scholarly journals Autofluorescence Imaging of the Skin Is an Objective Non-Invasive Technique for Diagnosing Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum

Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Klára Farkas ◽  
Szabolcs Bozsányi ◽  
Dóra Plázár ◽  
András Bánvölgyi ◽  
Luca Fésűs ◽  
...  

Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a rare multisystemic autosomal recessive connective tissue disease. In most cases, skin manifestations of PXE are the first to develop, followed later by severe ocular and cardiovascular complications. In our present study, in addition to dermoscopy, we introduced novel techniques, autofluorescence (AF) and diffuse reflectance (DR) imaging for the assessment of affected skin sites of five PXE patients. PXE-affected skin areas in most skin sites showed a previously observed pattern upon dermoscopic examination. With the novel imaging, PXE-affected skin lesions displayed high AF intensity. During our measurements, significantly higher mean, minimum and maximum AF intensity values were found in areas of PXE-affected skin when compared to uninvolved skin. Conversely, images acquired with the use of 660 and 940 nm illumination showed no mentionable difference. Our results demonstrate that AF imaging may be used in the in vivo diagnostics and quantification of the severity of the skin lesions of PXE patients. In addition, it is a safe, fast and cost-effective diagnostic method. AF imaging may be also used to objectively monitor the efficacy of the possible novel therapeutic approaches of PXE in the future.

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebtisam Elghblawi

<p>Skin surfaces have always been examined using dermoscopy, a familiar tool which is useful to magnify and examine skin especially in cases of pigmented skin lesions. However, to examine the hair and scalp, a practical tool called trichoscopy has surfaced recently and has proven to be handy and functional in diagnosing most hair-related diseases. It is also referred to as dermoscopy of the hair and the scalp. It can aid in assessing active diseases in the scalp and hair, such as yellow dots, dystrophic hairs, cadaverized black dots, white dots, and exclamation mark hairs – all of which denote specific criteria for hair diseases. Trichoscopy is a very newly developed non-invasive technique for hair image analysis. It permits non-invasive visualization of hair shafts at higher intensification (about ×70 and ×100) and enables measurement of hair shaft width without the need for removing hair for diagnostic reasons. Moreover, it helps <em>in vivo</em> visualization of the epidermal portion of hair follicles and perifollicular epidermis (orifices). Consequently, it is valuable as it permits the inspection of structures that are otherwise not seen by the naked eye. Trichoscopy is the new frontier for the diagnosis of hair and scalp disease. Nowadays, a trichoscope is considered a must for dermatologists and it is a hot topic in the treatment of hair diseases. There is pooled evidence that the utilization of trichoscopy in the clinical setting for evaluating hair disorders can improve its diagnostic capability beyond simple clinical scrutiny. Trichoscopy can identify both hair shaft and hair opening abnormalities without the need for hair sampling, as well as distinguish between different scalp and hair diseases. Furthermore, it can give easy and quick evaluation of the hair with a follow-up to determine progress and prognosis of the disease with photos. It can also aid in some genetic hair shaft dystrophies such as trichorrhexis nodosa, trichorrhexis invaginata, monilethrix, pili annulati, and pili torti. The limitation of trichoscopy is that it needs prior knowledge to apply it effectively in order to mandate an efficient use by correctly interpreting the findings and their significance. In cases where there are unsettled discrepancies, a histopathological investigation is needed. The interest in trichoscopy has vastly increased and has become an indispensable tool in evaluating patients with hair loss. The aim of this review is to supplement existing knowledge on trichoscopy with recent readings of different scalp and hair conditions that are commonly encountered in clinical settings.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron N. Shugar ◽  
B. Lee Drake ◽  
Greg Kelley

AbstractAn innovative approach for the rapid identification of wood species is presented. By combining X-ray fluorescence spectrometry with convolutional neural network machine learning, 48 different wood specimens were clearly differentiated and identified with a 99% accuracy. Wood species identification is imperative to assess illegally logged and transported lumber. Alternative options for identification can be time consuming and require some level of sampling. This non-invasive technique offers a viable, cost-effective alternative to rapidly and accurately identify timber in efforts to support environmental protection laws and regulations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 20190071
Author(s):  
Dario Di Stasio ◽  
Dorina Lauritano ◽  
Francesca Loffredo ◽  
Enrica Gentile ◽  
Fedora Della Vella ◽  
...  

