Verruciform xanthoma (VX) is an uncommon benign lesion with the subepithelial accumulation of foamy histiocytes and superficial papillary proliferations with a bright orange hue. This lesion exhibits an oral region predilection. Its clinical differential diagnosis includes verrucous leukoplakia, verrucous carcinoma, squamous papilloma, verruca vulgaris, condyloma accuminatum, squamous cell carcinoma, and fibroepithelial polyp.

This report presents a case of VX of the ventral surface of the tongue afflicting a 33-year-old otherwise healthy male.

This case report can be valuable as a consequence of VX rarity and the similarity of its clinical features to papillary lesions. A biopsy is required for its definite diagnosis particularly when it occurs at sites with a high-risk of squamous cell carcinoma development, such as the lateral border and ventral surface of the tongue.

This case report can be valuable as a consequence of VX rarity and the similarity of its clinical features to papillary lesions. A biopsy is required for its definite diagnosis particularly when it occurs at sites with a high-risk of squamous cell carcinoma development, such as the lateral border and ventral surface of the tongue.

Warthin’s tumor (WT) is the second most common neoplasm of the parotid gland and consists of two components, including lymphoid stroma and glandular epithelium. The malignant transformation of this tumor occurs most often in the lymphoid component; however, the carcinomatous transformation of the epithelial component is rare.

We present a patient who had a mass in the right mandibular angle two years before referral. A cystic mass was reported on sonography, and the patient underwent superficial parotidectomy with a pre-operative impression of lymphangiomatouse-like lesions. In the microscopic view, the sections revealed salivary gland neoplastic lesion with the diagnosis of WT. On the periphery of the neoplasm, another neoplastic lesion was observed along with infiltrative borders and diagnosis of mucoepidermoid carcinoma.

The WT is one of the most common tumors of the salivary glands. Malignancy transformation of the WT is a rare event. However, due to the importance of the treatment type, the surgeon should consider this issue in cystic lesions suspected of WT.

The WT is one of the most common tumors of the salivary glands. Malignancy transformation of the WT is a rare event. However, due to the importance of the treatment type, the surgeon should consider this issue in cystic lesions suspected of WT.

The relationship between autoimmune disease and sensorineural loss is well documented in literature. Immune mediated sudden hearing loss is asymmetric, bilateral and rapidly progressive but responds well to steroid therapy. However association of cranial nerve neuropathies with sudden hearing loss is rare.

A 41 year old female presented with sudden mixed hearing loss and developed multiple cranial nerve palsies within a month. Blood and Cerebrospinal fluid analysis revealed an undiagnosed rheumatoid arthritis. She responded well to definitive therapy with cyclophosphamide and azathioprine.

If sudden hearing loss is associated with cranial neuropathy, an autoimmune work-up is highly recommended.

If sudden hearing loss is associated with cranial neuropathy, an autoimmune work-up is highly recommended.

The first successful attempt at tracheal intubation with minimal complications is crucial for emergency physicians. The aim of this study was to compare endotracheal intubation using video laryngoscopy versus direct laryngoscopy in the emergency department by emergency medicine residents.

In this randomized clinical trial, 70 patients requiring laryngeal intubation were randomly enrolled in direct and video laryngoscopy groups. The first attempt success rate, frequency of attempts, complications, and hemodynamic changes after laryngoscopy were assessed. The data were analyzed using the Chi-square, independent t-test, and Fisher’s exact test.

The results showed a significant increase in heart rate, as well as systolic and diastolic blood pressure after both direct and video laryngoscopy (P<0.001). However, this increase was more severe in the video laryngoscopy group (P<0.001).

Although the use of both devices had similar success rate, if orotracheal intubation is performed by a novice emergency medicine residents, direct laryngoscopy causes fewer hemodynamic effects on patients, compared to video laryngoscopy.

Although the use of both devices had similar success rate, if orotracheal intubation is performed by a novice emergency medicine residents, direct laryngoscopy causes fewer hemodynamic effects on patients, compared to video laryngoscopy.

The aim was to investigate the link between tinnitus and serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TRG), low-density (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) in the central anatolian Turkish population.

The retrospective and case-control study included a total of 91 patients with subjective tinnitus and a control group of age- and sex-matched 65 healthy volunteers. A detailed otolaryngologic examination followed by pure tone audiometry, serum lipid values, and magnetic resonance imaging of the temporal bone was performed. The clinical characteristics of tinnitus were registered for all patients. The serum levels of TC, TRG, LDL and HDL were compared between the two groups.

Mean TC level was 200.57±41.06 mg/dL in the patient group and 179.0±39.03 mg/dL in the control group (P=0.001). Mean TRG level was 177.76±86.94 mg/dL in the patient group and 124.43±61.44 mg/dL in the control group (P=0.000). Mean LDL level was 115.88±32.56 mg/dL in the patient group and 101.31±34.42 mg/dL in the control group (P=0.008). Mean HDL level was 50.25±13.60 mg/dL in the patient group and 53.46±12.66 mg/dL in the control group (P=0.137). Among all the serum lipids, TC, TRG and LDL established a significant difference between the two groups.

