Intraarticular hyaluronic acid versus glucocorticoid injections for nonradicular pain in the lumbar spine.

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy and safety of intraarticular sodium hyaluronate (SH) compared with intraarticular glucocorticoids (triamcinolone acetonide; TA) in the treatment of chronic nonradicular lumbar pain.

Materials And Methods: Sixty patients were included in this randomized, controlled, blind-observer clinical study and randomly assigned to two groups to receive 10 mg SH or 10 mg TA per facet joint. The facet joints on both sides at levels S1-L5, L5-L4, and L4-L3 were treated once per week under computed tomographic guidance.

Chromatographic determination of amino acid enantiomers in beers and raw materials used for their manufacture.

Using gas chromatography (GC) on a chiral stationary phase, accompanied by high-performance liquid chromatography, beers and raw materials used for manufacturing (hops, barley grains, malts) were investigated for the pattern and quantities of amino acid enantiomers. Although L-amino acids were most abundant, certain D-amino acids were detected in all beers and most of the raw materials. Highest amounts of D-amino acids were detected in special beers such as Berliner Weisse that underwent bottle-conditioning with lactic cultures, and Belgian fruit beers produced by spontaneous fermentation.

[Roentgen contrast media, source for AOX-contamination of waste water by hospitals].

Purpose: To identify the sources for the exceeding of the upper limit of the AOX (adsorbable organic halogen, X = Cl, Br, I) in hospital waste-water and to estimate the contribution of hospital waste-water to the AOX of municipal waste-water.

Methods: For several hospitals with different medical directions, the expected AOX-concentration, as far as it is caused by iodine contrast media, was ascertained by the contrast media consumption and the water consumption. The results were compared with the measured AOX concentrations.

[Nutritional content in the daily diet from selected nursing homes for the aged in State of Hessen Second Report--minerals].

Daily diet from 20 nursing homes for the elderly in the German state of Hessen were collected over a period of seven days. After weighing and protocoling, the components of the meals were combined to one sample per day. The homogenized samples were analyzed for the minerals sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, nickel, and chromium.

AOX-emissions from hospitals into municipal waste water.

Adsorbable organically bound halogens (AOX) are mostly persistent in the environment, and accumulate in the food web. Some of them are toxic to humans and other organisms. AOX were measured in the effluents from six German hospitals of different size and departments like internal medicine and ear-nose and throat (ENT) as well as from laundry, kitchen and laboratory.