A global assessment of phthalates burden and related links to health effects.

Following a request from the European Commission, the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) derived Dietary Reference Values (DRVs) for iodine, which are provided as Adequate Intake (AI). Iodine is essential for the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Through these hormones, iodine has an important role in energy-yielding metabolism and many other physiological processes. Iodine deficiency is associated with an increased frequency of goitre and hypothyroidism in a population. The AI for iodine is based on a large epidemiological study in European school-aged children showing that goitre prevalence is lowest for a urinary iodine concentration above around 100 μg/L. From this study, a urinary iodine concentration of ≥ 100 μg/L has been accepted as the threshold indicating sufficient iodine intake of school-aged children. In the absence of similar suitable data for other age groups it is proposed that this threshold also be applied for adults, infants and young children. Taking into account urinary volume and an absorption efficiency for iodine of 92 %, an AI of 150 μg/day is proposed for adults. For infants aged 7–11 months and for children, AIs range between 70 μg/day and 130 μg/day. For pregnant women, an AI of 200 μg/day is proposed, taking into account additional needs due to increased maternal thyroid hormone production and the iodine uptake by the fetus, placenta and amniotic fluid. The proposed AI for lactating women of 200 μg/day takes into account the existence of large iodine stores in conditions of adequate iodine status before pregnancy and considers that a full compensation for the iodine secreted in breast milk is not justified for the derivation of an AI for iodine for lactating women. © European Food Safety Authority, 2014

Scientific Opinion on Dietary Reference Values for iodine.

BACKGROUND: Most errors in a clinical chemistry laboratory are due to preanalytical errors. Preanalytical variability of biospecimens can have significant effects on downstream analyses, and controlling such variables is therefore fundamental for the future use of biospecimens in personalized medicine for diagnostic or prognostic purposes.

CONTENT: The focus of this review is to examine the preanalytical variables that affect human biospecimen integrity in biobanking, with a special focus on blood, saliva, and urine. Cost efficiency is discussed in relation to these issues.

SUMMARY: The quality of a study will depend on the integrity of the biospecimens. Preanalytical preparations should be planned with consideration of the effect on downstream analyses. Currently such preanalytical variables are not routinely documented in the biospecimen research literature. Future studies using biobanked biospecimens should describe in detail the preanalytical handling of biospecimens and analyze and interpret the results with regard to the effects of these variables.

Preanalytical Variables Affecting the Integrity of Human Biospecimens in Biobanking

Artificial urine has many advantages over human urine for research and educational purposes. By closely mimicking healthy individuals’ urine, it may also be important in discovering novel biomarkers. However, up until now, there has not been any specific protocol to prove the similarity in terms of the chemical composition at the molecular level. In this study, a new artificial urine protocol is established to mimics the urine of healthy individuals. The multi-purpose artificial urine (MP-AU) presented here is compared with two other protocols most cited in literature. Furthermore, these three protocols are also compared with samples from 28 healthy young individuals. To do so, attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) is used, according to which MP-AU shows a significantly close similarity with human urine. In formulating MP-AU, the infrared spectra of nine compounds is provided, making possible the band assignment of some absorption bands to certain compounds. Given its properties, the MP-AU protocol introduced here is both economical and practical, making it useful when designing comparative-controlled experiments.

A New Artificial Urine Protocol to Better Imitate Human Urine.

While the prevalence of children on vegetarian diets is assumed to be on the rise in industrialized countries, there are hardly any representative data available. In general, vegetarian diets are presumed to be healthy; nevertheless, there are concerns as to whether the dietary specifications required during infancy, childhood, and adolescence can be met. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review was to evaluate studies on the dietary intake and the nutritional or health status of vegetarian infants, children, and adolescents. The database MEDLINE was used for literature search. In addition, references of reviews and expert opinions were considered. Inclusion criteria were (1) sufficient dietary information to define vegetarian type diet and (2) characteristics of nutritional or health status. Case reports and studies from non-industrialized countries were excluded. 24 publications from 16 studies published from 1988 to 2013 met our criteria. Study samples covered the age range from 0 to 18 years, and median sample size was 35. Five studies did not include a control group. With regard to biomarkers, anthropometry, and dietary or nutritional intake, the outcomes were diverse. Growth and body weight were generally found within the lower reference range. The intakes of folate, vitamin C, and dietary fiber were relatively high compared to reference values and/or control groups. Low status of vitamin B12 was reported in one study and low status of vitamin D in two studies. Due to the study heterogeneity, the small samples, the bias towards upper social classes, and the scarcity of recent studies, the existing data do not allow us to draw firm conclusions on health benefits or risks of present-day vegetarian type diets on the nutritional or health status of children and adolescents in industrialized countries.