The results indicated that TC, TRG and LDL levels were significantly higher in tinnitus group and this increase implicates the potential role of hyperlipidemia associated with altered lipid metabolism in the etiology of tinnitus. We suggest that serum lipid levels could be useful and conducive in the diagnosis and prognosis of tinnitus.

The results indicated that TC, TRG and LDL levels were significantly higher in tinnitus group and this increase implicates the potential role of hyperlipidemia associated with altered lipid metabolism in the etiology of tinnitus. We suggest that serum lipid levels could be useful and conducive in the diagnosis and prognosis of tinnitus.

Submandibular gland resection is a controversial issue in patients with oral tongue squamous cell carcinomas (SCC). This study aimed to determine the frequency of submandibular gland involvement in patients who had undergone elective submandibular gland resection following oral tongue SCC.

This cross-sectional retrospective study was performed between 2001 and 2017 on patients with oral tongue SCC who had undergone glossectomy in a referral center for otorhinolaryngology surgery, Shiraz, Iran.

In this study, 131 patients were included. Their mean age was 59.84 years (range 19-86). The mean tumor size was 2.83 cm (range 0.3-7). The vast majority (92%) of the patients were at stage III-IVa and had well (55%) to moderate (31%) differentiated tumor. The mean diameter of the submandibular gland was 3.87 cm (range 1.5-6 cm). There was only one (0.76%) patient with submandibular involvement. She was an 80-year-old woman with a T2 well differentiated tumor without cervical lymph node involvement in the neck node dissection.

In patients with oral tongue SCC, submandibular gland involvement is rare and its elective resection in not recommended.

In patients with oral tongue SCC, submandibular gland involvement is rare and its elective resection in not recommended.

This study aimed to assess the long-term effects of postoperative debridement on the 4

and 8

postoperative weeks versus no debridement in terms of subjective and objective outcomes.

The statistical population of this study (n=80) consisted of 40 patients having chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) and 40 patients having chronic rhinosinusitis without nasal polyposis (CRSsNP). These samples were randomly divided into two groups of debridement and control.

According to the results, 8 weeks after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS), the 22-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test questionnaire score (P =0.03), Lund-Kennedy score (P<0.001), nasal blockage (P=0.02), and loss/decrease in sense of smell (P=0.02) in CRSwNP were significantly lower in the debridement group than in the control group. Moreover, 6 months after ESS, in both CRSwNP and CRSsNP, no significant difference was observed between the two groups considering the outcomes (P>0.05).

This study showed that debridement could lead to short-term improvements in CRSwNP patients; however, no long-term benefit was observed.

This study showed that debridement could lead to short-term improvements in CRSwNP patients; however, no long-term benefit was observed.

Oral prednisolone was suggested as the first step to treat idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL). This study aimed to investigate the effect of pulse therapy with methylprednisolone and intratympanic methylprednisolone, compared to traditional oral prednisolone therapy on patients with ISSHL.

This randomized control trial included an experimental group receiving 500 mg intravenous methylprednisolone for three sequential days, followed by 1 mg/kg oral prednisolone for 11 days, and intratympanic Depo-Medrol four times twice a week. On the other hand, the control group received 1 mg/kg oral prednisolone for 14 days. Hearing change was assessed through pure tone audiometry. Subsequently, hearing recovery was investigated and analyzed in this study.

This study was conducted on 51 patients who were divided into two groups of experimental (n=26) and control (n=25). The result revealed no significant difference between the two groups in terms of hearing improvement (P=0.28).

This revealed no added benefit in pulse steroids combined with intratympanic injections in cases with sudden hearing loss.

This revealed no added benefit in pulse steroids combined with intratympanic injections in cases with sudden hearing loss.

There are many fibrin-derived sealants used as topical haemostatic agents in many surgical procedures. Fibrin sealants are usually non-autologous derivatives or animal derivatives, with the exception of Vivostat®, an autologous fibrin sealant derived from patients own blood.

We present our experience on the use of Vivostat® in skull base closures in 20 patients operated at the Otorhinolaryngology Unit of the Hospital Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia – Cervello of Palermo. All postoperative patients were placed in an anti-trendeleburg position for 48 hours. After removal of the nasal swabs we did not find any rhinorrhea and we checked the tightness of the skull base defect with computed tomography.

On a total of the 20 patients (10 post-traumatic and 10 with iatrogenic leaks), 9 out of 10 post-traumatic cases had a leak in the border area between the anterior and posterior portion of the ethmoid, while 1 patient out of 10 post-traumatic cases had a leak at the level of the sella. In all 20 patients, we repaired skull base defects by fixing grafting materials with Vivostat®. We have not had any complications. Vivostat® is a useful product in skull base repair and safe for the patients.

Vivostat® has been used as a sealant on body tissues with greater elasticity and more resistant allowing better and safer wound repair, especially in skull base surgery. In particular, its immediate polymerisation is very useful for an evaluation of the mechanical sealants in the closure of the skull base cerebrospinal fluid leak.

Vivostat® has been used as a sealant on body tissues with greater elasticity and more resistant allowing better and safer wound repair, especially in skull base surgery. In particular, its immediate polymerisation is very useful for an evaluation of the mechanical sealants in the closure of the skull base cerebrospinal fluid leak.

