Metabolic investigations in patients with hepatitis B and C

AIM:To investigate the similarities and dissimilarities in patients with hepatitis B and hepatitis C,clinically and metabolically. METHODS:Fifty patients with hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus infection were included in this study, along with fifty healthy controls for comparison purposes.Intravenous blood(10 mL)samples from patients and healthy subjects were collected and made to clot before serum was separated and immediately levels of the enzymes,alkaline phosphatase(ALK),creatinine phosphokinase(CPK),lactate dehydrogenase (LDH),serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase(sGOT)and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase(sGPT)were determined by a kit method.For total con-tent of each metal the serum samples were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry.Levels of cholesterol,triglycerides,urea,creatinine and uric acid were determined using a kit method on Microlab 300. RESULTS:Serum magnesium and copper levels remained unchanged,whereas the concentration of zinc decreased and iron increased significantly in both groups of patients.Total antioxidant activity was significantly decreased in both hepatitis B and C.Among the enzymes analyzed,ALK,s-GPT,LDH and s-GOT were all significantly increased in both patients with hepatitis B and C whereas CPK was significantly decreased in patients with hepatitis B and remained unchanged in patients with hepatitis C. CONCLUSION:The information accumulated by this study will help provide a better understanding of involved metabolic processes in order to design appropriate therapeutic approaches for treating these patients,so they can recover and lead normal lives.

Use of residual lignocellulosic biomass for energetic uses and environmental remediation through pyrolysis

This study analyzes the potential of an agricultural residue,hazelnut shells,as raw material in a combined ther-mochemical process to obtain pyro-gas and biochar for environmental remediation.The novelty of this study relies on the definition of a pyrolytic polygeneration process to simultaneously attain an energy-type product and abiochar to maximize the versatility of the products and their usage.To this aim,the heating value of the gas and its potential to feed a micro combined heat and power(micro-CHP)system was evaluated.Additionally,the resulting biochar was chemically activated and tested as adsorbent for the removal of contaminants from an aqueous solution.Results show that the pyro-gas from the shell-type residue was suitable to be used as feed stream in a micro-CHP unit,which was able to operate near the full-load(91.9%)with electrical and thermal efficiencies of 27.6%and 57.9%,respectively.In the case of the biochar fraction,poor results were found for the char prior to activation.Instead,once it was activated with KOH,the resulting activated carbon presented high effectiveness as adsorbent and complete removal of the measured compound(methylene blue)was achieved.