Search results for: blood biomarker

Authors: J. DeBoard, R. Dietrich, J. Hughes, K. Yurko, G. Harms

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a predominant type of dementia and is likely a major cause of neural network impairment. The pathogenesis of this neurodegenerative disorder has yet to be fully elucidated. There are currently no known cures for the disease, and the best hope is to be able to detect it early enough to impede its progress. Beyond age and genetics, another prevalent risk factor for AD might be traumatic brain injury (TBI), which has similar neurodegenerative hallmarks. Our research focuses on obtaining information and methods to be able to predict when neurodegenerative effects might occur at a clinical level by observation of events at a cellular and molecular level in model mice. First, we wish to introduce our evidence that brain damage can be observed via brain imaging prior to the noticeable loss of neuromuscular control in model mice of AD. We then show our evidence that some blood biomarkers might be able to be early predictors of AD in the same model mice. Thus, we were interested to see if we might be able to predict which mice might show long-term neurodegenerative effects due to differing degrees of TBI and what level of TBI causes further damage and earlier death to the AD model mice. Upon application of TBIs via an apparatus to effectively induce extremely mild to mild TBIs, wild-type (WT) mice and AD mouse models were tested for cognition, neuromuscular control, olfactory ability, blood biomarkers, and brain imaging. Experiments are currently still in process, and more results are therefore forthcoming. Preliminary data suggest that neuromotor control diminishes as well as olfactory function for both AD and WT mice after the administration of five consecutive mild TBIs. Also, seizure activity increases significantly for both AD and WT after the administration of the five TBI treatment. If future data supports these findings, important implications about the effect of TBI on those at risk for AD might be possible.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, blood biomarker, neurodegeneration, neuromuscular control, olfaction, traumatic brain injury

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Authors: Arburim Iseni, Afrim Aliti, Nagri Rexhepi

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The blood feud or blood-taking is a social obligation to commit murder in order to salvage honor questioned by an earlier murder or moral humiliation. This social obligation is still preserved as a stub among Albanians when honor is violated. By the term honor are understood many things, such as honor to the family, house, guest, property, etc. Many Albanian family members are forced to stay locked up at home because of the blood killing, whereas other families abandon their houses and migrate to other places. Nonetheless, Albanians maintain close ties with their extended families, clans, and tribes and thus chances are high that the violence can beget more violence and without reconciliation of the blood these families will always be endangered. One of the reasons for the pervasiveness of the blood feud is the poor social conditions, political imbroglio and the power vacuum which comes from the corrupted and judiciary system of the state. Contrary to this, Albanian blood feud is not a phenomenon present only to the Albanians, but it also takes place in some other cultures and nations, such as: Chechens, Montenegrins, Serbians, and lately more radical one is between Amman and Israel who are at constant feud.

Keywords: honor, blood feud, reconciliation, power vacuum, poor social conditions, political imbroglio

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Authors: Hyunjoo Choi, Jeonghun Nam, Chae Seung Lim

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Acoustomicrofluidics has gained much attention due to the advantages, such as noninvasiveness and easy integration with other miniaturized systems, for clinical and biological applications. However, a limitation of acoustomicrofluidics is the complicated and costly fabrication process of electrodes. In this study, we propose a low-cost and lithography-free device using Lamb wave for blood analysis. Using a Lamb wave, calcium ion-removed blood plasma and coagulation reagents can be rapidly mixed for blood coagulation test. Due to the coagulation process, the viscosity of the sample increases and the viscosity change can be monitored by internal acoustic streaming of microparticles suspended in the sample droplet. When the acoustic streaming of particles stops by the viscosity increase is defined as the coagulation time. With the addition of calcium ion at 0-25 mM, the coagulation time was measured and compared with the conventional index for blood coagulation analysis, prothrombin time, which showed highly correlated with the correlation coefficient as 0.94. Therefore, our simple and cost-effective Lamb wave-based blood analysis device has the powerful potential to be utilized in clinical settings.

Keywords: acoustomicrofluidics, blood analysis, coagulation, lamb wave

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Authors: Maedeh Shojaeizadeh, Amirreza Yeganegi

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Nowadays many people lose their lives due to cardiovascular diseases. Inappropriate food habits and lack of exercise expedite deposit process of fatty substances on inner surface of blood arteries. This abnormal lump disturbs uniform blood flow and reduces oxygen delivery to active organs. This work presents a numerical simulation of Non-Newtonian blood flow in a stenosis vessel. The vessel is considered as two dimensional channel and plaque area is modelled as a homogenous porous medium. To simulate blood flow reaction around stenosis region, we use C++ code and solve coupled Cauchy, Darcy, governing continuity and energy equations. The analyses results show that viscosity power (n) plays an important role in flow separation and the size of the eddy at the downstream edge of the plaque. It is also observed that with increasing (n) value, temperature discontinuity and likelihood of vessel rupture declined.

