Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2004-07"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Custos da doença atribuíveis à hipercolesterolémia em PortugalPublication . Gouveia, Miguel; Borges, Margarida; Costa, João; Oliveira, Eduardo; David, Cláudio; Carneiro, António VazCardiovascular diseases are the main cause of death in Portugal, in developed countries and, indeed, worldwide. Hypercholesterolemia is a major risk factor for these diseases, including ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease. This paper reports the results of a study of the cost of illness associated with hypercholesterolemia and the costs directly attributable to hypercholesterolemia in Portugal, estimated from data for the year 2000. The results indicate that the cost of the health care provided to deal with illnesses associated with hypercholesterolemia was € 735.9 million (direct costs) and the costs of lost production due to disability of patients of working age was € 74.82 million (indirect costs). The costs attributable to hypercholesterolemia, those that would be avoided if hypercholesterolemia were completely eliminated, amount to € 358.84 million in direct costs and € 28.31 million in indirect costs. These results confirm that hypercholesterolemia is a source of major health costs. This means that hypercholesterolemia deserves special attention from those who formulate health policy and should be given priority in implementing such policies.
- Effects of various sugars added to growth and drying media upon thermotolerance and survival throughout storage of freeze-dried lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricusPublication . Carvalho, Ana S.; Silva, Joana; Ho, Peter; Teixeira, P.; Malcata, F. Xavier; Gibbs, PaulThe aim of this research effort was to investigate the role of various sugar substrates in the growth medium upon thermotolerance and upon survival during storage after freeze-drying of Lactobacillus bulgaricus. Addition of the sugars tested to the growth medium, and of these and sorbitol to the drying medium (skim milk) was investigated so as to determine whether a relationship exists between growth and drying media, in terms of protection of freeze-dried cells throughout storage. The lowest decrease in viability of L. bulgaricus cells after freeze-drying was obtained when that organism was grown in the presence of mannose. However, L. bulgaricus clearly survived better during storage when cells had been grown in the presence of fructose, lactose or mannose rather than glucose (the standard sugar in the growth medium). A similar effect could not be observed in terms of thermotolerance; in this case, the growth medium supplemented with lactose was found to yield cells bearing the highest heat resistance. Supplementation of the drying medium with glucose, fructose, lactose, mannose or sorbitol led in most cases to enhancement of protection during storage, to a degree that was growth medium-dependent.