Vaiva Hendrixson

Infrared spectroscopic imaging of renal tumor tissue.

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic imaging has been used to probe the biochemical composition of human renal tumor tissue and adjacent normal tissue. Freshly resected renal tumor tissue from surgery was prepared as a thin cryosection and examined by FTIR spectroscopic imaging. Tissue types could be discriminated by utilizing a combination of fuzzy k-means cluster analysis and a supervised classification algorithm based on a linear discriminant analysis. The spectral classification is compared and contrasted with the histological stained image. It is further shown that renal tumor cells have spread in adjacent normal tissue. This study demonstrates that FTIR spectroscopic imaging can potentially serve as a fast and objective approach for discrimination of renal tumor tissue from normal tissue and even in the detection of tumor infiltration in adjacent tissue.

Combined studies of chemical composition of urine sediments and kidney stones by means of infrared microspectroscopy

Abstract. Results of the structural analysis of urinary sediments by means of infrared spectral microscopy are presented. The results are in good agreement with the results of standard optical microscopy in the case of single-component and crystalline urinary sediments. It is found that for noncrystalline or multicomponent sediments, the suggested spectroscopic method is superior to optical microscopy. The chemical structure of sediments of any molecular origin can be elucidated by this spectroscopic method. The method is sensitive enough to identify solid particles of drugs present in urine. Sulfamethoxazole and traces of other medicines are revealed in this study among the other sediments. We also show that a rather good correlation exists between the type of urinary sediments and the renal stones removed from the same patient. Spectroscopic studies of urinary stones and corresponding sediments from 76 patients suffering from renal stone disease reveal that in 73% of cases such correlation exists. This finding is a strong argument for the use of infrared spectral microscopy to prevent kidney stone disease because stones can be found in an early stage of formation by using the nonintrusive spectroscopic investigation of urinary sediments. Some medical recommendations concerning the overdosing of certain pharmaceuticals can also be derived from the spectroscopic studies of urinary sediments.

Food behaviours of Italian consumers at risk of poverty

Purpose – At a European level, Italy experiences one of the highest percentages of population at risk of poverty (AROP). However, studies on this consumer segment are scarce. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the food behaviours of Italian female consumers, distinguishing similarities and differences due to age and level of income. Design/methodology/approach – The investigation adopted an inductive approach in order to analyse and confirm the determinants of food behaviours. Data were collected through four focus groups. Data elaboration included content analyses with term frequency – inverse document frequency index and multidimensional scaling technique. Findings – The food behaviours of Italian female consumers are based on a common set of semantic categories and theoretical dimensions that are coherent with those applied by previous studies. The age of consumers impacts the relevance attributed to the categories and income contributes to the explanation of the conceptual relations among the...

Women’s Income and Healthy Eating Perception

Abstract Purpose The purpose of the chapter is to explore the relation between women’s healthy eating intention and food attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and barriers with a focus on the effect of women’s income differences. Methodology/approach The research applies the Theory of Planned Behavior, including attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived barriers, and ability opportunity resources. Close-ended survey responses of 704 women between ages 25 and 65 years, affluent and at-risk-of-poverty women in three EU-member countries were analyzed. Findings Women are mostly positively inclined towards healthy eating, and income does not differentiate women’s inclination. Influencing factors are perceived behavioral control, attitudes towards healthy eating, subjective norms, and level of knowledge regarding healthy food. Barriers, when present, are similar for lower or higher income women and relate to routinized family habits and food affordability and availability. Research limitations/implications Future research should thoroughly investigate family network and structure features, with a focus on family food preferences and habits. Social and practical implications Encouraging women’s healthy behavior also impacts children and men, and vice-versa. There is need to target all family components with enjoyable, self-rewarding, emotionally gratifying, and pleasant tasting food. Originality/value Income is an overestimated driver in healthy food choices. Women are strongly influenced by personal and environmental factors, mainly personal control, feelings, and family habits.

Investigation of Variations in the Human Urine Metabolome amongst European Populations: An Exploratory Search for Biomarkers of People at Risk-of-Poverty

SCOPE According to Eurostat 2016, approximately 119 million European citizens live at-risk-of-poverty (ROP). This subpopulation is highly diverse by ethnicity, age, and culture in the different EU states, but they all have in common a low income that could represent an increased risk of nutrient deficiencies due to poor nutritional habits. This study aims to investigate the human urine metabolome in the search of common biomarkers representing dietary deficiencies amongst European populations at ROP. METHODS AND RESULTS 2732 urine samples were collected from 1391 subjects across five different European countries, including the United Kingdom, Finland, Italy, Lithuania, and Serbia, and analyzed using 1 H-NMR spectroscopy. The resulting urine metabolome data were explored according to study design factors including economic status, country, and gender. CONCLUSION Partitioning of the effects derived from the study design factors using ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA) revealed that country and gender effects were responsible for most of the systematic variation. The effect of economic status was, as expected, much weaker than country and gender, but more pronounced in Lithuania than in other countries. Citrate and hippurate were among the most powerful ROP biomarkers. The possible relationship between these markers and nutritional deficiencies amongst the ROP population is discussed.

Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in Patients with Uric Acid and Calcium–based Kidney Stones

The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with uric acid and calcium–based kidney stones and to investigate the relationship between metabolic syndrome and type of kidney stone using infrared spectroscopy to evaluate the chemical composition of kidney stones Sixty patients with urolithiasis were examined. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed according to clinical and laboratory criteria. Weight, height, body mass index, waist circumference, and blood pressure of patients were measured. Blood tests were performed. Concentrations of total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose and uric acid in blood, were analyzed. The kidney stones of patients were removed and the composition of each kidney stone was analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 55% of the patients; 86.7% of patients with uric acid (UA) kidney stones and 44.4% of patients with calcium (Ca) based stones had metabolic syndrome. All patients diagnosed with metabolic syndrome were overweight or obese. Even though there were no statistically significant differences observed concerning the anthropometrical measures and arterial blood pressure (BP) between the UA stone formers and Ca–based stone formers, the results show a trend that failed to reach significance: higher waist size, BMI and arterial BP means in the group of patients with UA stones than in the patients with Ca–based stones. No statistically significant differences in lipid profile between the groups were found. Concentration of UA in blood serum was significantly higher in patients with UA kidney stones than it was in patients with Ca–based kidney stones. Significant positive correlation between triglycerides and serum UA concentrations, as well as body mass index and serum UA concentration, and negative correlation between concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and UA was found. Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome was more prevalent in patients with uric acid stones than in the patients with calcium–based kidney stones, even though this relationship was not statistically significant, most likely because of the limited number of patients investigated.