Keywords: blood flow, computational fluid dynamic, porosity, power law fluid

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Authors: G. Vasanthi

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The purpose of the study was to analyse the red blood cells and white blood cells during three different menstrual phases between sedentary and sports women. To achieve this purpose, fifteen female sedentary post graduate students (M.A., M.Sc.) and fifteen students of Master of Physical Education and Sports (M.P.Ed.) women who regularly involved in vigouous sports training and participated in sports competition on different games were selected by adopting random sampling method. All the students were hostelers and their age group was between 20 to 22 years. The blood sample were collected during the mid-period of the three different phases to calculate the red blood cells and white blood cells. The data collected were treated statistically by using analysis of variance. The results reveal that the RBC and WBC is found to be significant between sedentary and sports women during the three different menstrual phases.

Keywords: RBC, WBC, menstrual, proliferative, secretary, sedentary women, sports women

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Authors: Soroush Maddah, Houra Asgarian, Mahdi Navidbakhsh

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In the present paper, the problem of pulsatile micropolar blood flow through an elastic artery has been studied. An arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation for the governing equations has been produced to model the fully-coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and has been solved numerically using finite difference scheme by exploiting a mesh generation technique which leads to a uniformly spaced grid in the computational plane. Effect of the variations of cardiac output and wall artery module of elasticity on blood pressure with blood-pressure regulating drugs like Atenolol has been determined. Also, a numerical model has been produced to define precisely the effects of various dosages of a drug on blood flow in arteries without the numerous experiments that have many mistakes and expenses.

Keywords: arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian, Atenolol, fluid structure interaction, micropolar fluid, pulsatile blood flow

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Authors: Chang-Liang Shih, Kuei-Min Liao, Ya-Yuan Wang, Wu-Chun Tu

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Forcipomyia taiwana, an important vexing pest, influences the development of the industry of Taiwan tourism and the quality of country life. Using human-attractant method to investigate the blood-sucking behavior of Forcipomyia taiwana in three districts in Taichung, it revealed that female F. taiwana only exhibits blood-sucking behavior in daytime, not in nighttime. The blooding-sucking behavior of female F. taiwana was affected by some factors, i.e., season and atmospheric factors. During 2008 to 2010, our study revealed that blood-sucking behavior commenced from 7:00 to 8:00 in the spring equinox, the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox, but from 8:00 to 9:00 in the winter solstice. However, regardless of any seasons, it revealed that blood-sucking behavior reached the acme between 13:00 and 15:00, and then descending. In those four seasons, the summer solstice had longer lighting and higher temperature, the average sucking activity was around 12 hours, on the contrary, the winter solstice had shorter lighting and lower temperature, the average sucking activity bridled to around 8 hours whilst it retrenched to 11 hours in the spring equinox and the autumnal equinox. To analyze the correlation between blood-sucking behavior and atmospheric factors, it revealed that female blood-sucking behavior was correlated positively to temperature and lighting but negatively to humidity. In addition, our study also showed that there is no blood-sucking behavior under 18ºC.

Keywords: Forcipomyia taiwana, circadian rhythm, blood-sucking behavior, season

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Authors: Zahrasadat Hosseini, Jie Yuan

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Point-of-care (POC) diagnostic devices based on lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology have the potential to revolutionize medical diagnostics. However, the development of an ideal microfluidic system based on LOC technology for diagnostics purposes requires overcoming several obstacles, such as improving sensitivity, selectivity, portability, cost-effectiveness, and prototyping methods. While numerous studies have introduced technologies and systems that advance these criteria, existing systems still have limitations. Electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) in a LOC device offers numerous advantages, including enhanced sensitivity, decreased turnaround time, minimized sample and analyte consumption, reduced cost, disposability, and suitability for miniaturization, integration, and multiplexing. In this study, we present a novel design and fabrication method for a microfluidic diagnostic platform that integrates screen-printed electrochemical carbon/silver chloride electrodes on flexible printed circuit boards with flexible, multilayer, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic networks to accurately manipulate and pre-immobilize analytes for performing electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) for multiplexed quantification of blood serum biomarkers. We further demonstrate fast, cost-effective prototyping, as well as accurate and reliable detection performance of this device for quantification of interleukin-6-spiked samples through electrochemical analytics methods. We anticipate that our invention represents a significant step towards the development of user-friendly, portable, medical-grade, POC diagnostic devices.

