An experimental and algorithm-based study of the spectral features of breast cancer patients by a photodiagnosis approach.

In the present study, the spectral diagnosis of blood plasma samples of breast cancer patients and an equal number of normal controls was investigated. A set of ratio parameters was acquired by employing SXS and FES. The samples were also analyzed statistically by employing Welch two-sample t-tests, and the effects of three ratio parameters, R1, R2, and R3, were also studied by plotting them against the subject numbers. A linear discriminant was also applied to verify the exact classification of normal control and breast cancer patients. It was observed that the levels of biofluorophores such as porphyrin, NADH, tryptophan and flavins were elevated 2- to 3-fold for breast cancer patients compared to normal controls, with an accuracy of approximately 100 %. We have also confirmed the validity of the obtained experimental results by using an advanced robust diagnostic algorithm. The experimental results of the current study may have a vital and substantial impact on the detection and screening protocols used for future breast cancer patients. The spectral analysis of body fluid could be of great value to add to and enhance the current procedures with an accuracy of approximately 100 % with limited number of samples. The results and objectives of this preliminary study were encouraging and useful for the discrimination of the features of breast cancer patients compared to those of normal controls.

A study for the detection of kidney cancer using fluorescence emission spectra and synchronous fluorescence excitation spectra of blood and urine.

In this study, we compared different types of biomolecular markers in kidney cancer patients and in normal healthy controls, using fluorescence emission spectra and synchronous fluorescence excitation spectra. We were able to provide an accurate classification of the spectral features of kidney cancer patients relative to that of normal controls, in terms of the concentration ratios of biomolecules (viz., tryptophan, NADH, FAD, basic porphyrin, and acidic porphyrin) based on the intensity of their spectral peaks. The specificity and sensitivity of the method were 90%. The rationale of our current approach is to evolve an innovative protocol for the spectral characterization of in vitro optical analyses suitable for both small clinics and hospitals.

Improving vasomotor symptoms; psychological symptoms; and health-related quality of life in peri- or post-menopausal women through yoga: An umbrella systematic review and meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Vasomotor symptoms (VMS), commonly reported during menopausal transition, negatively affect psychological health and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). While hormone therapy is an effective treatment, its use is limited by concerns about possible harms. Thus, many women with VMS seek nonhormonal, nonpharmacologic treatment options. However, evidence to guide clinical recommendations is inconclusive. This study reviewed the effectiveness of yoga, tai chi and qigong on vasomotor, psychological symptoms, and HRQoL in peri- or post-menopausal women. DESIGN: MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Allied and Complementary Medicine Database were searched. Researchers identified systematic reviews (SR) or RCTs that evaluated yoga, tai chi, or qigong for vasomotor, psychological symptoms, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in peri- or post-menopausal women. Data were abstracted on study design, participants, interventions and outcomes. Risk of bias (ROB) was assessed and updated meta-analyses were performed. RESULTS: We identified one high-quality SR (5 RCTs, 582 participants) and 3 new RCTs (345 participants) published after the SR evaluating yoga for vasomotor, psychological symptoms, and HRQoL; no studies evaluated tai chi or qigong. Updated meta-analyses indicate that, compared to controls, yoga reduced VMS (5 trials, standardized mean difference (SMD) -0.27, 95% CI -0.49 to -0.05) and psychological symptoms (6 trials, SDM -0.32; 95% CI -0.47 to -0.17). Effects on quality of life were reported infrequently. Key limitations are that adverse effects were rarely reported and outcome measures lacked standardization. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this meta-analysis suggest that yoga may be a useful therapy to manage bothersome vasomotor and psychological symptoms.

Use of mindfulness, meditation and relaxation to treat vasomotor symptoms.

Postmenopausal women with bothersome vasomotor symptoms (VMS) often seek alternatives to hormone-based treatment due to medication risks or personal preference. We sought to identify the effects of meditation, mindfulness, hypnosis and relaxation on VMS and health-related quality of life in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. To do this, we conducted an umbrella review supplemented by new randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) published since the most recent good-quality systematic review for eligible interventions. We searched MEDLINE and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and the Allied and Complementary Medicine Databases. We identified five systematic reviews and six new RCTs that met eligibility criteria. In a new meta-analysis examining four RCTs comparing paced respiration with a control group, we found that paced respiration is not associated with a statistically significant decrease in VMS frequency (standardized mean difference (SMD) 0.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.73 to 0.82, I2 = 56.6%, three trials) or severity (SMD 0.06, 95% CI -0.69 to 0.80; I2 = 65.1%, three trials). There was not sufficient new information to conduct meta-analyses that examined the effect of mindfulness or hypnosis on our outcomes of interest. No effect on VMS or quality of life was found between various relaxation or mindfulness interventions.