Currently, the number of patients with SARS-COV-2infection has increased rapidly in Iran, but the risk and mortality of SARS-COV-2infection in Iranian patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), chronic kidney disease (CKD), hypertension and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) still not clear. The aim of this meta-analysis was to estimate the proportion and mortality of SARS-COV-2in these patients.

A comprehensive literature search was carried out in PubMed, Web of Sciences, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CNKI, SciELO, and other databases to identify all relevant studies published up to 10 January, 2020. The proportion and mortality in the patients were assessed by odd ratio (OR) and the corresponding 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI).

A total of ten case-series including 11,755 cases with SARS-COV-2infection and 942 deaths were selected. Among them, there were total of 791 DM patients with 186 deaths, 225 CKD patients with 45 deaths, 790 hypertension cases with 86 deaths, and 471 CVDs cases with 60 deaths. Pooled datshowed that the proportion of SARS-COV-2 infection was the highest in the Iranian patients with hypertension (21.1 %) followed by DM (16.3 %), CVDs (14.0 %) and CKD (5.0 %). Moreover, DM and CKD in patients with SARS-COV-2 infection were associated with a 0.549 and 0.552-fold increase in mortality, respectively. Clinicians in Iran should be aware of these findings, to identifying patients at higher risk and inform interventions to reduce the risk of death. Moreover, well-designed, large-scale and multicenter studies are needed to improve and validate our findings.Prior to the antibiotics era, the mortality rate from cavernous sinus thrombosis (CST) was very high reaching 100%. There have been very few reports of CST associated with tooth extraction on the same time Coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is known to increase the risk of developing venous thromboembolism; therefore, patients with COVID-19 may present with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. We present a case with diagnostic dilemma and first to be reported in the literature.Optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA) enables rapid imaging of retinal vasculature in three dimensions. While the technique has provided quantification of healthy vessels as well as pathology in several diseases, it is not unusual for OCTA data to contain artifacts that may influence measurement outcomes or defy image interpretation. In this review, we discuss the sources of several OCTA artifacts-including projection, motion, and signal reduction-as well as strategies for their removal. Artifact compensation can improve the accuracy of OCTA measurements, and the most effective use of the technology will incorporate hardware and software that can perform such correction.Quantitative retinal imaging is essential for eye disease detection, staging classification, and treatment assessment. It is known that different eye diseases or severity stages can affect the artery and vein systems in different ways. Therefore, differential artery-vein (AV) analysis can improve the performance of quantitative retinal imaging. In this article, we provide a brief summary of technical rationales and clinical applications of differential AV analysis in fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), and OCT angiography (OCTA).Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy has emerged in the last decade as a powerful optical imaging technology with high chemical selectivity, speed, and subcellular resolution. Since the invention of SRS microscopy, it has been extensively employed in life science to study composition, structure, metabolism, development, and disease in biological systems. Applications of SRS in research and the clinic have generated new insights in many fields including neurobiology, tumor biology, developmental biology, metabolomics, pharmacokinetics, and more. Herein we review the advances and applications of SRS microscopy imaging in tissues and animals, as well as envision future applications and development of SRS imaging in life science and medicine.Gastrointestinal (GI) tissue biopsies provide critical diagnostic information for a wide variety of conditions such as neoplastic diseases (colorectal, small bowel and stomach cancers) and non-neoplastic diseases (inflammatory disorders, infection, celiac disease). Endoscopic biopsies collect small tissue samples that require resource intensive processing to permit histopathological analysis. Unfortunately, the sparsely collected biopsy samples may fail to capture the pathologic condition because selection of biopsy sites relies on macroscopic superficial tissue features and clinician judgement. Here, we present the first all-optical non-contact label-free non-interferometric photoacoustic microscopy system capable of performing „virtual biopsies”. A modular photoacoustic remote sensing (PARS™) architecture is used facilitating imaging of unprocessed tissues providing information similar to conventional histopathological staining techniques. Prospectively this would allow gastroenterologists to assess subcellular tissue morphology in situ when selecting biopsy location. Tested on preserved unstained human and freshly resected murine tissues, the presented PARS microscope rapidly retrieves images of similar area to current biopsies, while maintaining comparable quality to the current standard for histopathological analysis. Additionally, results show the first label free assessment of subsurface cellular morphology in FFPE GI tissue blocks. Clinically relevant features are recovered including cellular details such as lamina propria within colon tissue and cell nuclear structure in resected smooth muscle. Constructed with a modular architecture, this system facilitates the future development of compact imaging heads. The modular PARS system overcomes many of the challenges with imaging unstained thick tissue in situ, representing a significant milestone in the development of a clinical microscope providing virtual biopsy capabilities.

High resolution imaging is desirable for advanced study and clinical management of retinal diseases. However, spatial resolution of retinal imaging has been limited due to available numerical aperture and optical aberration of the ocular optics. This study is to develop and validate virtually structured detection (VSD) to surpass diffraction limit for resolution improvement in

retinal imaging of awake human.