Vegetarian diets in children: a systematic review

Long-term urine biobanking: storage stability of clinical chemical parameters under moderate freezing conditions without use of preservatives.

Background: Currently, the measurement of urinary iodine concentration (UIC, μg/L) is the recommended parameter to assess iodine status, however, the dependency of UIC on urine volume may limit its use as an accurate parameter for monitoring iodine status in populations Therefore, our objective was to compare two approaches for the assessment of urinary iodine excretion in spot urine samples: UIC (μg/L) and a creatinine-scaled estimate of 24-hour iodine excretion (est24h-UIEcrea [μg/d]) against actually measured 24-hour urinary iodine excretion rates (24h-UIE, μg/d) Methods: Urinary iodine and creatinine were measured both in 24-hour urine samples and parallel collected spot urine samples from 180 healthy participants of the DONALD Study, aged 6–18 years 24h-UIE was used as quasi-reference for actual iodine status Published 24-hour creatinine reference values served to calculate est24h-UIEcrea Correlation analysis, cross-classifications, and Bland-Altman plots were used to evaluate agreement between 

Iodine Status Assessment in Children: Spot Urine Iodine Concentration Reasonably Reflects True Twenty-Four–Hour Iodine Excretion Only When Scaled to Creatinine

Contribution of fruit and vegetable intake to hydration status in schoolchildren

Adequate dietary iodine intake in children is essential for optimal physical and neurological development. Whether lower dietary animal food and salt intake may adversely affect iodine status is under discussion. We examined the association between dietary animal:plant protein ratio with 24-h urinary iodine excretion (24-h UI, μg/d), and whether this is modified by salt intake. A 24-h UI was measured in 1959 24-h urine samples from 516 6- to 12-year-old participants of the Dortmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed Study. Parallel 3 d weighed food records were used to estimate dietary intakes. Protein sources were classified as dairy, animal and plant. A repeated-measures regression model (PROC MIXED) was used to analyse the effect of animal:plant protein ratios on 24-h UI. Animal:plant protein ratios ranged from 0·5 (95 % CI 0·4, 0·6) to 1·6 (95 % CI 1·4, 1·9) (lowest and highest quartile). After adjustment for total energy intake, main dietary iodine sources (dairy and salt intake), and further covariates, the inter-individual variation in animal:plant protein ratio was significantly associated with variation in 24-h UI. One unit higher animal:plant protein ratio predicted 6 μg/d higher 24-h UI (P= 0·002) in boys and 5 μg/d (P= 0·03) in girls. This relationship was partially mediated by a higher salt intake at higher animal:plant protein ratios. These results suggest that lower consumption of animal protein is associated with a small decline in iodine excretion, partially mediated by decreased salt intake. Because limited salt and increased intake of plant-based foods are part of a preferable healthy food pattern, effective nutrition political strategies will be required in the future to ensure appropriate iodine nutrition in adherent populations.

/pdf/dietary-ratio-of-animal-plant-protein-is-associated-with-24-2uhnps3z44.pdf

Gabriela Montenegro-Bethancourt

Papers

Long-term urine biobanking: storage stability of clinical chemical parameters under moderate freezing conditions without use of preservatives.

Iodine Status Assessment in Children: Spot Urine Iodine Concentration Reasonably Reflects True Twenty-Four–Hour Iodine Excretion Only When Scaled to Creatinine

Contribution of fruit and vegetable intake to hydration status in schoolchildren

Dietary ratio of animal:plant protein is associated with 24-h urinary iodine excretion in healthy school children