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Objective: The objective of this study was to compare itraconazole with posaconazole for antifungal prophylaxis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy., Methods: Adult patients with AML received either itraconazole or posaconazole for antifungal prophylaxis while undergoing intensive chemotherapy. The primary endpoint was incidence of prophylaxis failure (change in antifungal agent due to suspected invasive fungal infection [IFI], drug intolerance, drug interaction, or adverse event)., Results: From February 2016 to January 2018, 90 patients were included in the itraconazole group and 45 patients in the posaconazole group. Prophylaxis failure occurred in 88% of itraconazole recipients compared with 33% of posaconazole recipients (P<0.001). The primary reason for prophylaxis failure with itraconazole was suspected IFI (58%) whereas for posaconazole, failure predominantly related to drug interaction (60%). An antifungal regimen was continued upon discharge in 47% of itraconazole recipients compared with 9% of posaconazole recipients (P<0.001). The use of breakthrough IFI diagnostic tests was not significantly different in the two groups. A larger proportion of drug concentrations were collected in the posaconazole group., Conclusions: In AML patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy, posaconazole was associated with significantly lower rates of prophylaxis failure and less need for continued antifungal therapy on discharge compared with itraconazole., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eighth millennium bc. Although there would have been considerable economic and nutritional gains from using these animals for their milk and other products from living animals-that is, traction and wool-the first clear evidence for these appears much later, from the late fifth and fourth millennia bc. Hence, the timing and region in which milking was first practised remain unknown. Organic residues preserved in archaeological pottery have provided direct evidence for the use of milk in the fourth millennium in Britain, and in the sixth millennium in eastern Europe, based on the delta(13)C values of the major fatty acids of milk fat. Here we apply this approach to more than 2,200 pottery vessels from sites in the Near East and southeastern Europe dating from the fifth to the seventh millennia bc. We show that milk was in use by the seventh millennium; this is the earliest direct evidence to date. Milking was particularly important in northwestern Anatolia, pointing to regional differences linked with conditions more favourable to cattle compared to other regions, where sheep and goats were relatively common and milk use less important. The latter is supported by correlations between the fat type and animal bone evidence.

Man's use of illuminants in lamps or as torches to extend the working day and range of environments accessible to him would have been a major technological advance in human civilisation. The most obvious evidence for this in the archaeological record comes from pottery and stone vessels showing sooting due to the use of a wick in conjunction with a lipid-based fuel or illuminant. A wide range of potential fuels would have been exploited depending upon availability and burning requirements. Reported herein are the results of chemical investigations of a number of lamps recovered from excavations of the site of Qasr Ibrim, Egypt. Gas chromatographic, mass spectrometric and stable carbon isotopic analyses of both free (solvent extractable) and 'bound'(released from solvent extracted pottery by base treatment) lipids have revealed a wide range of saturated fatty acids, hydroxy fatty acids and alpha, omega-dicarboxylic acids. Examination of the distributions of compounds and comparisons with the fatty acid compositions of modern plant oils have allowed a range of fats and oils to be recognised. Specific illuminants identified include Brassicaceae (Cruciferae) seed oil (most likely radish oil, Raphanus sativus), castor oil (from Ricinus communis), animal fat, with less diagnostic distributions and delta(13)C values being consistent with low stearic acid plant oils, such as linseed (Linum usitatissimum) or sesame (Sesamum indicum) oils. The identifications of the various oils and fats are supported by parallel investigations of illuminant residues produced by burning various oils in replica pottery lamps. The findings are entirely consistent with the classical writers including Strabo, Pliny and Theophrastrus.

The discovery of a small tin canister in London during archaeological excavations of a Roman temple precinct, dated to the middle of the second century AD, is a landmark in the study of this class of artefact. Such discoveries from the Roman world are rare and this is the only one to be found so far with its lid and contents--a whitish medicinal or cosmetic cream--providing a unique opportunity for us to study the ancient formulation.

The chemical analyses of "bog butters" recovered from peat bogs of Scotland were performed with the aim of determining their origins. Detailed compositional information was obtained from "bog butter" lipids using high temperature gas chromatography (HTGC) and GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results indicate the degree to which "bog butters" have undergone diagenetic alterations during burial to form an adipocere like substance, consisting predominantly of hexadecanoic (palmitic) and octadecanoic (stearic) acids. GC-combustion-isotope ratio MS (GC-C-IRMS) was used to determine delta13C values for the dominant fatty acids present, revealing for the first time that "bog butters" were derived from both ruminant dairy fats and adipose fats. The results are compared and contrasted with modern reference fats and adipoceres produced in vitro.

Domesticated animals formed an important element of farming practices in prehistoric Britain, a fact revealed through the quantity and variety of animal bone typically found at archaeological sites. However, it is not known whether the ruminant animals were raised purely for their tissues (e.g., meat) or alternatively were exploited principally for their milk. Absorbed organic residues from pottery from 14 British prehistoric sites were investigated for evidence of the processing of dairy products. Our ability to detect dairy fats rests on the observation that the delta(13)C values of the C(18:0) fatty acids in ruminant dairy fats are approximately 2.3 per thousand lower than in ruminant adipose fats. This difference can be ascribed to (i) the inability of the mammary gland to biosynthesize C(18:0); (ii) the biohydrogenation of dietary unsaturated fatty acids in the rumen; and (iii) differences (i.e., 8.1 per thousand ) in the delta(13)C values of the plant dietary fatty acids and carbohydrates. The lipids from a total of 958 archaeological pottery vessels were extracted, and the compound-specific delta(13)C values of preserved fatty acids (C(16:0) and C(18:0)) were determined via gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The results provide direct evidence for the exploitation of domesticated ruminant animals for dairy products at all Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age settlements in Britain. Most significantly, studies of pottery from a range of key early Neolithic sites confirmed that dairying was a widespread activity in this period and therefore probably well developed when farming was introduced into Britain in the fifth millennium B.C.