Laser from Optically Pumped Quantum Dot CdSe/ZnS in a Colloidal Liquid.

In this study, we had investigated the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) characteristics of CdSe/ZnS quantum dot (QDs) in a colloidal liquid. A third harmonic of Nd:YAG laser (355 nm) was used to produce laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) at 605 nm with a spectral width of 0 nm [full width at half maximum (FWHM)]. When the pump power and focusing were carefully optimized, an ASE at 610 nm with a spectral width of Δλ = 8 nm (FWHM) could be obtained. The beam was directional with a divergence of 10 milli radians (mrad); but the conversion efficiency was about 0.05%.

Spectral detection of thalassemia: a preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: Thalassemias (Thal) are forms of inherited autosomal recessive blood disorders arising out of mutations in the chromosomes 11 or 16. These disorders lead to poor oxygen delivery to blood vessels and consequent splenomegaly, bone deformities, and shorter life spans. The most common detection methods for Thal are complete blood count (CBC) followed by electrophoresis and molecular diagnosis methods, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) genotyping. These methods involve sophisticated instrumentations and are cumbersome and expensive. RESULTS: In this study an innovative spectral detection method, based on the fluorescence spectra of a set of biomolecules (tyrosine, tryptophan, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, and flavin adenine dinucleotide and porphyrins) found in blood components is presented. An algorithm based on the spectral features of such biomolecules of blood components of 20 Thal patients (10 female and 10 male) and 18 age adjusted normal controls (4 female and 14 male) demonstrate reasonable level of classification with sensitivity and specificity values exceeding 90%. CONCLUSION: This new technique could be of significant value for Thal detection, diagnosis, and subsequent genetic counselling and could be adapted for use in small primary health centres.

Photoluminescence spectra of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots in solution.

The spectral properties of CdSe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) of 3 nm size have been studied under different organic solvents, concentrations and temperatures. Our results showed that the absorption spectra of CdSe/ZnS in benzene have two humps; one around 420 nm and another at 525 nm, with a steady increase in absorption along UV region, and the absorption spectral profile under a wide range of concentrations did not change. On the other hand, the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of CdSe/ZnS in benzene showed two bands one around 375 nm and the other around 550 nm. It could be seen that the band at 375 nm is due to the interaction between the shell (ZnS) with the solvent species in high excited state, and the band at 550 nm is due to core alone (CdSe).

Spectral detection of sickle cell anemia and thalassemia.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassemia (Thal) are the most common inherited, autosomal, recessive blood disorders which lead to complications such as vasoocclusion and splenomegaly. Patients who suffer from these diseases have poor quality of life and shorter life span. The most common techniques for detection of these diseases are complete blood cell count, followed by electrophoresis and high performance liquid chromatography. In this connection, the results of this paper indicate the potential of a new technique, based on spectral analysis of blood plasma and cellular components, to detect SCD and Thal with accuracy of 90% and above. To the best of our knowledge this would be the first report on spectral pathology of hemoglobinopathy.

A parallelism between spectral grading and Gleason grading of malignant prostate tissues.

Gleason score is the most common method of grading the virulence of prostate malignancy and is based on the pathological assessment of morphology of cellular matrix. Since this involves the excision of the tissue, we are working on a new, minimally invasive, non-contact, procedure of spectral diagnosis of prostate malignancy. In this preliminary in vitro study reported here, we have analyzed 27 tissue samples (normal control=7: benign=8: malignant=12) by Stokes' shift spectra (SSS) to establish a one-to-one correspondence between spectral grading and Gleason grading.

Optical biopsy of benign and malignant tissue by time resolved spectroscopy.

Pathological condition of malignant tissue could be analyzed by spectral domain or time domain spectroscopy, the two being the complementary to each other in optical biopsy (OB) of cancer. This paper reports results of time resolved emission spectroscopy (TRS) of 24 excised tissue samples of breast and prostate (normal control = 12; benign = 4; malignant = 8), employing a 390 nm, 100 fs, Ti-Sapphire laser pulses.The fluorescence decay times were measured using streak camera and the resultant data were fitted for single and bi-exponential decays with reliability of 97%. Our results show the distinct difference between normal, benign and malignant tissues mostly due to the emission spectra of Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NADH), Flavin Mononucleotide (FAD) and also due to the heterogeneity of micro environments associated with the diseased tissues. In this short report, fit is also shown that TRS of breast tissues are similar to those of prostate tissues.