Objectives: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive technique based on optical imaging with a micrometre resolution. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential role of OCT in evaluating oral mucosa bullous diseases. Methods: two patients with bullous pemphigoid (BP) and one patient with pemphigus vulgaris (PV) were examined and images of their oral lesions were performed using OCT. Results: In OCT images, the BP blister has a clearly different morphology from the PV one compared to the blistering level. Conclusion: This exploratory study suggests that the OCT is able to distinguish epithelial and subepithelial layer in vivo images of healthy oral mucosa from those with bullous diseases, assisting the clinicians in differential diagnosis.The presented data are in accordance with the scientific literature, although a wider pool of cases is needed to increase statistical power. Histological examination and immunofluorescence methods remain the gold standard for the diagnosis of oral bullous diseases. In this context, the OCT can provide the clinician with a valuable aid both as an additional diagnostic tool and in the follow up of the disease.


2019 ◽  
Vol 570 ◽  
pp. 118641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian J.F. Bertens ◽  
Shuo Zhang ◽  
Roel J. Erckens ◽  
Frank J.H.M. van den Biggelaar ◽  
Tos T.J.M. Berendschot ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Demétrio de Souza França ◽  
Susanne Kossatz ◽  
Christian Brand ◽  
Daniella Karassawa Zanoni ◽  
Sheryl Roberts ◽  
...  

AbstractPurposeVisual inspection and biopsy is the current standard of care for oral cancer diagnosis, but is subject to misinterpretation and consequently to misdiagnosis. Topically applied PARPi-FL is a molecularly specific, fluorescent contrast-based approach that may fulfil the unmet need for a simple, in vivo, non-invasive, cost-effective, point-of-care method for the early diagnosis of oral cancer. Here, we present results from a phase I safety and feasibility study on fluorescent, topically applied PARPi-FL.Patients and MethodsTwelve patients with a histologically proven squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity (OSCC) gargled a PARPi-FL solution for 60 seconds (15 mL, 100 nM, 250 nM, 500 nM, or 1000 nM), followed by gargling a clearing solution for 60 seconds. Fluorescence measurements of the lesion and surrounding oral mucosa were taken before PARPi-FL application, after PARPi-FL application and after clearing. Blood pressure, oxygen levels, clinical chemistry and CBC were obtained before and after tracer administration.ResultsPARPi-FL was well-tolerated by all patients without any safety concerns. When analyzing the fluorescence signal, all malignant lesions showed a significant differential in contrast after administration of PARPi-FL, with the highest increase occurring at the highest dose level (1000 nM), where all patients had a tumor-to-margin fluorescence signal ratio of > 3. A clearing step was essential to increase signal specificity, as it clears unbound PARPi-FL trapped in normal anatomical structures. PARPi-FL tumor cell specificity was confirmed by ex vivo tabletop confocal microscopy. We have demonstrated that the fluorescence signal arose from the nuclei of tumor cells, endorsing our macroscopic findings.ConclusionsA PARPi-FL swish & spit solution is a rapid and non-invasive diagnostic tool that preferentially localizes fluorescent contrast to OSCC. This technique holds promise for the early detection of OSCC based on in vivo optical evaluation and targeted biopsy of suspicious lesions in the oral cavity.Translational RelevanceDespite their accessible location, oral cavity cancers are often diagnosed late, especially in low-resource areas where their incidence is typically high. The high prevalence of premalignant and benign oral lesions in these populations contributes to a number of issues that make early detection of oral cancer difficult: even in experienced hands, it can be difficult to differentiate cancer from premalignant or benign lesions during routine clinical examination; and biopsy-based histopathology, the current standard of care, is invasive, prone to sampling error, and requires geographic access to appropriate health care professionals, including a highly trained pathologist. While seemingly impenetrable economic and infrastructure barriers have confounded the early diagnosis of oral cancer for most of the world’s population, these could be circumvented by a simple, in vivo, non-invasive, cost-effective, point-of-care method of diagnosis. We are attempting to address this unmet clinical need by using topically applied PARPi-FL — a molecularly specific, fluorescent contrast-based approach — to detect oral cancer.FundingThis work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants P30 CA008748, R01 CA204441 (TR) and R43 CA228815 (CB and TR). Dr. Valero was sponsored by a grant from Fundación Alfonso Martín Escudero. The funding sources were not involved in study design, data collection and analysis, writing of the report, or the decision to submit this article for publication.Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of InterestC.B., S.K., S.P. and T.R. are shareholders of Summit Biomedical Imaging, LLC. S.K., S.P. and T.R. are co-inventors on PCT application WO2016164771. T.R. is co-inventor on PCT application WO2012074840. T.R. is a paid consultant for Theragnostics, Inc. All the other authors have no relevant conflict to declare. This arrangement has been reviewed and approved by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler Nguyen ◽  
Jianhua Gao ◽  
Ping Wang ◽  
Abhignyan Nagesetti ◽  
Peter Andrews ◽  
...  