Keywords: lab-on-a-chip, point-of-care diagnostics, electrochemical ELISA, biomarker quantification, fast prototyping

Procedia PDF Downloads 52

Authors: Zahrasadat Hosseini, Jie Yuan

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Point-of-care (POC) diagnostic devices based on lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology have the potential to revolutionize medical diagnostics. However, the development of an ideal microfluidic system based on LOC technology for diagnostics purposes requires overcoming several obstacles, such as improving sensitivity, selectivity, portability, cost-effectiveness, and prototyping methods. While numerous studies have introduced technologies and systems that advance these criteria, existing systems still have limitations. Electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) in a LOC device offers numerous advantages, including enhanced sensitivity, decreased turnaround time, minimized sample and analyte consumption, reduced cost, disposability, and suitability for miniaturization, integration, and multiplexing. In this study, we present a novel design and fabrication method for a microfluidic diagnostic platform that integrates screen-printed electrochemical carbon/silver chloride electrodes on flexible printed circuit boards with flexible, multilayer, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic networks to accurately manipulate and pre-immobilize analytes for performing electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (e-ELISA) for multiplexed quantification of blood serum biomarkers. We further demonstrate fast, cost-effective prototyping, as well as accurate and reliable detection performance of this device for quantification of interleukin-6-spiked samples through electrochemical analytics methods. We anticipate that our invention represents a significant step towards the development of user-friendly, portable, medical-grade POC diagnostic devices.

Keywords: lab-on-a-chip, point-of-care diagnostics, electrochemical ELISA, biomarker quantification, fast prototyping

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Authors: Bhavya Tripathi, Bhupendra Kumar Sharma

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In blood, the concentration of red blood cell varies with the arterial diameter. In the case of narrow arteries, red blood cells concentrate around the center of the artery and there exists a cell-free plasma layer near the arterial wall due to Fahraeus-Lindqvist effect. Due to non- uniformity of the fluid in the narrow arteries, it is preferable to consider the two-phase model of the blood flow. In the present article, coupled nonlinear differential equations have been developed for momentum, energy and concentration of two phase model of the blood flow assuming the Newtonian fluid in both central core and cell free plasma layer and the exact solutions have been found for the problem. For having an adequate insight into the stenosed arterial two-phase blood flow, major components of the flow as flow resistance, total flow rate, and wall shear stress have been estimated for different values of magnetic and radiation parameter. Results show that the increase in the effects of magnetic field decreases the velocity of both cores as well as plasma regions. This result can be helpful to control the blood flow in narrow arteries during surgical process. Temperature of core as well plasma regions decrease as value of radiation parameter increases. The present result is implemented in the form of radiation therapy which is very helpful for cancer patients.

Keywords: two phase blood flow, radiation, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), stenosis

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Authors: Kensho Takahashi, Ko Watanabe, Takashi Kaburagi, Hiroshi Tanaka, Kajiro Watanabe, Yosuke Kurihara

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Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been widely used as a non-invasive method to measure brain activity, but it is corrupted by baseline drift noise. Here we present a method to measure regional cerebral blood flow as a derivative of NIRS output. We investigate whether, when listening to languages, blood flow can reasonably localize and represent regional brain activity or not. The prefrontal blood flow distribution pattern when advanced second-language listeners listened to a second language (L2) was most similar to that when listening to their first language (L1) among the patterns of mean and standard deviation. In experiments with 25 healthy subjects, the maximum blood flow was localized to the left BA46 of advanced listeners. The blood flow presented is robust to baseline drift and stably localizes regional brain activity.

Keywords: NIRS, oxy-hemoglobin, baseline drift, blood flow, working memory, BA46, first language, second language

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Authors: M. J. Pourvaghar, M. E. Bahram, Sh. Khoshemehry

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Hyperlipidemia or an increase in blood lipids is a condition that has been rising, especially during the last decade, with the advancement of the life-span of the car, as an important disease. In fact, it is one of the complications of industrial life and semi-industrial. Hyperlipidemia alone is not a disease, but it is recognized as an important risk factor for coronary artery disease. The methodology of this review article is the use of research to provide the best solution for physical activity and exercise in relation to lowering blood lipids and lowering blood pressure. Also, factors that contribute to improving the health status of humans should be introduced. Research findings in this article show that physical activity with a specific duration and severity can keep a person away from the cardiovascular disease. The result shows that regular physical activity with low intensity and long periods of time is essential for human health. Physical mobility reduces blood pressure, reduces the harmful fats and does not cause cardiovascular disease. More than half of the patients suffering from cardiovascular problems are afflicted with blood lipids. On the other hand, high blood pressure is one of the serious health hazards in the world today, which causes a large number of cardiovascular problems and mortality in the world. Undoubtedly, the second most common risk factor for heart disease is high blood pressure after cigarette smoking.