A rapid line scanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) was constructed for

retinal imaging. A high speed (25,000 kHz) camera was used for recording the two-dimensional (2D) light reflectance profile, corresponding to each focused line illumination. VSD was implemented to the 2D light reflectance profiles for super-resolution reconstruction. Because each 2D light reflectance profile was recorded within 40 μs, the intra-frame blur due to eye movements can be ignored. Digital registration was implemented to further compensate for inter-frame eye movements, before the VSD processing. Based on digital proc An objective method has been developed to identify MTF to enable quantitative estimation of the cut-off frequency required for robust VSD processing.

In conjunction with rapid line-scan imaging and digital registration to minimize the effect of eye movements, VSD enabled resolution improvement to observe individual retinal photoreceptors without the involvement of adaptive optics (AO). An objective method has been developed to identify MTF to enable quantitative estimation of the cut-off frequency required for robust VSD processing.

Photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) detects light-induced ultrasound (US) waves to reconstruct the optical absorption contrast of the biological tissues. Due to its relatively deep penetration (several centimeters in soft tissue), high spatial resolution, and inherent functional sensitivity, PACT has great potential for imaging mouse brains with endogenous and exogenous contrasts, which is of immense interest to the neuroscience community. However, conventional PACT either assumes homogenous optical fluence within the brain or uses a simplified attenuation model for optical fluence estimation. Both approaches underestimate the complexity of the fluence heterogeneity and can result in poor quantitative imaging accuracy.

To optimize the quantitative performance of PACT, we explore for the first time 3D Monte Carlo (MC) simulation to study the optical fluence distribution in a complete mouse brain model. We apply the MCX MC simulation package on a digital mouse (Digimouse) brain atlas that has complete distribution can improve the quantitative accuracy of PACT.

As photoacoustic (PA) techniques progress towards clinical adoption, providing a high-speed live feedback becomes a high priority. To keep up with the instantaneous optical feedback of conventional light microscopes, PA imaging would need to provide a high-resolution video-rate live feed to the user. However, conventional PA microscopy typically trades resolution, sensitivity and imaging speed when optically scanning due to the difficult opto-acoustic confocal geometry. Here, we employ photoacoustic remote sensing (PARS), an all-optical technique that relies on optical confocal geometry, to provide a high-resolution live display in a reflection-mode PA architecture.

Employing a conventional

galvanometer scanner and a 600 KHz pulse repetition rate laser we implement a system capable of acquiring 2.5 frames per second in 2D. To complement this fast scanning optical system, we implement a computationally inexpensive image reconstruction method that is able to render the frames with minimal overhead, provier to implement and maintain than the opto-acoustic geometry of conventional PA microscopy techniques. This results in a system capable of high resolution and sensitivity, imaging at real-time rates. The authors believe this work represents a vital step towards a clinical high-resolution reflection-mode video-rate PA imaging system.

In summary, we present a method that has a small computational overhead for image rendering, resulting in a live display capable of real-time frame rates. We also report the first 3D imaging with a non-contact label-free reflection-mode PA technique. The all-optical confocal geometry required by PARS is significantly easier to implement and maintain than the opto-acoustic geometry of conventional PA microscopy techniques. This results in a system capable of high resolution and sensitivity, imaging at real-time rates. The authors believe this work represents a vital step towards a clinical high-resolution reflection-mode video-rate PA imaging system.

Optical fiber probe spectroscopy can characterize the blood content, hemoglobin oxygen saturation, water content, and scattering properties of a tissue. A narrow probe using closely spaced fibers can access and characterize a local tissue site, but analysis requires the proper light transport theory.

Monte Carlo simulations of photon transport specified the response of a two-fiber probe as a function of optical properties in a homogeneous tissue. The simulations used the dimensions of a commercial fiber probe (400-micron-diameter fibers separated by 80-microns of cladding) to calculate the response to a range of 20 absorption and 20 reduced scattering values. The 400 simulations yielded an analysis grid (lookup table) to interpolate the probe response to any given pair of absorption and scattering properties.

The probe in contact with tissue is not sensitive to low absorption but sensitive to scattering, as occurs for red to near-infrared spectra. The probe is sensitive to both absorption and scattering the dimensions of a commercial probe (Ocean Insight), but the method can be applied to any probe design. A closely spaced fiber probe can document blood in the shorter visible wavelengths, but has difficulty detecting red and near-infra-red absorption. Hence detection of hydration is difficult. The strength of the closely spaced fiber probe is detecting scattering that depends on tissue structure at the micron to sub-micron scale.

Near infrared (NIR) environment-sensitive fluorophores are highly desired for many biomedical applications because of its non-invasive operation, high sensitivity and specificity, non-ionizing radiation and deep penetration in biological tissue. When the fluorophores are appropriately encapsulated in or conjugated with some thermal-sensitive polymers, they could work as excellent temperature-sensing probes.

In this study, we synthesized and characterized a series of NIR temperature-switchable nanoparticles based on two series of NIR fluorophores aza-BODIPY (ADP is used for abbreviation in this work) and Zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) and four pluronic polymers (F127, F98, F68 and F38). Encapsulating the fluorophores in the polymers by sonication, we synthesized the nanoparticles that showed switch-like functions of the fluorescence intensity (and/or lifetime) as the temperature, with high switch on-to-off ratio. We also investigated various factors that might change the temperature thresholds (T

) of the switch functions, in order to control T

during synthesis.

