Short- and medium-term reproducibility of gastric emptying of a solid meal determined by a low dose of ^(13)C-octanoic acid and nondispersive isotope-selective infrared spectrometry

AIM： To evaluate the reproducibility of a modified 13^C breath test-based measurement of solid phase gastric emptying （GE） within the frames of a simple-repeated measure study protocol. METHODS： Twelve healthy subjects （6 females and 6 males, mean age 24.9＋0.7 years） were recruited to undergo three identical GE examinations. In six subjects the first two examinations were performed 2 d apart, and the third session was carried out at a median interval of 19.5 d （range 18 - 20 d） from the second one. In another six subjects the first two measurements were taken 20 d apart （median, range： 17-23 d）, whereas the third session took place 2 d after the second one. Probes of expiratory air collected before and during six hours after intake of a solid meal （378 kcal） labelled with 75 μL （68 mg） 13^C-octanoic acid, were measured for 13^CO2 enrichment with the nondispersive isotopeselective infrared spectrometry NDIRS apparatus. RESULTS： Taking coefficients of variation for paired examinations into account, the short-term reproducibility of the GE measurement was slightly but not significantly better than the medium-term one： 7.7% and 11.2% for the lag phase （T-Lag）, 7.3% and 10.9% for the gastric half emptying time （T1/2）. The least differences in GE parameters detectable at P= 0.05 level in the 12 paired examinations were 9.6 and 15.6 min for T-Lag, 11.6 and 19.7 min for T1/2 by a two-day or two to three-week time gap, respectively CONCLUSION： The low-cost modification of the breath test involving a lower dose of 13^C-octanoic acid and NDIRS, renders good short- and medium-term reproducibility, as well as sensitivity of the measurement of gastric emptying of solids.

Chromium Content in the Human Hip Joint Tissues

Objective Chromium has many important functions in the human body. For the osseous tissue, its role has not been clearly defined. This study was aimed at determining chromium content in hip joint tissues. Methods A total of 91 hip joint samples were taken in this study, including 66 from females and 25 from males. The sample tissues were separated according to their anatomical parts. The chromium content was determined by the AAS method. The statistical analysis was performed with U Mann-Whitney＇s non-parametric test, P〈0.05. Results The overall chromium content in tissues of the hip joint in the study subjects was as follows： 5.73 μg/g in the articular cartilage, 5.33 μ/g in the cortical bone, 27.86 μ/g in the cancellous bone, 5.95 μg/8 in the fragment of the cancellous bone from the intertrochanteric region, and 2.28 μ/g in the joint capsule. The chromium contents were observed in 2 group patients, it was 7.04 μ/g in people with osteoarthritis and 22.59 μ/g in people with fractures. Conclusion The observed chromium content was highest in the cancellous bone and the lowest in the joint capsule. Chromium content was significantly different between the people with hip joint osteoarthritis and the people with femoral neck fractures.