RESUMO
Real-time monitoring of arteriovenous graft blood flow would provide early warning of graft failure to permit interventions such as angioplasty or graft replacement to avoid catastrophic failure. We have developed a new type of flexible pulsation sensor (FPS) consisting of a 3D printed elastic cuff wrapped around a graft and thus not in contact with blood. The FPS uses multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersed in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a piezoresistive sensor layer, which is embedded within structural thixotropic PDMS. These materials were specifically developed to enable sensor additive manufacturing via 3D Bio-plotting, and the resulting strain sensor is more compliant and has a wider maximum strain range than graft materials. Here, we analyze the strain transduction mechanics on a vascular graft and describe the memristive properties of MWCNT-PDMS composites, which may be mitigated using AC biasing. In vitro testing of the FPS on a vascular graft phantom showed a robust, linear sensor output to pulsatile flows (170-650 mL/min) and pressures (62-175 mmHg). The FPS showed an RMS error when measuring pressure and flow of 7.7 mmHg and 29.3 mL/min, with a mean measurement error of 6.5% (pressure) and 8.0% (flow).
Assuntos
Impressão Tridimensional , Dimetilpolisiloxanos , Nanotubos de Carbono , PressãoAssuntos
Transtornos Cromossômicos/genética , Mutação em Linhagem Germinativa , Leucemia Mielomonocítica Crônica/genética , Proteínas Nucleares/genética , Proteínas Repressoras/genética , Trombocitopenia/congênito , Quebra Cromossômica , Transtornos Cromossômicos/complicações , Humanos , Peptídeos e Proteínas de Sinalização Intercelular , Leucemia Mielomonocítica Crônica/complicações , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Trombocitopenia/complicações , Trombocitopenia/genéticaRESUMO
The diagnosis of small round cell sarcomas is often very difficult, especially when only small biopsy specimens are available for examination. Recent studies have shown that some sarcomas have specific recurrent chromosomal translocations producing chimeric gene fusions, which can be detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), or cytogenetic analysis. In this study, 12 cases of well-defined sarcomas including Ewings sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumors (ES/PNET), synovial sarcoma (SS), alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS), and desmoplastic small round cell tumors (DSRCT) were used to collect specific numbers of cells by laser capture microdissection (LCM), subsequently used for RT-PCR to detect specific chimeric gene transcripts. Tumor cells from fresh-frozen (FS) tissue sections and paraffin-embedded (PS) tissue sections from the same cases were compared directly to evaluate the sensitivity of FS and PS sections as the starting material for analysis. Samples were used for RNA extraction, RT-PCR analysis, and Southern hybridization with fluorescein-labeled internal probes followed by enhance chemiluminescence (ECL) detection. The fusion gene transcripts could be detected using 50 cells from FS materials in all cases and from 1 cell in 9 of 12 cases. For PS, a positive signal could be detected using 200 to 1000 cells in all cases, while weaker signals were detected using 50 cells in most cases. These results indicate that the fusion gene products from small round cell sarcomas can be detected by RT-PCR with 10 to 200 cells from FS and PS tissues. The sensitivity of RT-PCR with FS was 10- to 50-fold greater than with PS. These results also suggest that RT-PCR analysis for sarcoma fusion gene products can be successfully performed when only a few cells are available for analysis, although this is not recommended for routine clinical use.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Fusão Oncogênica/genética , Sarcoma/genética , Neoplasias de Tecidos Moles/genética , Translocação Genética , Southern Blotting , Primers do DNA/química , Sondas de DNA/química , Humanos , Lasers , Microdissecção , Inclusão em Parafina , RNA Mensageiro/metabolismo , RNA Neoplásico/análise , RNA Neoplásico/genética , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase Via Transcriptase Reversa , Sarcoma/metabolismo , Sarcoma/patologia , Sensibilidade e Especificidade , Análise de Sequência de DNA , Neoplasias de Tecidos Moles/metabolismo , Neoplasias de Tecidos Moles/patologia , Fixação de TecidosRESUMO
In an open non-comparative trial 247 eczema patients were treated with Sicorten topicals. Sicorten cream yielded good to very good results in 90%, 97% and 100% of the patients suffering from atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis and seborrhoeic dermatitis, respectively, while Sicorten ointment produced similar results in 97% and 100% of the patients with chronic atopic dermatitis and chronic contact dermatitis, respectively. In a double-blind trial involving 108 patients suffering from atopic, seborrhoeic or contact dermatitis, the therapeutic effect of Sicorten and Betnelan creams and ointments was not significantly different.