These nanoparticles showed excellent temperature-switchable properties of fluorescence intensity and/or lifetime. Meanwhile, some factors (i.e., pluronic categories and nanoparticles’ concentration) significantly affected the nanoparticles’ T

s while other (i.e., fluorophore categories) that weakly affected T

s.

By selecting appropriate pluronic categories and adjusting the nanoparticle’s concentration, we can synthesize the nanoparticles with a wide range of T

s. These temperature-switchable fluorescence nanoparticles can be used for biomedical imaging and

tissue temperature sensing/imaging.

By selecting appropriate pluronic categories and adjusting the nanoparticle’s concentration, we can synthesize the nanoparticles with a wide range of Tths. These temperature-switchable fluorescence nanoparticles can be used for biomedical imaging and in vivo tissue temperature sensing/imaging.

Genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs), especially the GCaMP-based green fluorescence GECIs have been widely used for

detection of neuronal activity in rodents by measuring intracellular neuronal Ca

changes. More recently, jRGECO1a, a red shifted GECI, has been reported to detect neuronal Ca

activation. This opens the possibility of using dual-color GECIs for simultaneous interrogation of different cell populations. However, there has been no report to compare the functional difference between these two GECIs for

imaging. Here, a comparative study is reported on neuronal responses to sensory stimulation using GCaMP6f and jRGECO1a that were virally delivered into the neurons in the somatosensory cortex of two different groups of animals, respectively.

GCaMP6f and jRGECO1a GECI were virally delivered to sensory cortex. After 3-4 weeks, the animals were imaged to capture the spatiotemporal changes of neuronal Ca

and the hemodynamic responses to forepaw electrical stimulation (0.3 mA, 0.3 types (e.g., neurons and astrocytes) to study brain activation and brain functional changes in normal or diseased brains.

Conventional light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM), or selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), enables high-resolution 3D imaging over a large volume by using two orthogonally aligned objective lenses to decouple excitation and emission. The recent development of oblique plane microscopy (OPM) simplifies LSFM design with only one single objective lens, by using off-axis excitation and remote focusing. However, most reports on OPM have a limited microscopic field of view (FOV), typically within 1×1 mm

. Our goal is to overcome the limitation with a new variant of OPM to achieve a mesoscopic FOV.

We implemented an optical design of mesoscopic scanning OPM to allow the use of low numerical aperture (NA) objective lenses. The angle of the intermediate image before the remote focusing system was increased by a demagnification under Scheimpflug condition such that the light collecting efficiency in the remote focusing system was significantly improved. A telescope composed of cylindrical lenses watility of changeable FOVs/resolutions, our system will be ready for the varieties of applications requiring in vivo volumetric imaging over large length scales.

The proposed mesoscopic scanning OPM allows using low NA objectives such that centimeter-level FOV volumetric imaging can be achieved. With the extended FOV, simple sample mounting protocol, and the versatility of changeable FOVs/resolutions, our system will be ready for the varieties of applications requiring in vivo volumetric imaging over large length scales.

Multi-photon imaging of the cerebrovasculature provides rich data on the dynamics of cortical arterioles, capillaries, and venules. Vascular diameter is the major determinant of blood flow resistance, and is the most commonly quantified metric in studies of the cerebrovasculature. However, there is a lack of accessible and easy-to-use methods to quantify vascular diameter in imaging data.

We created VasoMetrics, a macro written in ImageJ/Fiji for spatiotemporal analysis of microvascular diameter. The key feature of VasoMetrics is rapid analysis of many evenly spaced cross-sectional lines along the vessel of interest, permitting the extraction of numerous diameter measurements from individual vessels. Here we demonstrated the utility of VasoMetrics by analyzing

multi-photon imaging stacks and movies collected from lightly sedated mice, as well as data from optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) of human retina.

Compared to the standard approach, which is to measure cross-sectional diameters at arbitrary points along a vessel, VasoMetrics accurately reported spatiotemporal features of vessel diameter, reduced measurement bias and time spent analyzing data, and improved the reproducibility of diameter measurements between users. VasoMetrics revealed the dynamics in pial arteriole diameters during vasomotion at rest, as well as changes in capillary diameter before and after pericyte ablation. Retinal arteriole diameter was quantified from a human retinal angiogram, providing proof-of-principle that VasoMetrics can be applied to contrast-enhanced clinical imaging of microvasculature.

VasoMetrics is a robust macro for spatiotemporal analysis of microvascular diameter in imaging applications.

VasoMetrics is a robust macro for spatiotemporal analysis of microvascular diameter in imaging applications.

The ultrasound-switchable fluorescence (USF) technique was recently developed to achieve high-resolution fluorescence imaging in centimeters-deep tissue. This study introduced strategies to significantly improve imaging sensitivity and depth using an electron multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) camera-based USF imaging system and a newly developed USF contrast agent of indocyanine green (ICG)-encapsulated liposomes. For a quantitative study, a phantom of a sub-millimeter silicone tube embedded in centimeter-thick chicken breast tissue was adopted in this study as a model.