This study investigates the effects of hydrolysis on the delta13C values of individual amino acids (IAAs) derived from polypeptide standards, and modern and ancient bone collagen. All IAAs were derivatised to their trifluoroacetyl/isopropyl (TFA/IP) esters for delta13C determination using gas chromatography/combustion/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC/C/IRMS). Firstly, authentic single poly amino acid standards (SPAAs; n = 5) were hydrolysed for 4, 10, 24 and 48 h. As expected, IAA yields increased as a function of hydrolysis time. Significantly, it was only after 24 h of hydrolysis that IAA delta13C values were statistically identical to bulk SPAA values for all five standards. The accuracy of IAA delta13C values was thus shown to be a function of yield; however, poly phenylalanine demonstrated accurate IAA delta13C values with yields of only 1.4 and 4.3%, after 24 and 48 h of hydrolysis time, respectively. Authentic mixed poly amino acid standards (MPAAs; n = 5) comprising two different amino acids were then hydrolysed for 24 h. Percentage recoveries ranged from 36-95%. Estimates of bulk MPAA delta13C values calculated from measured IAA delta13C values agreed within experimental error with measured bulk MPAA values for three out of the five standards. Finally, the experimental procedure was applied to modern rat (MBCs; n = 20) and ancient ovi-caprine and bovine (ABCs; n = 27) bone collagen samples where the delta13C values of 12 out of its 18 constituent amino acids were determined. Estimated bulk MBC and ABC delta13C values were calculated from constituent amino acid delta13C values using mass balance. With the exclusion of three ABC samples, calculated bulk bone collagen delta13C values (delta13C(BCcal)) were shown to correlate extremely well with measured bone collagen values (delta13C(BCmes)) for both modern and ancient samples, where R2 = 0.91 and 0.84, respectively. Significantly, the variation between calculated and measured bone collagen values (Delta13C(BCcal-BCmes)) exhibited similar ranges for both MBC (from -2.6 to +1.2 per thousand ) and ABC (from -2.7 to +2.2 per thousand ) samples, providing evidence for the preservation of intact collagen in the ancient samples. These results demonstrate that the experimental procedures employed in the acid hydrolytic cleavage of peptides or proteins to their constituent amino acids does not involve significant isotopic fractionation., (Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Animal fats are preserved at archaeological sites in association with unglazed pottery, human and animal remains, and other deposits or hoards. High-temperature gas chromatography (HT-GC) and combined HT-GC/mass spectrometry (HT-GC/MS) has confirmed the presence of animal fats in lipid extracts of artifacts. Degradation products and pathways have been discerned through the analyses of archaeological finds and the products of laboratory and field-based decay experiments. The origins of preserved fats have been determined through detailed compositional analysis of their component fatty acids by GC, by GC/MS of dimethyl disulfide derivatives of monoenoic components, and by GC-combustion-isotope ratio-MS (GC-C-IRMS), to derive diagenetically robust delta(13)C values. Regiospecific analysis of intact triacylglycerols by high-performance liquid chromatography/MS (HPLC/MS), with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization, provides a further criterion for establishing the origin of fats. Preparative GC has been employed to isolate individual fatty acids from archaeological pottery in sufficient amounts for (14)C dating.

In modern times, the trees of the palm family have been of great economic and social importance to the people in Egypt, as in other parts of the world. There are various species of palm and although different parts of the tree can be used, the fruit are of great value. In antiquity, it is expected that the palm fruit would also have been of great importance to people in the region. The chemical analysis of absorbed residues in archaeological pottery is well established, and through the investigation of ceramic vessels (via gas chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry) saturated carboxylic acids in the range C12 to C18 have been detected (with an unusually high abundance of C12) from vessels from the Nubian site of Qasr Ibrim. This is mirrored in the saturated fatty acid distributions detected from the kernels of modern and ancient date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) and dom palm (Hyphaena thebaica (L.) Mart.). Mixing in some of the vessels of the palm fruit with another lipid source is indicated through the delta13C values. These results provide the first direct evidence for the exploitation of palm fruit in antiquity and the use of pottery vessels in its processing.

Setting: The underlying trends in the past epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) are obscure, requiring recourse to the archaeological record. It would therefore be of value to develop methods for reliable TB diagnosis in ancient populations., Objective: To test the capability of two biomarkers, Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex mycolic acids and a DNA target (IS6110), for confirming an osteological diagnosis of TB in medieval individuals, based on the presence of Pott's disease and/or rib lesions., Design: Osteological examination of three archaeological individuals (Medieval: approximately 1000 years old) revealed a Pott's disease case, one with no changes consistent with TB and one with rib lesions. Rib samples from these individuals were examined for the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex mycolic acids and mycobacterial DNA., Results: Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex mycolic acids and the DNA target were detected in the Pott's disease case, whilst mycolic acids (insufficient for confirmation) alone were detected in the rib lesion case., Conclusions: Biomarkers provide a sensitive tool to detect ancient TB. Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA is not distributed homogeneously, making multiple sampling essential. Mycolic acids seem more reliable for ancient TB diagnosis than IS6110. The demonstrated stability of mycolic acids show that they may be of value in tracing the palaeoepidemiology of tuberculosis back into antiquity.