ABSTRACT
Advanced ultrasound techniques, including brain contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and elastography, are increasingly being explored to better understand infant brain health. While conventional brain ultrasonography provides a convenient, noninvasive means of assessing major intracranial pathologies, its value in revealing functional and physiologic insights into the brain lags behind advanced imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging. In this regard, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography provides highly precise functional information on macrovascular and microvascular perfusion, while brain elastography offers information on brain stiffness that may be associated with relevant physiological factors of diagnostic, therapeutic, and/or prognostic utility. This review details the technical background, current understanding and utility, and future directions of these two emerging advanced ultrasound techniques for neonatal brain applications.
ABSTRACT
Periodontal disease has been recently linked to a variety of systemic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, preterm delivery, and oral cancer. The most common bacteria associated with periodontal disease, Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) has not yet been studied in the malignant gingival tissues. The objective of this study was to investigate the presence of P. gingivalis in specimens from squamous cell carcinoma patients. We have performed immunohistochemical staining to investigate the presence of P. gingivalis and Streptococcus gordonii (S. gordonii), a non invasive oral bacteria, in paraffin embedded samples of gingival squamous cell carcinoma (n = 10) and normal gingiva (n = 5). Staining for P. gingivalis revealed the presence of the bacteria in normal gingival tissues and gingival carcinoma, with higher levels (more than 33%, P < 0.05) detected in the carcinoma samples. The staining intensity was also significantly enhanced in the malignant tissue by 2 folds (P < 0.023) compared to specimens stained for the non-invasive S. gordonii. P. gingivalis is abundantly present in malignant oral epithelium suggesting a potential association of the bacteria with gingival squamous cell carcinoma.