Resonance Raman and Raman spectroscopy for breast cancer detection.

Raman spectroscopy is a sensitive method to detect early changes of molecular _composition and structure that occur in lesions during carcinogenesis. The Raman spectra of normal, benign and cancerous breast tissues were investigated in vitro using a near-infrared (NIR) Raman system of 785 nm excitation and confocal micro resonance Raman system of 532 nm excitation. A total number of 491 Raman spectra were acquired from normal, benign and cancerous breast tissues taken from 15 patients. When the 785 nm excitation was used, the dominant peaks in the spectra were characteristic of the vibrations of proteins and lipids. The differences between the normal and cancerous breast tissues were observed in both the peak positions and the intensity ratios of the characteristic Raman peaks in the spectral region of 700-1800 cm(21). With 532 nm excitation, the resonance Raman (RR) spectra exhibited a robust pattern of peaks within the region of 500-4000 cm(21). The intensities of four distinct peaks at 1156, 1521, 2854 and 3013 cm(21) detected in the spectra collected from normal breast tissue were found to be stronger in comparison with those collected from cancerous breast tissue. The twelve dramatically enhanced characteristic peaks, including the enhanced amide II peak at 1548 cm(21) in the spectra collected from cancerous breast tissue, distinguished the cancerous tissue from the normal tissue. Principal component analysis (PCA) combined with support vector machine (SVM) analysis of the Raman and RR spectral data yielded a high performance in the classification of cancerous and benign lesions from normal breast tissue.

A study on genetic variability of pathogenic Aeromonas hydrophila strains and the varied responses of the strains towards phyto-extracts.

The present study evaluated genetic variation in Aeromonas hydrophila strains using PCR-RAPD and their varied susceptibility to phyto-extract. Four strains of Aeromonas hydrophila isolated from skin infections of common freshwater fish, Cyprinus carpio were characterized by various biochemical methods, physiological tests and PCR- RAPD. Antimicrobial activity of the leaf extracts of three medicinal plants, Ocimum sanctum, Adathoda vasica and Calendula officinalis were tested against the four strains of A. hydrophila by disc diffusion (Kirby-Bauer) method. Antagonistic effects of leaf extracts against A. hydrophila strains were assessed by co-culture method. RAPD analysis showed that all the microbes isolated from skin infection belong to the same species but there was no 100% genetic similarity among them Dendrogram constructed by UPGMA clearly supported the PCR pattern of genetic variability among the strains. This study revealed that Aeromonas hydophila exhibits genetic variability and varied susceptibility towards phyto-extracts. Results indicated that phyto-extracts offers a promising alternative to the use of antibiotics in controlling Aeromonas hydrophila.

Amplified spontaneous emission spectra from the superexciplex of coumarin 138.

In this report the dual amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) characteristics of coumarin 138 (C(138)) had been studied, under different solvent environments. The results obtained were compared with coumarin 461 (C(461)) and coumarin 450 (C(450)), which have closely related structure. The results showed that all these dyes could produce ASE from superexciplex - a new molecular species - formed only under high inversion densities, obtainable by pulsed laser excitation. We have strong indication that a superexciplex with TICT conformation is capable of producing strong ASE.

Diagnosis of liver cancer and cirrhosis by the fluorescence spectra of blood and urine.

Liver cancer or hepato cellular carcinoma (HCC) is a serious malady with only 10% survival rate and is fatal next only to pancreatic cancer. This disease is conventionally detected and diagnosed by ultra sound, CT or MRI scans which are quite expensive. Also the discrimination between cirrhosis and HCC, by these imaging techniques, is poor. The conventional tissue biopsy is quite invasive and painful. In the new diagnostic procedure presented in this paper we have obtained fluorescence emission spectra with excitation at 400 nm and the synchronous emission spectra (Δλ = 10 nm) for a set of blood and urine samples (Normal control N = 25, Liver Malfunction N = 58). Based on the ratio fluorometric parameters, all the three liver maladies (minor inflammation like Hepatitis C, serious diseases like Cirrhosis and hepatoma) could be detected and discriminated with an accuracy of about 80%. Hence this inexpensive, non invasive, optical technique may have significant impact in screening, diagnosis and also prognosis of HCC in large segment of people in the populous Asian countries.

