Comparative Thermal Degradation Patterns of Natural Yellow Colorants Used in Foods.

There is a great interest in natural yellow colorants due to warnings issued about certain yellow food colorings of synthetic origin. However, no comparative studies have been reported of their thermal stability. For this reason, the thermal stabilities of six natural yellow colorants used in foods--lutein, riboflavin, curcumin, ß-carotene, gardenia yellow and Opuntia betaxanthins--were studied in simple solutions over a temperature range 30-90 °C.

[Intracardiac persistence of pericatheter fibrin sheath in a newborn: case report].

One of the complications related to central venous catheters is the so-called "fibrin sheath or sleeve", the persistence of this structure after central venous catheter removal is uncommon, especially within a cardiac chamber. A neonate with symptoms of infection and portal vein thrombosis with suspected umbilical catheter fragment retained in right atrium was consulted for possible removal by catheterization. Prior to the procedure, the echocardiography findings guided us to the diagnosis of persistent fibrin sheath.

[An apparent life threatening secondary to long Qt syndrome].

We report the case of an infant with an episode of loss of consciousness, in whom ventricular fibrillation was diagnosed. He was successfully defibrillated and long QT syndrome was diagnosed as his baseline disease. This case constitutes a documented example of this entity as a cause of the sudden infant death syndrome.

Thermal stability of selected natural red extracts used as food colorants.

The color degradation of aqueous solutions of six natural red pigment extracts (elderberry, red cabbage, hibiscus, red beet, Opuntia fruits and red cochineal) used commercially as food colorants was investigated at temperatures between 50 and 90 °C. Color degradation was studied in respect to both spectral properties and visual color. The remaining absorbance at 535 nm as a function of the incubation time and temperature was used to quantify the degradation process.

Acinic cell carcinoma of salivary gland with massive deposits of globular amyloid.

We present the case of a 23-year-old woman with a parotid gland tumor, the fine-needle aspiration biopsy smears of which showed epithelial cells with wide cytoplasm, isolated or arranged in micropapillary groups together with psammoma bodies. The surgical specimen contained a 5-cm tumor with the histologic features of an acinic cell carcinoma (ACC) with papillary areas. Notably, the cells of the tumor seemed to follow a sequence from large cells with rounded nuclei with open chromatin and prominent nucleoli to vacuolated cells with granular material, and finally to cells undergoing apoptosis.