Treatment of Atrophy of the Labia Majora: Calcium Hydroxyapatite or Hyaluronic Acid?

PURPOSE: The study aimed to evaluate and compare the efficacy and safety of treating atrophied labia majora with hyaluronic acid (HA) and calcium hydroxyapatite (CaHA). METHODS: Ten participants complaining of sagging or loss of volume in the labia majora were evaluated and randomly assigned to two groups-treated with CaHA or AH. Photographic documentation was taken and appreciated by the participants and by blind observers. RESULTS: The study showed an improvement in labia majora regarding volumization and flaccidity that was more significant after 90 days of treatment in both treatments. Besides flaccidity, volume replacement resulted in better balance and proportion between the labia majora and labia minora. The evaluators, independent and blind, judged that in 80% of the cases of the HA group and in 50% of cases of the CaHA group, there was an excellent improvement. CONCLUSION: CaHA and HA are both effective and safe for treating the intimate region, and this study cannot prove the superiority of one over the other. An appropriate assessment involving the analysis of sagging and/or volume loss and the creation of a sequential treatment protocol, involving CaHA and HA, seems to be the best solution. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE I: Evidence obtained from at least one properly designed randomized controlled trial. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Assessment of the Interference of Hyperdiluted Calcium Hydroxyapatite for Neck Rejuvenation in the Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Thyroid.

BACKGROUND: Sagging neck skin is a common complaint, and the use of calcium hydroxyapatite injection is a traditional treatment approach for this region. The published literature is limited concerning the possible interference in imaging exams of hyperdiluted product, which presents radiopaque features, for the assessment of deep structures to the application. OBJECTIVE: To assess possible interferences in the ultrasonographic evaluation of thyroid after application of hyperdiluted CaHA on the neck region. METHODS: This was a prospective, blinded, and controlled study. Patients had their cervical regions treated with diluted CaHA (1:4). Ultrasonographic evaluations of thyroid were conducted on day 0 (pre-procedure), day 15, and day 60 by two radiologists blinded to the application. RESULTS: On day 0 no exclusion criteria were observed. On day 15 technical artifacts that difficulted the evaluation but did not make the complete assessment of the thyroid unable, were seen. On day 60 the artifacts of posterior acoustic shadowing were considerably reduced, not bringing any difficulty whatsoever for evaluation of the gland. CONCLUSION: Treatment of sagging neck skin with diluted CaHA in 1:4 does not negatively impact the ultrasonographic evaluation of the thyroid as early as 15 days, and particularly after 60 days from the procedure.J Drugs Dermatol. 2022;21(11):1243-1248. doi:10.36849/JDD.6877.

Safety of the inferolateral orbital access for filling the temporal region with the fanning technique.

INTRODUCTION: The anatomical complexity of the temporal region makes it so treatments with fill-ins are challenging due to high vascular risk. Techniques which provide safer procedures must be encouraged. GOAL: Suggest access to the temple through the inferolateral orbital region as a means for safer temporal fill-ins. METHODS: The fanning technique was plotted out not only via the conventional access (pretragal) but via the proposed one as well. The superficial temporal artery (STA) was mapped with ultrasound. The angles for each of the five retroinjection vectors were calculated in relation to STA and their mean was extracted. The longitudinality of the vector in regard to the vessel was considered the least safe factor. RESULTS: The mean injection angle towards the artery was a 35-degree angle for the conventional access technique and a 73-degree angle for the inferior-lateral orbital access technique (p < 0.05). The more a degree is tangential to the vessel, the higher the chances for inadvertent puncture due to small technical issues. The safety of the procedure through the inferolateral orbital access is corroborated with blind ultrasound imaging done in real-time by radiologists. CONCLUSION: The suggested access is shown to be comparably safer from a vascular perspective than the conventional pretragal access.

Perda de definição do contorno do submento: correto diagnóstico e algoritmo de tratamento / Loss of definition of the submental contouring: correct diagnosis and treatment algorithm

A busca por procedimentos estéticos voltados para a perda de definição do submento é crescente. Um correto diagnóstico é imperativo para o sucesso do tratamento e redução das complicações. Adiposidade localizada, flacidez cutânea e perda da estrutura óssea são os principais achados. Um algoritmo de tratamento foi discutido nesta revisão, lembrando-se, claro, da possibilidade de tratamentos combinados e sequenciais para melhores resultados

The search for aesthetic procedures aimed at the loss of submental definition is increasing. A correct diagnosis is imperative for successful treatment and the reduction of complications. Localized adiposity, skin flaccidity, and loss of bone structure are the main findings. A treatment algorithm was discussed in this review, remembering, of course, the possibility of combined and sequential treatments for better results.

Detecting distant homologies on protozoans metabolic pathways using scientific workflows.

Bioinformatics experiments are typically composed of programs in pipelines manipulating an enormous quantity of data. An interesting approach for managing those experiments is through workflow management systems (WfMS). In this work we discuss WfMS features to support genome homology workflows and present some relevant issues for typical genomic experiments. Our evaluation used Kepler WfMS to manage a real genomic pipeline, named OrthoSearch, originally defined as a Perl script. We show a case study detecting distant homologies on trypanomatids metabolic pathways. Our results reinforce the benefits of WfMS over script languages and point out challenges to WfMS in distributed environments.