The synthesized ICG-liposome was characterized and compared with the previously reported ICG-nanogel. The exposure of the EMCCD camera was controlled via the MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc. USA), instead of an external hardware trigger. The stability of the electron multiplying (EM) gain of the EMCCD camera was compared between two trigger modes the MATLAB trigger mode and the external hardware trigger mode. The signal-to-noise ratio (65 mm in 5.5 cm-thick chicken breast tissue using 808 nm excitation light with a low intensity of 28.35 mW/cm2, the improved EMCCD camera-based USF imaging system and the novel ICG-liposomes.

To evaluate the impact of ocular magnification on retinal and choriocapillaris (CC) blood flow quantification in myopic eyes using swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA).

Subjects with myopia were recruited for comprehensive ophthalmic examination and SS-OCTA imaging with 6×6 mm

scanning protocol. Retinal vessel area density (RVAD), retinal vessel skeleton density (RVSD), and percentage of CC flow deficits (CC FD%) were quantified within a 5-mm-diameter circle centered on the fovea before and after magnification correction using the Littman and the modified Bennett formulae.

Images from 28 myopic eyes were qualified for quantitative analyses including 12 eyes with non-high myopia (43%) and 16 eyes with high myopia (57%). The mean spherical equivalent (SE) refractive error was -8.18±4.58 diopters (D) and the mean axial length was 27.9±2.5 mm. The mean corrected RVAD was significantly lower than the uncorrected RVAD in all myopic eyes (0.51±0.02

. 0.52±0.02, P<0.001). The mean corrected RVSD was also significantly lower than the uncorrected RVSD in myopic eyes (0.13±0.01

. 0.15±0.00, P<0.001). In highly myopic eyes, the mean corrected CC FD% was significantly higher than the uncorrected CC FD% (14.9%±4.9%

. 14.2%±4.5%, P=0.009). In non-highly myopic eyes, no statistically significant difference was observed between the corrected and uncorrected CC FD% measurements (11.7%±5.8%

. 11.5%±5.8%, P=0.133).

Ocular magnification significantly affects the results of retinal and CC blood flow quantification with OCTA in myopic eyes. For accurate determination of the OCTA derived parameters in myopia, magnification correction should be taken into consideration.

Ocular magnification significantly affects the results of retinal and CC blood flow quantification with OCTA in myopic eyes. For accurate determination of the OCTA derived parameters in myopia, magnification correction should be taken into consideration.

Ischemic cerebral edema (CE) is a major leading cause of death in patients with ischemic stroke. The CE progression is closely related to the local cerebral blood perfusion (LCBP) level surrounding the edema area. Quantitative studying the interaction between the CE and peripheral LCBP may provide new inspiration for control and even treatment of CE.

Photothrombosis ischemia mouse model was established and observed for 9 hours using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT). OCT-based angiography and OCT-based attenuation imaging techniques were used to reconstruct the angiograms reflecting the cerebral blood perfusion (CBP) level and optical attenuation coefficient (OAC) maps reflecting the edema state. The influence of edema on LCBP was analyzed by quantifying the blood perfusion in different spatial locations around the edema tissue, and the influence of LCBP on CE progression was revealed by comparing the changes of the edema area and LCBP level over time.

Preliminary studies show that the E. This work provides a new method and inspiration for exploring the mechanism of ischemic CE progression.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging is inherently susceptible to distortion artifacts due to the natural curvature of the eye. This study proposes a novel model for widefield OCT angiography (OCTA) distortion correction and analyzes the effects of this correction on quantification metrics.

Widefield OCTA images were obtained on normal subjects at five fixation spatial positions. Radial and field distortion correction were applied and images stitched together to form a corrected widefield montage image. Vessel area density (VAD), vessel complexity index (VCI), and flow impairment area were quantified on the original and corrected montage images.

This model allows for distortion correction and montaging of widefield images. There were either statistically insignificant or small magnitude changes in vessel density and vessel complexity between uncorrected and corrected widefield images. There was a significant and large difference in flow impairment area, both in the macular (+8.2%, P=0.049) and peripheral areas (+17.2%, P=0.011), following correction. The relationship between pre- and post-correction flow impairment area was non-linear.

Distortion correction of widefield OCTA images can result in clinically and statistically significant differences in important quantification metrics. This effect appears to be most pronounced in the periphery.

Distortion correction of widefield OCTA images can result in clinically and statistically significant differences in important quantification metrics. This effect appears to be most pronounced in the periphery.

Quantitatively investigating the biomechanics of retina with a retinal prosthetic electrode, we explored the effects of the prosthetic electrode on the retina, and further supplemented data for a potential clinical trial.

Biomechanical properties were assessed with a high resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT) based elastography (OCE) system. A shaker was used to initiate elastic waves and an OCT system was used to track axial displacement along with wave propagation. Rabbits received surgery to implant the retinal prosthetic electrode, and elastic wave speed was measured before and after implantation; anatomical B-mode images were also acquired.

