Functionalities and input methods for recording food intake: A systematic review.

Int J Med Inform. 2013 Feb 13;

Authors: Rusin M, Arsand E, Hartvigsen G

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Increasing healthcare costs related to lifestyle-related chronic diseases require new solutions. Research on self-management tools is expanding and many new tools are emerging. Recording food intake is a key functionality in many of these tools. Nutrition monitoring is a relevant method to gain an overview of factors influencing health. However, keeping a food diary often constitutes a challenge for a patient, and developing a user-friendly and useful electronic food diary is not straightforward. PURPOSE: To gain insight into the existing approaches to recording food intake, and to analyze current functionalities and input methods. METHODS: We searched digital libraries, vendor markets and social networks focusing on nutrition. Selection criteria were publications written in English, and patient-oriented tools that offered recording of food intake or nutrition. The system properties that we searched for were types of data, types of terminal, target population, and types of reports and sharing functionalities. We summarized the properties based on their frequency in the reviewed sample. RESULTS: 31 publications met the selection criteria. The majority of the identified food recording systems (67%) facilitated entry of food type and the consumed quantity of food; 16% of the systems were able to record more than one type of data. The three most frequent target populations were people with obesity, diabetes and overweight. Mobile phones were used as terminals in 35% of the cases, personal computers (PCs) in 29%, and personal digital assistants in 23%. Only 10% supported both PCs and mobile phones. Data sharing was provided by 71% and reports by 51% of the systems. We searched for apps in Google Play and the Apple Store and tested 45 mobile applications that stored food intake data, of which 62% supported recording of types of food, 24% recording of carbohydrate intake and 15% recording of calorie intake. The majority of the mobile applications offered some kind of reports and data sharing, mainly via All of the tested social-network-enabled applications supported access from a personal computer and a mobile phone, search in a food database, reports, graphical presentation, listing of favorite foods, overview of own meals, and entering of consumed food type and quantity. CONCLUSION: The analyzed apps reflected a variety of approaches to recording food intake and nutrition using different terminals - mostly mobile phones (35%), followed by PCs (29%) and PDAs (23%) for older studies, designed mainly for users with obesity (45%), diabetes mellitus (42%) and overweight (32%), or people who want to stay healthy (10%). The majority of the reviewed applications (67%) offered only input of food type and quantity. All approaches (n=31), except for two, relied on manual input of data, either by typing or by selecting a food type from a database. The exceptions (n=2) used a barcode scanning function. Users of mobile phone applications were not limited to data recording, but could view their data on the screen and send it via email. The tested web applications offered similar functionalities for recording food intake. The systems studied provided some degree of personalization: users can access some systems via PCs or mobile phones and they can choose among various types of data input content for recording food intake. Many functions, such as search in a food database, reports, graphical presentation, listing of favorite foods, and overview of the user's own meals, are optimized to simplify the recording process and save time. Data sharing and reports are common features of the reviewed systems. However, none use the user's recorded food history to make suggestions on new nutritional intake, during the food recording process. This may be an area for future research.

PMID: 23415822 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Drug-SNPing: an integrated drug-based, protein interaction-based tagSNP-based pharmacogenomics platform for SNP genotyping.

Bioinformatics. 2013 Feb 15;