Keywords: blood pressure, cardiovascular, hyperlipidemia, risk factor

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Authors: Ying Li, Rui Hu, Shizhen Chen, Xin Zhou, Yunhuang Yang

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Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death among men. Prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a specific product of prostatic epithelial cells, is an important indicator of prostate cancer. Though PSA is not a specific serum biomarker for the screening of prostate cancer, it is recognized as an indicator for prostate cancer recurrence and response to therapy for patient’s post-prostatectomy. Since radical prostatectomy eliminates the source of PSA production, serum PSA levels fall below 50 pg/mL, and may be below the detection limit of clinical immunoassays (current clinical immunoassay lower limit of detection is around 10 pg/mL). Many clinical studies have shown that intervention at low PSA levels was able to improve patient outcomes significantly. Therefore, ultra-sensitive and precise assays that can accurately quantify extremely low levels of PSA (below 1-10 pg/mL) will facilitate the assessment of patients for the possibility of early adjuvant or salvage treatment. Currently, the commercially available ultra-sensitive ELISA kit (not used clinically) can only reach a detection limit of 3-10 pg/mL. Other platforms developed by different research groups could achieve a detection limit as low as 0.33 pg/mL, but they relied on sophisticated instruments to get the final readout. Herein we report a microfluidic platform for point-of-care (POC) detection of PSA with a detection limit of 0.5 pg/mL and without the assistance of any equipment. This platform is based on a previously reported volumetric-bar-chart chip (V-Chip), which applies platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) as the ELISA probe to convert the biomarker concentration to the volume of oxygen gas that further pushes the red ink to form a visualized bar-chart. The length of each bar is used to quantify the biomarker concentration of each sample. We devised a long reading channel V-Chip (LV-Chip) in this work to achieve a wide detection window. In addition, LV-Chip employed a unique enzyme-free ELISA probe that enriched PtNPs significantly and owned 500-fold enhanced catalytic ability over that of previous V-Chip, resulting in a significantly improved detection limit. LV-Chip is able to complete a PSA assay for five samples in 20 min. The device was applied to detect PSA in 50 patient serum samples, and the on-chip results demonstrated good correlation with conventional immunoassay. In addition, the PSA levels in finger-prick whole blood samples from healthy volunteers were successfully measured on the device. This completely stand-alone LV-Chip platform enables convenient POC testing for patient follow-up in the physician’s office and is also useful in resource-constrained settings.

Keywords: point-of-care detection, microfluidics, PSA, ultra-sensitive

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Authors: Abbas Ebrahimi, Zohreh Pourhossein, Nariman Miraalami

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The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of dried citrus sinensis peel (DCSP) on the blood parameters of broilers. Four hundred Ross 308 strain day old broiler in a completely randomized design with five treatments (four replicates per treatment and each replicate had 20 chicks) were categorized. Each treatment used either regulatory diet including 1.5% and 3% DCSP in the base diet and in two periods of 1st to 21st day and 1st to 42nd day and base diet without any additive for six weeks. Data analysis was performed using SAS software and mean comparison was conducted by Duncan method. The results determined that using different level of DCSP has significant effects on blood plasma parameters (P<0.05). Cholesterol, glucose, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein (LDL) at the rearing period was significantly influenced by experimental treatments (P<0.05). However, uric acid, alkaline phosphatase and high density lipoprotein (HDL) was not affected by experimental treatments (P>0.05). The lowest rate of blood cholesterol was concerned to the treatment which was used 3% DCSP 1st to 42nd day and the highest mean of blood cholesterol were concerned to the control treatment. The lowest rate of blood triglyceride was concerned to the treatment which was used 3% DCSP 1st to 42nd day and the highest mean of blood triglyceride were concerned to the control treatment. The lowest rate of blood alkaline phosphatase was concerned to the treatment which was used 3% DCSP 1st to 42nd day and the highest mean of blood alkaline phosphatase were concerned to the treatment which was used 3% DCSP 1st to 21st day.

