ABSTRACT
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is the most common chronic inflammatory skin disease worldwide. Its severity is assessed using scores that rely on visual observation of the affected body surface area, the morphology of the lesions and subjective symptoms, like pruritus or insomnia. Ideally, such scores should be complemented by objective and accurate measurements of disease severity to standardize disease scoring in routine care and clinical trials. Recently, it was shown that raster-scanning optoacoustic mesoscopy (RSOM) can provide detailed three-dimensional images of skin inflammation processes that capture the most relevant features of their pathology. Moreover, precise RSOM biomarkers of inflammation have been identified for psoriasis. However, the objectivity and validity of such biomarkers in repeated measurements have not yet been assessed for AD. Here, we report the results of a study on the repeatability of RSOM inflammation biomarkers in AD to estimate their precision. Optoacoustic imaging analysis revealed morphological inflammation biomarkers with precision well beyond standard clinical severity metrics. Our findings suggest that optoacoustic mesoscopy may be a good choice for quantitative evaluations of AD that are inaccessible by other methods. This could potentially enable the optimization of disease scoring and drug development.
ABSTRACT
Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a specific learning disability that affects the acquisition of mathematical skills in children with normal intelligence and age-appropriate school education (prevalence 3-6%). One essential step in the development of mathematical understanding is the formation and automated access to a spatial representation of numbers. Many children with DD show a deficient development of such a mental number line. The present study aimed to develop a computer-based training program to improve the construction and access to the mental number line. Sixteen children with DD aged 8-10 years and 16 matched control children completed the 5-week computer training. All children played the game 15 min a day for 5 days a week. The efficiency of the training was evaluated by means of neuropsychological tests and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a number line task. In general, children with and without DD showed a benefit from the training indicated by (a) improved spatial representation of numbers and (b) the number of correctly solved arithmetical problems. Regarding group differences in brain activation, children with DD showed less activation in bilateral parietal regions, which reflects neuronal dysfunction in pivotal regions for number processing. Both groups showed reduced recruitment of relevant brain regions for number processing after the training which can be attributed to automatization of cognitive processes necessary for mathematical reasoning. Moreover, results point to a partial remediation of deficient brain activation in dyscalculics after consolidation of acquired and refined number representation. To conclude, the present study represents the first attempt to evaluate a custom-designed training program in a group of dyscalculic children and results indicate that the training leads to an improved spatial representation of the mental number line and a modulation of neural activation, which both facilitate processing of numerical tasks.