Spatial-temporal maps of each layer in retina with and without prosthetic electrodes were acquired. Elastic wave speed of nerve fiber to inner plexiform layer, inner nuclear to outer nuclear layer, retinal pigmented epithelium layer and choroid to sclera layer without prosthetic electrode were found to be 3.66±0.36, 5.33±0.07, 6.85±0.37, and 9.69±0.24 m/rties of the retina in response to long term use of prosthetic electrodes in patients.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is routinely used to detect the blood pulse signal from skin tissue beds in clinics. However, the origin of the PPG signal remains controversial. The purpose of this study is to explore optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) to indicate pulsatile waveforms in the papillary plexus and dermal plexus separately under different hand elevations.

Optical microangiography (OMAG) algorithm was used to obtain a 3D OCTA signals, from which the depth-resolved pulsatile blood flow signals were extracted from different skin vascular plexus. The systolic amplitude, crest time, and delta T were measured from the OCTA pulsatile signals when the hand was placed at the positions of 50 cm below, 0 cm, and 50 cm above the heart level.

The pulse signal integrated from all the depths has a similar waveform to that of the PPG and showed the same morphological change at different hand elevations. The pulsatile patterns from the papillary plexus and dermal plexus showed distinct morphologicalanges at different skin circulatory plexus.

Vascular quantitative metrics have been widely used in the preclinical studies and clinical applications (e.g., the diagnosis and treatment of port wine stain, PWS), which require accurate vessel segmentation. An automatic 3D adaptive vessel segmentation is in need for a reproducible and objective quantification of the optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) image.

Human skin imaging was performed with a lab-built optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. Rather than separately applying the conventional 2-step (intensity and binarization) thresholding in the decorrelation-contrast OCTA, we proposed a 3D adaptive threshold using the linear relationship between the local intensity and complex-decorrelation which was termed as inverse SNR-decorrelation (ID) threshold. Furthermore, the ID threshold was automatically determined by defining a binary image similarity (BISIM) index as the feedback and searching the ID threshold with the minimal BISIM value. The proposed ID-BISIM threshold was applied to WS.

The proposed ID-BISIM method enables an automatic 3D adaptive vessel segmentation with enhanced performance in quantitative OCTA. The vascular quantitative metrics would be a useful tool for improving the diagnosis and the treatment of PWS.

In the clinical applications of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), the repeated scanning and averaging method can provide better contrast with reduced speckle noises in the final results, which are useful for visualizing and quantifying vascular components with high accuracy, reproducibility, and reliability. However, the inevitable patient motion presents a challenge to this method. The objective of this study is to meet this challenge by introducing a 3D registration method to register optical coherence tomography (OCT)/OCTA scans for precise volume averaging of multiple scans to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and increase quantification accuracy.

The proposed method utilized both rigid affine transformation and non-rigid B-spline transformation in which their parameters were optimized and calculated by the average stochastic gradient descent on OCT structural images. In addition, we also introduced a multi-level resolution approach to further improve the robustness and computatiowhich would be beneficial to OCT clinical applications.

The proposed 3D registration and averaging method is effective in reducing speckle noises and suppressing motion artifacts, thereby improving SNR, PSNR and NCC metrics for final averaged images. It is expected that the proposed algorithm would be practically useful in better visualization and more reliable quantification of in vivo OCT and OCTA data, which would be beneficial to OCT clinical applications.The corona virus pandemic at the international and national levels constitutes a real problem for health, economy, trade and certainly education. In Morocco, general confinement, since March 20, 2020, is an obligation to limit the spread of this virus. The Ministry of National Education decided to close education and training institutions on March 16, 2020. It adopted, in parallel, several proactive and preventive measures to deal with this pandemic on several levels, including distance education. Certainly these measures taken in the field of education are highly important, but require reinforcement for a continuous improvement of the safety and health of learners and the professional body. Continuous prevention measures are proposed in this study, acting on legal, human resources and educational content aspects, as well as on the preventive aspect on which we offer simplified methods and tools for the effective management of COVID-19 risk. In particular, we propose a checklist, adapted to the school context, used to carry out periodic internal audits for regular control and monitoring of the health situation in the school institution and the implementation of corrective and preventive actions.COVID (Corona Virus) 2019 proved to be a pandemic worldwide, with more than 30 lakhs of life’s in danger and more than 2 lakh people dead as of 01 May 2020. The disease is spreading across the world in various phases, with assumptions of having an impact based on the weather conditions, where the true reason is not yet confirmed. However, several precautionary measures such as maintaining social distancing, covering mouth and hands using masks and gloves, avoiding huge public gatherings to attend conferences, meetings, worship places, etc proved to put a pause on the spread of this air-borne contagious disease. Though there is an impact on the overall economy world-wide, lockdown is strictly implemented in countries like India and also at various other places to control the spread and save several lives. There is a necessity to track the spread to find out the rate at which the virus is spreading and accordingly taking measures to control the same. This work presents an analysis of the growth rate and death rate of the COVID pandemic in developing countries like India using the Auto regression-based Moving Average method. The results presented in this work show the future predictions analyzed via the proposed model and drives a path to take preventive measures accordingly and curb the COVID spread.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019; apart from common conditions such as cough, fever, and severe respiratory complications, difficulty in breathing, including tachypnea, new studies on neurological manifestations have gained public interest.

