 76.6% and 100%, respectively. Both assays were extremely well correlated (Pearson coefficient=0.951). The formula (LogCV=1.15*LogAg+2.26) was obtained to calculate the viral load by PCR from HCV-Ag values. HCV-Ag was unable to detect viral loads below 5000IU/mL. CONCLUSION: Although the HCV-Ag assay was less sensitive than the PCR assay, the correlation between both assays was excellent. HCV-Ag can be useful as a first step in the diagnosis of acute or chronic HCV infection and in emergency situations.

A high-performance direct transmethylation method for total fatty acids assessment in biological and foodstuff samples.

Isolation is the main bottleneck in the analysis of fatty acids in biological samples and foods. In the last few decades some methods described direct derivatization procedures bypassing these steps. They involve the utilization of methanolic HCL or BF3 as catalysts, but several evidences from previous works suggest these reagents are unstable, lead to the formation of artifacts and alter the distribution of specific compounds as hydroxy fatty acids or CLA. However, the main issue is that they are excellent esterification reagents but poor in transterification, being not suitable for the analysis of all lipid classes and leading to erroneous composition quantitations. The present research work is a comprehensive comparison of six general methylation protocols using base, acid or base/acid catalysts plus a proposed method in the analysis of total fatty acids in lipid standards mixtures, foodstuff and biological samples. The addition of aprotic solvents to the reaction mixture to avoid alterations was also tested. Results confirmed that procedures solely involving acid catalyst resulted in incomplete derivatizations and alteration of the fatty acid profile, partially corrected by addition of the aprotic solvent. The proposed method combining sodium methoxyde and sulfuric acid showed absence of alteration of the FAME profile and the best values for response factors (short chain fatty acids to PUFA), accuracy in the determination of total cholesterol and derivatization performance, thus showing a high reliability in the determination of the total fatty acid composition in biological samples and foods.

The menopause in Spain: results of the DAMES (Decisions At MEnopause) study.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the symptomatology of menopause and the use of hormone therapy among women in Spain. METHODS: A survey conducted on a representative sample of 300 women aged 45-55 in Madrid. The instrument included closed- and open-ended questions about demographic and socio-economic information, health and reproductive history, symptoms in past month, use of health services, life style, and therapeutic decisions. RESULTS: Eighty-three percent of respondents report five or more symptoms. Joint pains, weight gain, mood changes and nervousness are the most frequently reported; just under half of respondents report hot flashes; 4/5 report emotional/mental symptoms. The frequencies of some symptoms vary with socio-economic status. Two-thirds of respondents have consulted physicians, and 10% are currently taking hormone therapy; the use of hormone therapy is lower among women from the lower strata. One-fifth of respondents use of nonconventional and alternative medications. Just under half of respondents find that menopause is difficult. CONCLUSION: Symptom reporting is relatively high, but general symptoms are more frequent than "core" menopausal symptoms. The use of hormone therapy is relatively low, but the use of alternative medicines is relatively high.