Authors: Yang CH, Cheng YH, Chuang LY, Chang HW

Abstract
SUMMARY: Many drug or single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-related resources and tools have been developed, but connecting and integrating them is still a challenge. Here, we describe a user-friendly web-based software package, named Drug-SNPing, which provides a platform for the integration of drug information (DrugBank and PharmGKB), protein-protein interactions (STRING), tagSNP selection (HapMap) and genotyping information (dbSNP, REBASE and SNP500Cancer). DrugBank-based inputs include the following: (i) common name of the drug, (ii) synonym or drug brand name, (iii) gene name (HUGO) and (iv) keywords. PharmGKB-based inputs include the following: (i) gene name (HUGO), (ii) drug name and (iii) disease-related keywords. The output provides drug-related information, metabolizing enzymes and drug targets, as well as protein-protein interaction data. Importantly, tagSNPs of the selected genes are retrieved for genotyping analyses. All drug-based and protein-protein interaction-based SNP genotyping information are provided with PCR-RFLP (PCR-restriction enzyme length polymorphism) and TaqMan probes. Thus, users can enter any drug keywords/brand names to obtain immediate information that is highly relevant to genotyping for pharmacogenomics research.Availability and implementation: Drug-SNPing and its user manual are freely available at http://bio.kuas.edu.tw/drug-snping/. CONTACT: chuang@isu.edu.tw; yuhuei.cheng@gmail.com; changhw@kmu.edu.tw.

PMID: 23418190 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Molecular Analysis of Spinal Muscular Atrophy: A genotyping protocol based on TaqMan(®) real-time PCR.

Genet Mol Biol. 2012 Dec;35(4 (suppl)):955-9

Authors: de Souza Godinho FM, Bock H, Gheno TC, Saraiva-Pereira ML

Abstract
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder caused by alterations in the survival motor neuron I (SMN1) gene. SMA patients are classified as type I-IV based on severity of symptoms and age of onset. About 95% of SMA cases are caused by the homozygous absence of SMN1 due to gene deletion or conversion into SMN2. PCR-based methods have been widely used in genetic testing for SMA. In this work, we introduce a new approach based on TaqMan(®)real-time PCR for research and diagnostic settings. DNA samples from 100 individuals with clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of SMA were analyzed. Mutant DNA samples as well as controls were confirmed by DNA sequencing. We detected 58 SMA cases (58.0%) by showing deletion of SMN1 exon 7. Considering clinical information available from 56 of them, the patient distribution was 26 (46.4%) SMA type I, 16 (28.6%) SMA type II and 14 (25.0%) SMA type III. Results generated by the new method was confirmed by PCR-RFLP and by DNA sequencing when required. In conclusion, a protocol based on real-time PCR was shown to be effective and specific for molecular analysis of SMA patients.

PMID: 23412967 [PubMed - in process]

BRAF gene polymorphism (rs10487888) assessment in chronic periodontitis and peri-implantitis in an Iranian population.

J Basic Clin Physiol Pharmacol. 2013 Feb 14;:1-5

Authors: Kadkhodazadeh M, Jafari AR, Khalighi HR, Ebadian AR, Vaziri S, Amid R

Abstract
Abstract Background: Peri-implantitis (PI) and chronic periodontitis (CP) are multifactorial diseases of implant/tooth supporting tissue that are caused by bacterial infection and increased host immune response. T-cell proliferation plays a pivotal role in the orchestration of host response to bacterial infection. BRAF is a positive regulator of T-cell proliferation. The aim of this study was to evaluate for the first time the role of a functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of the BRAF gene in association to PI and CP. Methods: A total of 194 individuals referred to the Periodontology Department of Shahid Beheshti Dental School, Tehran, Iran, were divided into three groups: 74 patients in the CP group (39 men and 35 women, with mean age of 48.3 years), 38 patients in the PI group (20 men and 18 women, with mean age of 50.2 years), and 82 patients in the healthy periodontium group (39 men and 43 women, with mean age of 45.4 years). DNA was extracted from fresh blood samples collected from the arm vein of participants and was transferred to KBiosience institute (United Kingdom) for genotyping. χ2 and Kruskal-Wallis tests were conducted using SPSS software v. 19 for statistical analysis (p<0.05). Results: The allele (C/T) and genotype (CC, CT, TT) frequencies had insignificant differences among the three groups; however, the CC genotype was more prevalent in the healthy condition than in the disease conditions. Conclusions: The BRAF gene polymorphism (rs10487888) may not be a genetic determinant for increasing the risk of CP and PI among the Iranian population. More studies with more sample size in different populations are necessary for determining the effect of this SNP.

PMID: 23412871 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]