An 89-year-old man was admitted to the neurocritical care department in a specialized hospital with headache, dizziness, hyperpyrexia, myalgia, rash, and tremors. MRI showed viral encephalitis near to basal ganglia and thalami.

Coronaviruses interfere with target cells by membrane-bound spike proteins. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 was identified as an input receptor for SARS-CoV-2. Due to its wide pattern of expression, COVID-19 was shown to affect several organs, including the central nervous system, where the receptor is mainly expressed as neurons.

In the current pandemic, there is a rising number of global infections, the aim of our case to increase the awareness about SARS-CoV-2 possible complications, even if there are possible further mutations for the virus, especially in the central nervous system.

In the current pandemic, there is a rising number of global infections, the aim of our case to increase the awareness about SARS-CoV-2 possible complications, even if there are possible further mutations for the virus, especially in the central nervous system.

In the COVID 19 pandemic, pituitary surgery is one of challenging surgical treatment, especially the involving transsphenoid approach. It was reported that the aerosolisation and mucosal involvement increase the risk of viral transmission during operation. Therefore, transcranial is a safer surgical approach during COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to reported transcranial approach to treat giant pituitary adenoma with aggressive visual disturbance which require urgent surgical management.

We reported a 21-year old male, who required urgent surgery because of progressive visual disturbance due to giant pituitary adenoma. On brain MRI with contrast, it was revealed an extraaxial tumor extending anteriorly over plannum sphenoidal with the greatest diameter was 5.34cm. Transcranial approach was chosen to resect the tumor. Near total removal of the tumor was achieved without damaging vital neurovascular structure. The visual acuity was improved and no significant postoperative complication. Pathology examination revealed pituitary adenoma.

Transcranial surgery for pituitary adenoma is still an armamentarium in neurosurgical practice, especially in the COVID 19 pandemic to provide safer surgical approach.

Transcranial surgery for pituitary adenoma is still an armamentarium in neurosurgical practice, especially in the COVID 19 pandemic to provide safer surgical approach.Most research on international retirement migration has focused on the Western context and the motivations and lifestyle choices of migrants when they are healthy. This paper instead explores how British retirees in Spain and Japanese retirees in Malaysia respond to declining health and increasing care needs through bricolage as they begin to 'age in place’. The paper combines qualitative interviews, focus groups and observations collected by the authors from 215 British and Japanese international retirement migrants. We focus on two key types of bricolage behaviour 'within-system bricolage’ undertaken by migrants to help them access and navigate existing health and care systems; and 'added-to-system bricolage’ that is enacted to fill gaps in health and care provision. Our analysis suggests that IRMs engage in 'transnational care bricolage’ by combining multiple economic, social and legal resources across local and transnational spaces to address their health and care needs.The current work is of interest to introduce a detailed analysis of the novel fractional COVID-19 model. Non-local fractional operators are one of the most efficient tools in order to understand the dynamics of the disease spread. For this purpose, we intend as an attempt at investigating the fractional COVID-19 model through Caputo operator with order χ ∈ ( 0 , 1 ) . Employing the fixed point theorem, it is shown that the solutions of the proposed fractional model are determined to satisfy the existence and uniqueness conditions under the Caputo derivative. On the other hand, its iterative solutions are indicated by making use of the Laplace transform of the Caputo fractional operator. Also, we establish the stability criteria for the fractional COVID-19 model via the fixed point theorem. The invariant region in which all solutions of the fractional model under investigation are positive is determined as the non-negative hyperoctant R + 7 . Moreover, we perform the parameter estimation of the COVID-19 model by utilizing the non-linear least squares curve fitting method. The sensitivity analysis of the basic reproduction number R 0 c is carried out to determine the effects of the proposed fractional model’s parameters on the spread of the disease. Numerical simulations show that all results are in good agreement with real data and all theoretical calculations about the disease.The outbreak of COVID-19 has posed significant challenges to governments across the world. The increase in hazardous infectious waste (HIW) caused by the pandemic is associated with the risk of transmitting the virus. In this study, hazardous waste includes infectious waste generated both by individuals and by hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. To control the outbreak by maintaining social distance and home quarantine protocols, daily necessities and health supplies must be provided to the people affected. Governments play an essential role in the management of the crisis, creating an elaborate plan for collecting HIW and providing necessities and health supplies. This paper proposes a leader-follower approach for hazardous infectious waste collection and government aid distribution to control COVID-19. At the top level of the model, government policies are designed to support people by distributing daily necessities and health supplies, and to support contractors by waste collection. The lower level of the model is related to the operational decisions of contractors with limited capacities. Due to the potential risk of virus transmission via contaminated waste, the proposed model considers the complications imposed on contractors at the lower level. Applying a stochastic programming approach, four possible scenarios are examined, dependent of the severity of the outbreak. As a solution approach, the Benders decomposition method is combined with Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. The results show that government support, in addition to much better management of citizen demand, can control the spread of the virus by implementing quarantine decisions.