High spatial resolution diffuse optical tomography based on cross-correlation of chaotic light.

A diffuse optical tomography system with chaotic laser is proposed for the three-dimensional optical phantom. The high signal-to-noise ratio is beneficial to improve the spatial resolution of diffuse optical tomography. It is essential to drive the chaotic laser as the incident light into the optical phantom. The transmitted light emitted from phantom as the detection light and a part of the incident light as the reference light to carry out cross-correlation analysis. The high-density source-detector configuration in parallel plate structure is designed for detecting targets in the phantom. The propagation of chaotic laser in the phantom is studied theoretically and experimentally based on the diffusion equation. Image reconstruction is achieved by the cross-correlation analysis of chaotic laser and the Newton-Raphson nonlinear algorithm. The performance of the proposed system has been assessed by reconstruction localization accuracy and contrast-noise-ratio. The results show that the spatial resolution of the proposed system can reach 1.5 mm and the localization error is less than 1 mm.

Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Suggesting a Diagnosis of Myelodysplastic Syndrome: a Diagnostic Dilemma.

BACKGROUND: Although acute promyelocytic leukemia displays a wide spectrum of morphological variants, the classic morphological variants are defined as hypergranular variants and the hypogranular or microgranular form. METHODS: We report here for the first time a rare morphological variant of APL mimicking myelodysplastic syndrome. A 49-year-old man presented with pancytopenia. Laboratory findings were as follows: White blood cell count was 1.39 x 109/L, hemoglobin was 120 g/L, platelet count was 103 x 109/L, fibrinogen was 3.42 g/L and D-dimer was 3.14 mg/L. Peripheral blood smear revealed no blast or immature cells. Very careful inspection of bone marrow smears indicated 5% blast cells, of which 50% had hyperbasophilic cytoplasm and obvious cytoplasmic blebs mimicking megakaryoblasts or micromegakaryocytes, the others were promyelocytes with obvious bilobed nuclei and fine azurophilic granules. One or a few Auer rods could be seen in 0.5% of the blasts. Myeloperoxidase was strongly positive in the blast cells. Immunophenotyping of the BM revealed an abnormal myeloid population, which was negative for CD34 and HLA-DR. Cytogenetic analysis of the bone marrow cells revealed a 46,XY,t(15;17)(q24;q21)[3]/46,XY[4] karyotype, and the PML-RARA fusion gene was positive. RESULTS: The patient was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia according to WHO classification. CONCLUSIONS: The patient was initially diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome with excess blasts 2 based on cytological features. Due to the need for specific emergency treatment to avoid the risk of potentially fatal bleeding, recognition of the distinctive morphological features is vital for the diagnosis and prognosis of APL.

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 induces endothelial cell apoptosis in vitro through a p53-dependent mitochondrial pathway.

The cystine-cystine (CC) chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) has been established playing a pathogenic role in the development of atherosclerosis due to its chemotactic ability of leading monocytes to locate to subendothelia. Recent studies have revealed more MCP-1 functions other than chemotaxis. Here we reported that various concentrations (0.1-100 ng/ml) of MCP-1 induced human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) strain CRL-1730 apoptosis, caspase-9 activation, and a couple of mitochondrial alterations. Moreover, MCP-1 upregulated p53 expression of HUVECs and the p53-specific inhibitor pifithrin-α (PFTα) rescued the MCP-1-induced apoptosis of HUVECs. Furthermore, PKC (protein kinase C) activation or inhibition might also affect HUVECs apoptosis induced by MCP-1. These findings together demonstrate that MCP-1 exerts direct proapoptotic effects on HUVECs in vitro via a p53-dependent mitochondrial pathway.