Early acne scar intervention with 1064 nm picosecond laser in patients receiving oral isotretinoin: a randomized split-face controlled pilot study.

Early acne scar intervention is important. Oral isotretinoin is widely used in patients with moderate to severe acne. Picosecond laser has shown a promising effect on scar clearance. However, there is a lack of reports on the efficacy and safety of early acne scar management by using 1064-nm picosecond laser in patients receiving low-dose oral isotretinoin. Twenty-four patients with atrophic acne scars of Fitzpatrick skin type III to V were enrolled. All patients were receiving low-dose oral isotretinoin (0.12-0.22 mg/kg/day) during the treatment. The face of the participants was randomly assigned to receive 2 sessions of fractional picosecond 1064 nm Nd: YAG laser (FxPico) treatment and 2 follow-ups, with an interval of 1 month (month 0-3). Clinical efficacy and safety were assessed by photographs, ECCA grading scale, the number of scar lesions melanin and erythema indexes (MI and EI), TEWL, DLQI, and patient satisfaction and the adverse events were recorded on every visit. FxPico significantly decreased the ECCA score and showed higher improvement in the ECCA score. FxPico treated side achieved a significant reduction in all acne scar types, while only boxcar scars and rolling scars showed higher improvement. TEWL but not MI or EI were significantly improved. DLQI and patient satisfaction were higher with the FxPico-treated side than control side. No adverse effects were observed and all the side effects observed were temporary and tolerable. Early intervention by FxPico on patients receiving low-dose oral isotretinoin is a safe and effective modality to improve atrophic acne scars.

Little effect of natural noise on high-frequency hearing in frogs, Odorrana tormota.

Ambient noise influences acoustic communication in animals. The concave-eared frogs (Odorrana tormota) produce high-frequency sound signals to avoid potential masking from noise. However, whether environmental noise has effect on the high-frequency hearing of frogs is largely unclear. By measuring the auditory evoked near-field potentials (AENFPs) from the torus semicircularis of the midbrain at frequencies 1-23 kHz in the presence of three noise levels, we found no significant difference in the peak-to-peak amplitude, threshold and latency of AENFP between low-level (35 dB SPL) background noise and mid-level (65 dB SPL) broadcast natural noise. For a natural noise level of 85 dB SPL, AENFP amplitude decreased and threshold and latency increased at frequencies 3-13 kHz. Spike counts evoked by stimuli at the best excitatory frequency under 85 dB SPL natural noise exposure were lower in 7-kHz CF neurons than in exposures to 35 and 65 dB SPL noise. However spike counts were similar for 14- and 20-kHz CF neurons at the three exposure levels. These findings indicate that environmental noise does not mask the responses of high-frequency tuned auditory neurons, and suggest that the acoustic communication system of O. tormota is efficiently adapted to noisy habitats.