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Background and aim Gastric cancer (GC) accounts for 4% of all cancers in Europe. Sarcopenia is a complex syndrome characterized by a loss of muscle mass and function associated with age, often present in neoplastic diseases. Recently several studies have shown a significant association between sarcopenia and poor prognosis in various pathological conditions. Methods This observational retrospective study investigates the association between sarcopenia and outcome, both as RFS and OS, in patients with GC undergoing surgery with curative intent. For 50 patients, 25 male and 25 female, the preoperative CT calculation of the skeletal muscle index (SMI) at L3-level allowed us to identify 34 patients with and 16 without sarcopenia. Kaplan-Meyer and univariable and multivariable Cox regression analysis were performed to determine difference in survival and presence of independent prognostic factors. Results A statistically significant difference between the sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic groups was observed in both overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) (P  < 0.023; P  < 0.006). Moreover, sarcopenia was strongly correlated to a higher risk of recurrence in univariate and multivariate analysis (P  < 0.02). Conclusion Sarcopenia can be considered a critical risk factor for survival in patients with resectable GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An inter-laboratory exercise was carried out by a consortium of five European laboratories to establish a set of compounds, suitable for calibrating gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) devices, to be used as isotopic reference materials for hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen stable isotope measurements. The set of compounds was chosen with the aim of developing a mixture of reference materials to be used in analytical protocols to check for food and beverage authentication. The exercise was organized in several steps to achieve the certification level: the first step consisted of the a priori selection of chemical compounds on the basis of the scientific literature and successive GC tests to set the analytical conditions for each single compound and the mixture. After elimination of the compounds that turned out to be unsuitable in a multi-compound mixture, some additional oxygen- and nitrogen-containing substances were added to complete the range of calibration isotopes. The results of delta(13)C determinations for the entire set of reference compounds have previously been published, while the deltaD and delta(18)O determinations were unsuccessful and after statistical analysis of the data the results did not reach the level required for certification. In the present paper we present the results of an inter-laboratory exercise to identify and test the set of nitrogen-containing compounds present in the mixture developed for use as reference materials for the validation of GC-C-IRMS analyses in individual laboratories., (Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

This study was directed towards investigating suitable compounds to be used as stable isotope reference materials for gas chromatography combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS) calibration. Several compounds were selected from those used in the 'Grob-test' mixture. Oxygen- and nitrogen-containing substances were added to these compounds to allow the mixture to be used as a possible multi-isotopic calibration tool for 2H/1H, 13C/12C, 15N/14N and 18O/16O ratio determinations. In this paper we present the results of delta13C measurements performed by the consortium of the five laboratories taking part in this inter-calibration exercise. All the compounds were individually assessed for homogeneity, short-term stability and long-term stability by means of EA-IRMS, as required by the bureau communitaire de reference (BCR) Guide for Production of Certified Reference Materials. The results were compared then with the GC-C-IRMS measurements using both polar and non-polar columns, and the final mixture of selected compounds underwent a further certification exercise assessing limits of accuracy and reproducibility under specified GC-C-IRMS conditions., (Copyright 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)