A multipurpose tool to evaluate the nutritional quality of individual foods: Nutrimap.

Background/objectives: With obesity and nutrition-related diseases rising, public health authorities have recently insisted nutritional quality be included when advertising and labelling food. The concept of nutritional quality is, however, difficult to define. In this paper we present an innovative, science-based nutrient profiling system, Nutrimap, which quantifies nutritional assets and weaknesses of foods.

Nutrient profiling: comparison and critical analysis of existing systems.

Background: Nutrient profiling systems aim at positioning foodstuffs relative to each other according to their contribution to a balanced diet. The accuracy and performance of methodologies are still debated. We present here a critical analysis of the structure and efficiency of the current schemes.

[Relevance and therapeutic implications of dysplasia in the follow-up of ulcerative rectocolitis].

Long standing ulcerative colitis (UC) is a condition capable of malignant transformation. Even if the rate of occurrence of carcinoma differs considerably among the various series, there is general agreement that it can be detectable in advance through the finding of glandular dysplasia. The Authors examine such a problem in a series of 27 patients submitted to clinical and endoscopic follow-up from 1984 to 1989.

[Chronic gastritis. A study of 151 cases diagnosed using gastric biopsy].

With the aim to detect a correlation between endoscopic aspects and histological features of chronic gastritis, the Authors have analysed retrospectively a series of 151 cases where endoscopic alterations were likely due to chronic gastritis and in all cases multiple biopsies were performed. A possible correlation between endoscopy, histology and occurrence of intestinal metaplasia has been carefully evaluated. Only in chronic atrophic gastritis a certain relationship between endoscopic features and histologic diagnosis was detectable: in the same cases a high incidence of intestinal metaplasia was found as well, independently from the severity of endoscopic and/or histologic aspects.

Hepatic expression of hepatitis B and delta virus antigens in patients with acute and chronic hepatitis.

Delta antigen (delta-Ag), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) were examined by immunofluorescence and immunoperoxidase staining in 106 deparaffinized liver biopsy samples from HBsAg-positive patients with acute and chronic hepatitis. The delta-Ag was present in 15 cases (14%), with nuclear positivity varying greatly in intensity and prevalence. Patients with chronic hepatitis associated with delta infection had a histological picture characterized by foci of intralobular inflammation, many apoptotic bodies and shrunken hepatocytes with no satellite signs of inflammation.