Slit lamp photography for objective assessment of topical eye disorders

Evidence based scientific studies has weightage, when they are presented with quantitative data analysis. Documentation and parametric analysis has become an integral part of present day research. Any publications or write-ups without explanation through standard parameters are not appreciated by the research society. In Ophthalmology assessment of various parameters through photography is a debatable issue. Affordability for higher end diagnostic / OPD instruments may not be feasible for all. In such a scenario, here is an attempt made to standardize the slit lamp photography with a smart phone and its scientific analysis for evaluating clinical conditions like sub-conjunctival hemorrhage, etc. This technique can become a tool for assessment and response of the therapies as well as an important tool to seek help from higher centers. Various add-on benefits in research, limitation and scope for further evaluation also being discussed.

Sphingolipid Profiling: A Promising Tool for Stratifying the Metabolic Syndrome-Associated Risk

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a multicomponent risk condition that reflects the clustering of individual cardiometabolic risk factors related to abdominal obesity and insulin resistance. MetS increases the risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, there still is not total clinical consensus about the definition of MetS, and its pathophysiology seems to be heterogeneous. Moreover, it remains unclear whether MetS is a single syndrome or a set of diverse clinical conditions conferring different metabolic and cardiovascular risks. Indeed, traditional biomarkers alone do not explain well such heterogeneity or the risk of associated diseases. There is thus a need to identify additional biomarkers that may contribute to a better understanding of MetS, along with more accurate prognosis of its various chronic disease risks. To fulfill this need, omics technologies may offer new insights into associations between sphingolipids and cardiometabolic diseases. Particularly, ceramides –the most widely studied sphingolipid class– have been shown to play a causative role in both T2DM and CVD. However, the involvement of simple glycosphingolipids remains controversial. This review focuses on the current understanding of MetS heterogeneity and discuss recent findings to address how sphingolipid profiling can be applied to better characterize MetS-associated risks.

Aluminium leaching in fluid warming devices – A Review

Current guidelines recommend the use of an intravenous fluid warmer to prevent perioperative hypothermia. Among the various methods of warming intravenous fluids, contact warmers are among the most effective and accurate, particularly in clinical conditions requiring rapid infusions of refrigerated blood or fluids. Contact warmers put the infusate in direct contact with a heating block. Some fluid warmers use heating blocks manufactured from aluminium. Several recent publications, however, have shown that uncoated aluminium blocks can leach potentially toxic amounts of aluminium into the body. In this review we performed a systematic literature review on aluminium leaching with contact fluid warmers and describe what manufacturer and competent authorities did in the past years to ensure patient safety. The search resulted in five articles describing the aluminium leaching. Four different devices (Level 1 Fluid Warmer from Smiths Medical, ThermaCor from Smisson-Cartledge Biomedical, Recirculator 8.0 from Eight Medical International BV, enFlow from Vyaire) were shown to leach high levels of aluminium when heating certain intravenous fluids. One manufacturer (Vyaire) voluntarily removed their product from the market, while three manufacturers (Eight Medical International BV, Smisson-Cartledge Biomedical, and Smiths Medical) revised the instructions for use for the affected devices. The enFlow fluid warmer was subsequently redesigned with a parylene coating over the heating block. The scientific literature shows that by using a thin parylene layer on the heating block, the leaching of aluminium can be nearly eliminated without affecting the heating performance of the device.

Nanotech-based food: An initiative for alternative pharmaceuticals

Nanotechnology opens many avenues in the food sector and offers applications associated with food production, processing, cultivation, and packaging. Nanofood employs nano-techniques like nano-encapsulation and conjugation of various phytochemicals, antioxidants, probiotics, minerals, vitamins, etc. into nanovehicles. Food fortification strategies are then implemented to incorporate nano-processed substances. Nanofood is mostly used for improving health and as a supplementation method in various diseases ranging from liver diseases to neurodegenerative disorders. Here, we focus on recent studies that exhibit comparable results for nanofood and conventional medicines and subsiding the limitations of traditional therapies. Nanofood hold a potential in management of various health problems and the possibilities of using nanofood as alternative to medicine in clinical conditions like cancers and inflammatory bowel disease. With further advances in nanotechnology and expansion in the scope of current nanofood industry in addition to proper regulations set in place, nanofood may offer a wide variety of advantages in safety, long-term stability, etc.

A novel range telescope concept for proton CT

Proton beam therapy can potentially offer improved treatment for cancers of the head and neck and in paediatric patients. There has been asharp uptake of proton beam therapy in recent years as improved delivery techniques and patient benefits are observed. However, treatments are currently planned using conventional x-ray CT images due to the absence of devices able to perform high quality proton computed tomography(pCT) under realistic clinical conditions. A new plastic-scintillator-based range telescope concept, named ASTRA, is proposed here to measure the proton’s energy loss in a pCT system. Simulations conducted using GEANT4 yield an expected energy resolution of 0.7%. If calorimetric information is used the energy resolution could be further improved to about 0.5%. In addition, the ability of ASTRA to track multiple protons simultaneously is presented. Due to its fast components, ASTRA is expected to reach unprecedented data collection rates, similar to 10^8 protons/s.The performance of ASTRA has also been tested by simulating the imaging of phantoms. The results show excellent image contrast and relative stopping power reconstruction.

