I don't feel sick: Cognitive and affective processing of self-health associations using the Implicit Association Test.

Measuring implicit associations of self-concept with health or illness attributes may offer valuable insight into the mechanisms entailing the perception of one's own health, as explicit measures of self-reported health are usually influenced by social desirability or response bias. In this study, healthy participants performed a modified version of the implicit association test (IAT) investigating implicit associations between the self and either health or illness related representations. Behaviorally, implicit associations dominated for self-health pairing, and their strength was inversely correlated with depressive traits. Neurally, concomitant EEG recording showed significant modulations of the P1, LPP, and N4 components evoked by such pairings, suggesting a facilitation of sensory responses to self-related stimuli and differential emotional processes engaged to integrate health versus illness information into self-related representations. These data offer new clues to better understand the cognitive and affective mechanisms underlying unrealistic optimism and pathological awareness of health conditions in various clinical populations.

Oncocytic carcinoma of parotid gland.

Of 0.5% all epithelial salivary gland malignancies are oncocytic cancers, a rare kind of parotid gland cancer. Clinical signs include discomfort and swelling in the cheek region, and the facial nerve is occasionally affected, leading to unilateral facial paralysis. Currently, surgery is the preferred choice of therapy. In this paper, we aimed to provide a case of an 84-year-old male who had an oncocytic carcinoma in the right parotid gland. A heterogeneous, poorly defined hypoechogenic lesion with minor vascular proliferation was seen by Doppler ultrasonography in the superficial lobe of the right parotid gland. On a computed tomography (CT) with contrast agent, an ill-defined mass filling the right parotid gland was evident. With the aid of the CT results of a heterogeneous enhancing mass with poorly defined boundary and expansion of adjacent lymph nodes, it may be able to differentiate between malignant lesions and benign parotid tumors.

Colorimetric microneedle patches for multiplexed transdermal detection of metabolites.

Skin Interstitial Fluid (ISF) is an alternative source for biomarkers. Herein, a highly swellable microneedle patch (MNP) to rapidly extract ISF painlessly and bloodlessly is presented. The MNP is made of crosslinked methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA) and dissolvable hyaluronic acid (HA) with the optimal balance of mechanical strength (0.6 N/MN) and absorption capability (16.22 µL in 20 min). Incorporated with wax-patterned and sensing-reagent-decorated test paper (TP) for multiplexed colorimetric detection of metabolites (glucose, lactate, cholesterol, and pH), this TP-MNP biosensor gives rapid color change in biomarker concentration-dependent manner based on specific enzymatic reactions, whereby allowing diagnosis by the naked eye or quantitative RGB analysis. Both the in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate the feasibility of TP-MNPs to detect multiple biomarkers in skin interstitial fluid within minutes. Such convenient and self-administrable profiling of metabolites shall be instrumental for home-based long-term monitoring and management of metabolic diseases.

Lancing Drug Reservoirs into Subcutaneous Fat to Combat Obesity and Associated Metabolic Diseases.

Obesity is a serious epidemic health problem that can cause many other diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Current approaches to combat obesity suffer from low effectiveness and adverse side effects. Here, a new self-administrable and minimally invasive transdermal drug delivery strategy for home-based long-term treatment of obesity and other diseases is developed. Specifically, ultrathin, core-shelled, and lance-shaped polymeric drug reservoirs (micro-lances [MLs]) are readily fabricated by a thermal pressing molding method and totally implanted into subcutaneous fat by lancing through the skin. Using a diet-induced obese mouse model, it is shown that the development of obesity and associated metabolic disorders is effectively inhibited by applying therapeutic core-shelled MLs once every 2 weeks. The outstanding therapeutic effects are attributable to highly localized and biphasic drug release, as well as combination therapy based on browning transformation of white fat and enhanced insulin sensitivity.

Self-implantable double-layered micro-drug-reservoirs for efficient and controlled ocular drug delivery.

Eye diseases and injuries impose a significant clinical problem worldwide. Safe and effective ocular drug delivery is, however, challenging due to the presence of ocular barriers. Here we report a strategy using an eye patch equipped with an array of detachable microneedles. These microneedles can penetrate the ocular surface tissue, and serve as implanted micro-reservoirs for controlled drug delivery. The biphasic drug release kinetics enabled by the double-layered micro-reservoirs largely enhances therapeutic efficacy. Using corneal neovascularization as the disease model, we show that delivery of an anti-angiogenic monoclonal antibody (DC101) by such eye patch produces ~90% reduction of neovascular area. Furthermore, quick release of an anti-inflammatory compound (diclofenac) followed by a sustained release of DC101 provides synergistic therapeutic outcome. The eye patch application is easy and minimally invasive to ensure good patient compliance. Such intraocular drug delivery strategy promises effective home-based treatment of many eye diseases.

A Swellable Microneedle Patch to Rapidly Extract Skin Interstitial Fluid for Timely Metabolic Analysis.

Skin interstitial fluid (ISF) is an emerging source of biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognosis. Microneedle (MN) patch has been identified as an ideal platform to extract ISF from the skin due to its pain-free and easy-to-administrated properties. However, long sampling time is still a serious problem which impedes timely metabolic analysis. In this study, a swellable MN patch that can rapidly extract ISF is developed. The MN patch is made of methacrylated hyaluronic acid (MeHA) and further crosslinked through UV irradiation. Owing to the supreme water affinity of MeHA, this MN patch can extract sufficient ISF in a short time without the assistance of extra devices, which remarkably facilitates timely metabolic analysis. Due to covalent crosslinked network, the MN patch maintains the structure integrity in the swelling hydrated state without leaving residues in skin after usage. More importantly, the extracted ISF metabolites can be efficiently recovered from MN patch by centrifugation for the subsequent offline analysis of metabolites such as glucose and cholesterol. Given the recent trend of easy-to-use point-of-care devices for personal healthcare monitoring, this study opens a new avenue for the development of MN-based microdevices for sampling ISF and minimally invasive metabolic detection.

Reduction in childhood malnutrition in Vietnam from 1990 to 2004.

Reduction in childhood malnutrition in Vietnam between 1990 and 2004 was assessed using data from 5 national surveys. The prevalence of malnutrition, including stunting, declined significantly for underweight from 45% in 1990 to 26.6% in 2004. While the average reduction was 1.3% per year in the period from 1990 to 2000, it was 1.8% per year in the period from 2000 to 2004. The prevalence of stunting declined from 56.5% in 1990 to 30.7% in 2004, with an average reduction of 2% per year in the period from 1990 to 2000 and 1.5% per year in the period from 2000 to 2004. There were clear differences in the decrease in malnutrition prevalence between urban, rural and mountainous areas, the reduction being highest in the urban regions and lowest in the mountainous areas. Regression analysis showed that the nutrition status of the child is positively related to better household living conditions and to the educational level of the father, but not the mother. Stunting is higher in children whose parents are farmers and higher in households with more children. Stunting prevalence is lower in households with safe water access and hygienic toilets. In future , the dramatic reduction is childhood malnutrition as seen in the period 1990 to 2004 might not continue. More comprehensive apptoaches will be needed to lower childhood malnutrition in Vietnam further.