Multi-targeted screening of botanicals in food supplements by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry.

Safety, quality and composition assessments of food supplements based on botanical ingredients are of major concern, as they have usually not been through a rigorous testing process as required for the approval of therapeutic phytopreparations. Therefore, an efficient multi-targeted method was developed to screen selected botanicals of interest in herbal food supplements. Liquid chromatography coupled with a hybrid triple quadrupole linear ion trap was used for this purpose. Botanicals were characterised by means of appropriate biomarkers, which were unambiguously identified by mass spectrometry using an information dependent acquisition experiment which combined a multiple reaction monitoring survey with dependent enhanced product ion scans. During this procedure, product ion scans of targeted analytes were generated at three collision energies and compared with an in-house library of MS/MS spectra acquired from reference standards of all biomarkers. This generic method enables detection, identification and quantification of 98 biomarkers intended to characterise 79 selected plants.

Curative resection for left colonic carcinoma: hemicolectomy vs. segmental colectomy. A prospective, controlled, multicenter trial. French Association for Surgical Research.

PURPOSE: This study was developed to compare median and actuarial survival after left hemicolectomy vs. left segmental colectomy. METHODS: Between January 1980 and January 1985, 270 consecutive patients (133 males and 137 females; mean age, 64 +/- 12 (range, 18-91) years with left colonic carcinoma located between the left third of the transverse colon and (but not, including) the colorectal juncture were randomly allotted to undergo either left hemicolectomy or left segmental colectomy. Left hemicolectomy removed the entire left colon along with the origin of the inferior mesenteric artery and the dependent lymphatic territory. Left segmental colectomy removed a more restricted segment of the colon and left the origin of the inferior mesenteric artery unmolested. RESULTS: After elimination of 10 patients for protocol violation, 131 patients with left hemicolectomy and 129 with left segmental colectomy were analyzed. Both groups were similar with regard to preoperative risk factors (age, sex, obesity, weight loss, anemia, diabetes, cirrhosis, kidney failure, steroid therapy or radiation therapy performed for any cause other than cancer), pathology findings (size, degree of differentiation, Dukes stage, invasion of lymph nodes at the origin of the inferior mesenteric artery), and associated lesions. Only the length of tumor-free margins of colon removed was significantly longer in left hemicolectomy. The number of early postoperative abdominal and extra-abdominal complications was similar in both groups. Overall, early postoperative mortality was 4 percent higher, but not significantly in left hemicolectomy (eight deaths, 6 percent) than in left segmental colectomy (three deaths, 2 percent). Median survival was 10 years and nearly equivalent in both groups. The two actuarial survival curves were similar. Bowel movement frequency was significantly increased after left hemicolectomy during the first postoperative year. Our results suggest that survival after left segmental colectomy is equivalent to that of left hemicolectomy. Notwithstanding the observation of other carcinologic rules, left segmental colectomy rather than left hemicolectomy may theoretically be performed under laparoscopy without compromising the carcinologic outcome.

[Surgical prevention of retinal detachment]. / Prévention chirurgicale du décollement de la rétine.

Prophylaxis of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment consists of measures both non surgical and/or surgical that are effective in preventing some risk-factors that are part of the disease. The procedure must avoid any types of danger. This paper describes a new reliable surgical procedure of circular buckling used for prophylaxis on predisposed fellow-eye of giant retinal tear.

[Extend of colonic excision in the curative treatment of cancers of the left colon. Left or segmental hemicolectomy? A controlled prospective multicenter study]. / Etendue de l'exérèse colique dans le traitement curatif des cancers du colon gauche. Hémicolectomie gauche ou colectomie segmentaire? Essai prospectif multicentrique contrôlé.

The ideal extent of colic excision in the curative treatment of left colic cancers has not yet been defined. The aim of this study is to compare the survival rates following left hemicolectomy and segmental colectomy. Over a period of 5 years from 1980 to 1985, 270 consecutive patients with cancer of the left colon without visceral metastases nor invasion of neighboring organs were included in the study. Survival at 5 years was the main criterion of assessment, with mortality and morbidity being the secondary criteria. 10 patients were excluded a posteriori. Out of the remaining 260 patients, 131 were operated with left hemicolectomy and 129 with segmental colectomy. Both groups were comparable as regards age; sex, risk factors (diabetes, renal failure), radiation therapy, antimitotics, procedure of anastomosis (hand or machine), protective colostomy, size of the tumor, and Dukes' stage. Only the length of the colon resected proximel to the tumor was greater in left hemicolectomy. 16% of the patients had a Dukes A adenocarcinoma. Postoperative mortality was higher after left hemicolectomy (6.1%) than after segmental colectomy (2.3%), but not significantly. Morbidity was similar. The survival rate at 5 years, including immediate deaths, was 64.8% after left hemicolectomy and 65.8% after segmental colectomy. Both survival charts could be strictly superimposed without significant differences. Left hemicolectomy therefore produced results that were comparable to those of segmental colectomy.

[Prevention of retinal detachment. Whom to treat?]. / Prévention du décollement de la rétine. Qui traiter?

Natural history of retinal detachment (RD) studies on clinical exam of 200 patients revealed that RD, is the consequence of multiple risk factors preparing to PVD. This phenomenon depends therefore from peculiar background, patient's age, and opportunistic traumatism. The best prophylaxis would be represented by a mean of inducing PVD without retinal damage. Since no possibilities are present right now, retinopexy or surgical mechanical action are used as prophylactic methods. Results are discussed in this paper based on long-term-follow-up of 300 patients.

[Surgical treatment of cancer of the left colon. True left hemicolectomy or segmental colectomy?]. / Le traitement chirurgical du cancer du côlon gauche. Hémicolectomie gauche vraie ou colectomie segmentaire?

Non-metastatic cancer of the left colon is still an exclusively surgical problem in 1988. The problem is to determine which type of colectomy should be performed: either a true left hemicolectomy, a long but apparently oncologically satisfactory operation, or segmental colectomy. A recent study by A.R.C. reported the same 5-year survival for these two types of operation with essentially identical postoperative mortality and morbidity. This conclusion confirms that of many studies published on this subject.