AbstractNon-invasive brain stimulation is valuable for studying neural circuits and treating various neurological disorders in humans. However, the current technologies usually have low spatial and temporal precision and poor brain penetration, which greatly limit their application. A new class of nanoparticles known as magneto-electric nanoparticles (MENs) can be navigated to a targeted brain region with a magnetic field and is highly efficient in converting an externally applied magnetic wave into local electric fields for neuronal activity modulation. Here we developed a new method to fabricate MENs of CoFe2O4-BaTiO3 core-shell structure that had excellent magneto-electrical coupling properties. Using calcium imaging of organotypic and acute cortical slices from GCaMP6s transgenic mice, we demonstrated their efficacy in reliably evoking neuronal responses with a short latency period. For in vivo non-invasive delivery of MENs to brain, fluorescently labeled MENs were intravenously injected and guided to pass through the blood brain barrier to a targeted brain region by applying a magnetic field gradient. A magnetic field (∼450 Oe at 10 Hz) applied to mouse brain was able to reliably evoke cortical activities, as revealed by in vivo two-photon and mesoscopic imaging of calcium signals at both cellular and global network levels. The effect was further confirmed by the increased number of c-Fos expressing cells after stimulation. Neither brain delivery of MENs nor the subsequent magnetic stimulation caused any significant increases in the numbers of GFAP and IBA1 positive astrocytes and microglia in the brain. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using MENs as a novel efficient and non-invasive technique of contactless deep brain stimulation that may have great potential for translation.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Fischman ◽  
Javiera Pérez-Anker ◽  
Linda Tognetti ◽  
Angelo Di Naro ◽  
Mariano Suppa ◽  
...  

AbstractDiagnosis based on histopathology for skin cancer detection is today’s gold standard and relies on the presence or absence of biomarkers and cellular atypia. However it suffers drawbacks: it requires a strong expertise and is time-consuming. Moreover the notion of atypia or dysplasia of the visible cells used for diagnosis is very subjective, with poor inter-rater agreement reported in the literature. Lastly, histology requires a biopsy which is an invasive procedure and only captures a small sample of the lesion, which is insufficient in the context of large fields of cancerization. Here we demonstrate that the notion of cellular atypia can be objectively defined and quantified with a non-invasive in-vivo approach in three dimensions (3D). A Deep Learning (DL) algorithm is trained to segment keratinocyte (KC) nuclei from Line-field Confocal Optical Coherence Tomography (LC-OCT) 3D images. Based on these segmentations, a series of quantitative, reproducible and biologically relevant metrics is derived to describe KC nuclei individually. We show that, using those metrics, simple and more complex definitions of atypia can be derived to discriminate between healthy and pathological skins, achieving Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) scores superior than 0.965, largely outperforming medical experts on the same task with an AUC of 0.766. All together, our approach and findings open the door to a precise quantitative monitoring of skin lesions and treatments, offering a promising non-invasive tool for clinical studies to demonstrate the effects of a treatment and for clinicians to assess the severity of a lesion and follow the evolution of pre-cancerous lesions over time.


1981 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Goldman ◽  
D Simpson ◽  
R J Hawker ◽  
Z Drolc ◽  
C N McCollum

Platelet microemboli have been implicated in the aetiology of transient ischaemic attacks and strokes. Current non-invasive diagnostic methods are restricted to assessing blood flow. Arteriography may demonstrate non-occluding atheromatous ulcers but carries a significant morbidity.111-In labelled platelets and gamma camera imaging of diseased carotid vessels have therefore been evaluated.Eight patients proceeding to unilateral carotid endarterectomy received an injection of autologous platelets labelled with 111-In-oxine 48 hours preoperatively. Gamma camera images were taken at 4 and 24 hours. Operative endarterectomy specimens were collected and gamma emissions were measured.The scintigraphic images were independently assessed by two observers. Nine abnormal vessels were identified by platelet accumulation. In 5 cases the observers combined assessment was in complete accord with previous bilateral angiography. Individually each observer identified the symptomatic side in 6 patients. Activity in the endarterectomy specimens measured ex vivo varied from 1.22-84.5 times greater than background activity. The ratio of specimen activity to 5 ml blood samples simultaneously taken varied from 0.017 to 0.360 (mean 0.089).This non-invasive technique allows localisation of platelet activity in the extracranial cerebral circulation. Objective assessment in vivo is hindered by the relatively small amount of activity on the diseased vessels by comparison with circulating blood activity.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document