Dealing With Brain MRI Findings in Pediatric Patients With Endocrinological Conditions: Less Is More?

Neuroimaging is a key tool in the diagnostic process of various clinical conditions, especially in pediatric endocrinology. Thanks to continuous and remarkable technological developments, magnetic resonance imaging can precisely characterize numerous structural brain anomalies, including the pituitary gland and hypothalamus. Sometimes the use of radiological exams might become excessive and even disproportionate to the patients’ medical needs, especially regarding the incidental findings, the so-called “incidentalomas”. This unclarity is due to the absence of well-defined pediatric guidelines for managing and following these radiological findings. We review and summarize some indications on how to, and even if to, monitor these anomalies over time to avoid unnecessary, expensive, and time-consuming investigations and to encourage a more appropriate follow-up of brain MRI anomalies in the pediatric population with endocrinological conditions.

Genomic Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Isolated from Patients with Distinct Disease Outcomes in Mexico

The genetic association of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) with different clinical conditions remains unclear and needs further investigation. In this study, we characterized 57 complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes from patients in Mexico with distinct disease severity outcomes: mild disease or ambulatory care, severe disease or hospitalized, and deceased.

A graph-embedded topic model enables characterization of diverse pain phenotypes among UK Biobank individuals

Large biobank repositories of clinical conditions and medications data open opportunities to investigate the phenotypic disease network. To enable systematic investigation of entire structured phenomes, we present graph embedded topic model (GETM). We offer two main methodological contributions in GETM. First, to aid topic inference, we integrate existing biomedical knowledge graph information in the form of pre-trained graph embedding into the embedded topic model. Second, leveraging deep learning techniques, we developed a variational autoencoder framework to infer patient phenotypic mixture. For interpretability, we use a linear decoder to simultaneously infer the bi-modal distributions of the disease conditions and medications. We applied GETM to UK Biobank (UKB) self-reported clinical phenotype data, which contains conditions and medications for 457,461 individuals. Compared to existing methods, GETM demonstrates overall superior performance in imputing missing conditions and medications. Here, we focused on characterizing pain phenotypes recorded in the questionnaire of the UKB individuals. GETM accurately predicts the status of chronic musculoskeletal (CMK) pain, chronic pain by body-site, and non-specific chronic pain using past conditions and medications. Our analyses revealed not only the known pain-related topics but also the surprising predominance of medications and conditions in the cardiovascular category among the most predictive topics across chronic pain phenotypes.

Inactivation of Spores and Vegetative Forms of Clostridioides Difficile by Chemical Biocides: Mechanisms of Biocidal Activity, Methods of Evaluation, and Environmental Aspects

Clostridioides difficile infections (CDIs) are the most common cause of acquired diseases in hospitalized patients. Effective surface disinfection, focused on the inactivation of the spores of this pathogen, is a decisive factor in reducing the number of nosocomial cases of CDI infections. An efficient disinfection procedure is the result of both the properties of the biocidal agent used and the technology of its implementation as well as a reliable, experimental methodology for assessing the activity of the biocidal active substance based on laboratory models that adequately represent real clinical conditions. This study reviews the state of knowledge regarding the properties and biochemical basis of the action mechanisms of sporicidal substances, with emphasis on chlorine dioxide (ClO2). Among the analyzed biocides, in addition to ClO2, active chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, peracetic acid, and glutaraldehyde were characterized. Due to the relatively high sporicidal effectiveness and effective control of bacterial biofilm, as well as safety in a health and environmental context, the use of ClO2 is an attractive alternative in the control of nosocomial infections of CD etiology. In terms of the methods of assessing the biocidal effectiveness, suspension and carrier standards are discussed.

Coronary Artery Disease and Gallbladder Inflammatory Pseudopolyps

Axial MR image demonstrating multiple small gallbladder polypoid lesions characterized by contrast enhancement in a 78-year-old male hospitalized for acute chest pain due to coronary artery disease who showed fever and emesis during hospitalization and had signs of acute acalculous cholecystitis at computed tomography. Given the overall clinical conditions and the MR features, the inflammatory origin of the polyps was considered. The patient underwent cholecystectomy and the histological diagnosis of gallbladder inflammatory pseudopolyps was confirmed. This rare entity represents 5–10% of all gallbladder polyps, and their differentiation from benign and malignant tumors might be challenging especially in acalculous patients, thus surgery is often performed.