Detection of cancer by optical analysis of body fluids--a single blind study.

This paper pertains to a new technique based on fluorescence emission spectra (FES), and stokes shift spectra (SSS) of blood plasma, acetone extract of cellular fraction, and urine. These samples were collected from 60 cancer patients of different etiology and 60 age adjusted controls for a single blind study. A set of ratio parameters were obtained from the above spectra (FES and SSS of above three sets of samples), based on the relative intensity of biofluorophores like tryptophan, tyrosine, flavin etc. It was found that these biofluorophores go out of proportion for malignancy of any etiolology. The study was done in two phases: calibration and validation. Based on a certain set of ratios obtained by simple statistical analysis, in the calibration phase, the blinded samples of validation phase were spectrally analysed and classified as normal or malignant. The scoring done by independent oncologists (who were not involved in any part of this new technique) yielded an overall sensitivity of 87%, and specificity of 83%. The result indicate that new optical spectroscopic techniques could be a simple, non-invasive protocol for detection of cancers, particularly in symptomatic cases; or for monitoring the post treated cases of cancer.

Fluorescence spectra of blood components for breast cancer diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether fluorescence emission spectroscopy of blood components can differentiate normal from early and advanced stages of breast cancer using stepwise discriminant analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fluorescence emission spectra were measured for blood components of three different groups: 35 normal controls, 28 with early-stage, and 18 with advanced-stage breast cancer. The data from the spectra were subjected to Fisher's linear discriminant analysis. Classification accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity of the technique were calculated for breast cancer diagnosis. RESULTS: Fluorescence emission spectra of blood components accurately distinguished normal from early-stage and advanced-stage breast cancer in 91.4% of original cases and 90.1% for cross-validated cases. The sensitivity and specificity were 80.4% and 100%, respectively, in distinguishing subjects with breast cancer from normal controls. CONCLUSION: Our statistical evaluation indicates that porphyrin in blood can be used as a reliable tumor marker. Fluorescence emission spectroscopy of blood components and statistical evaluations should be further investigated for a variety of tumors.

Studies on the distribution of 210Po and 210Pb in the ecosystem of Point Calimere Coast (Palk Strait), India.

A systematic study on the natural radionuclides such as 210Po and 210Pb in the environmental matrices of Point Calimere ecosystem has been undertaken to establish a baseline data on the radiation profile of Point Calimere environment. The environmental samples such as water, sediment and biota (seaweeds, crustaceans, molluscs and fish) have been subjected to analyses. It has been observed that the concentration of 210Po and 210Pb in the water samples of Point Calimere to be 0.5 mBq/l and 1.3 mBq/l, respectively. The soft tissues of the organisms accumulated higher 210Po content while shells and bones contained more 210Pb. The bivalve molluscs Meretrix casta have been identified to accumulate higher concentration of 210Po suggesting that they could serve as bio-indicator of radionuclides like 210Po in the Point Calimere ecosystem. The concentration factor of 210Po for the biotic components ranged from approximately 10(3) to 10(6) while for 210Pb it ranged from approximately 10(3) to 10(5).

Dual amplified spontaneous emission as evidence for superexciplex from the dye LD473.

Pulsed laser excitation of certain laser dye solutions prepares the sample molecules in a condition, unavailable under steady state lamp excitation. Excited molecules in large concentration obtainable under intense pulse laser pumping appear to undergo superexciplex interaction in which two excited molecules form an association with a solvent molecule acting as a link. This paper shows some of the important features of such superexciplexes with LD473 dye molecule as a reference.

Structural and solvent dependence of superexciplex.

In this paper, we show that a few coumarin dye solutions exhibit dual amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectra under pulsed laser excitation, though all these solutions exhibit only one fluorescence band under steady-state conditions. The anomalous band, appearing only in ASE spectra, had been attributed to the superexciplex--a new molecular species. This is made of two excited molecules and is obtainable only under pulsed laser excitation. This complex is different from the well known excimer or exciplex, wherein only one atom or molecule is in the excited state. The superexciplex is possible with the two polar excited molecules coming together to form an excited state association, with the solvent acting as some sort of bridge. With very polar dye molecules, such an association is possible even with the inert benzene acting as a bridge; otherwise solvents like ethyl acetate, with an oxygen atom, is necessary for the linkage.