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Background: To assess the reliability of complete blood count (CBC) in the capillary blood of children with acute gastroenteritis (AGE), with a focus on leukocytes.Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study. Complete blood count was compared between the capillary and venous blood in children admitted to a pediatric gastroenterology department with primary diagnosis of AGE (ICD-10 A09, A08.0, A08.2). Capillary blood was obtained in the emergency room and venous blood was sampled in the ward shortly thereafter during peripheral intravenous line placement.Results: One hundred and forty children were included. The mean (±SD) age and weight of patients were 3.0 ± 2.9 years and 16 ± 9 kg; 26% had leukocytosis. The mean difference between obtaining results of capillary and venous blood tests was 2 ± 1 h. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for the identification of leukocytosis using the capillary blood was 0.98 (95% CI 0.96–1.0). The sensitivity and specificity were 86 and 98%, respectively (accuracy 95%). The positive and negative predictive values were 94 and 95%, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient revealed high concordance between capillary and venous CBC measurements (leukocyte count 0.94, hemoglobin 0.88, erythrocyte count 0.77, hematocrit 0.79, platelet count 0.90). Matched pairs comparisons revealed marginally higher erythrocytes (difference of medians: 0.2 T/L), hemoglobin (0.3 g/dL), hematocrit (1.0%), and platelets (9 G/L) in the capillary blood.Conclusion: Capillary CBC is useful in detecting leukocytosis in children with AGE.

Since honeybee pollen is considered a “perfectly complete food” and is characterized by many beneficial properties (anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-bacterial, etc.), it has begun to be used for therapeutic purposes. Consequently, there is a high need to develop methods for controlling its composition. A thorough bee pollen analysis can be very informative regarding its safety for consumption, the variability of its composition, its biogeographical origin, or harvest date. Therefore, in this study, two reliable and non-destructive spectroscopy methods, i.e., ED-XRF and ATR–FTIR, are proposed as a fast approach to characterize bee pollen. The collected samples were derived from apiaries located in west-central Poland. Additionally, some commercially available samples were analyzed. The applied methodology was optimized and combined with sophisticated chemometric tools. Data derived from IR analyses were also subjected to two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy. The developed ED-XRF method allowed the reliable quantification of eight macro- and micro-nutrients, while organic components were characterized by IR spectroscopy. Principal component analysis, cluster analysis, and obtained synchronous and asynchronous maps allowed the study of component changes occurring dependently on the date and location of harvest. The proposed approach proved to be an excellent tool to monitor the variability of the inorganic and organic content of bee pollen.

Fruits of Cornus mas and Cornus officinalis are representative plant materials traditionally used in Europe and Asia, respectively, in the treatment of diabetes and diabetes-related complications, which are often mediated by pathogenic inflammatory agents. Additionally, due to the fact of mutual infiltration of Asian and European medicines, the differentiation as well as standardization of traditional prescriptions seem to be crucial for ensuring the quality of traditional products. The objective of this study was a comparison of biological activity of extracts from fruits of C. mas and C. officinalis by an assessment of their effect on reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in human neutrophils as well as cytokines secretion both in neutrophils (tumor necrosis factor α, TNF- α; interleukin 8, IL-8; interleukin 1β, IL-1β) and in human colon adenocarcinoma cell line Caco-2 (IL-8). To evaluate the phytochemical differences between the studied extracts as well as to provide a method for standardization procedures, a quantitative analysis of iridoids, such as loganin, sweroside, and loganic acid, found in extracts of Cornus fruits was performed with HPLC-DAD. All standardized extracts significantly inhibited ROS production, whereas the aqueous-alcoholic extracts were particularly active inhibitors of IL-8 secretion by neutrophils. The aqueous-methanolic extract of C. officinalis fruit, decreased IL-8 secretion by neutrophils to 54.64 ± 7.67%, 49.68 ± 6.55%, 50.29 ± 5.87% at concentrations of 5, 50, and 100 µg/mL, respectively, compared to LPS-stimulated control (100%). The aqueous extract of C. officinalis fruit significantly inhibited TNF-α release by neutrophils at concentrations of 50 and 100 µg/mL. On the other hand, the aqueous-ethanolic extract of C. mas fruit showed the propensity to increase TNF-α and IL-1β secretion. The modulatory activity of the Cornus extracts was noted in the case of secretion of IL-8 in Caco-2 cells. The effect was comparable with dexamethasone. The content of loganin in aqueous and aqueous-methanolic extract of C. officinalis fruit was higher than in the aqueous-ethanolic extract of C. mas fruit, which was characterized by a significant quantity of loganic acid. In conclusion, the immunomodulatory effect observed in vitro may partially confirm the traditional use of Cornus fruits through alleviation of the development of diabetes-derived inflammatory complications. Loganin and loganic acid are significant markers for standardization of C. mas and C. officinalis fruit extracts, respectively.