Keywords: blood parameters, broilers, dried citrus sinensis peel, regulatory diet

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Authors: Ni Tang, Jinping Zhang

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An effective and sustainable volunteer team is needed to create a more available blood supply system. In order to promote the sustainable development of blood donation in Zhejiang Province, China, a “three-exemption” policy was proposed in 2014: blood donors who received the National Award for unpaid blood donation may government-invested and funded parks, scenic spots and other places for free, visit non-profit medical institutions for free outpatient fees, and be exempted from urban public transportation fees. As the policy has been in place for seven years, this study evaluated the effectiveness of the policy by comparing the increasing rate of blood donation in Hangzhou (capital city of Zhejiang) before and after the policy using the intermittent time series analysis. The blood donation in Anhui, a Province near Zhejiang, was also compared as a negative control. Blood donation data from 2012 to 2018 were obtained from the donation center's official websites. The increasing rate of blood donation volume since 2012 in Hangzhou is 34.37 units/month, and after 2014, the increasing rate additionally increases 71.69 (p=0.1442), which indicating a statistically non-significant change after the policy. While as a negative control, in Anhui, the increasing rate of blood donation volume since 2012 is -163.3 unit/month, and the increasing rate additionally increases 167.2 (p=5.63e-07) after 2014. The result shows that the three-exemption policy had a certain level of impact on encouraging volunteers to donate blood, but the effect was not substantial. One possible reason for the ineffectiveness of the policy might be a lack of public awareness of the policy. On the other hand, this policy mainly waived unnecessary life expenses, such as fares and scenic entrance fees, and requires a certain number of blood donations, registration procedures, and blood donation certificates. Perhaps, reducing life-related expenses such as oil, water and electricity, could better attract people to participate in blood donation. This current study on the three-exemption policy provides a new direction for promoting people's blood donation. Incentive policies may require greater publicity and incentives. In order to better ensure the operation of the blood donation system, other policies, especially incentive policies, should be further explored.

Keywords: blood donation, policy, Zhejiang, unpaid blood donation, three-exemption policy

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Authors: Nevila Alliu, Saimir Heta, Ilma Robo, Vera Ostreni

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Periodontitis as an oral pathology caused by specific bacterial flora functions as a focal infection for the onset and aggravation of arteriosclerosis. These two distant pathologies, since they affect organs at a distance from each other, communicate with each other with correlation at the level of markers of inflammation in the blood. Fluctuations in the level of fibrinogen in the blood, depending on the active or passive phase of the existing periodontitis, affect the promotion of arteriosclerosis. The study is of the review type to analyze the effect of non-surgical periodontal treatment on fluctuations in the level of fibrinogen in the blood. The reduction of fibrinogen levels in the blood after non-surgical periodontal treatment of periodontitis in the patient's cavity is visible data and supported by literature sources. Also, the influence of a high amount of fibrinogen in the blood on the occurrence of arteriosclerosis is also another important data that again relies on many sources of literature. Conclusions: Thromboembolism and arteriosclerosis, as risk factors expressed in clinical data, have temporary bacteremia in the blood, which can occur significantly and often between phases of non-surgical periodontal treatment of periodontitis, treatments performed with treatment phases and protocols of predetermined treatment. Arterial thromboembolism has a significant factor, such as high levels of fibrinogen in the blood, which are significantly reduced during the period of non-surgical periodontal treatment.

Keywords: fibrinogen, refractory periodontitis, atherosclerosis, non-surgical, periodontal treatment

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Authors: Lucia Salvioni, Pietro Giorgio Lovaglio, Valerio Leoni, Miriam Colombo, Luisa Fiandra

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The involvement of plasmatic surfactant protein-D (SP-D) in pulmonary diseases has been long investigated, and over the last two years, more interest has been directed to determine its role as a marker of COVID-19. In this direction, several studies aimed to correlate pulmonary surfactant proteins with the clinical manifestations of the virus indicated SP-D as a prognostic biomarker of COVID-19 pneumonia severity. The present work has performed a retrospective study on a relatively large cohort of patients of Hospital Pio XI of Desio (Lombardia, Italy) with the aim to assess differences in the hematic SP-D concentrations among COVID-19 patients and healthy donors and the role of SP-D as a prognostic marker of severity and/or of mortality risk. The obtained results showed a significant difference in the mean of log SP-D levels between COVID-19 patients and healthy donors, so as between dead and survived patients. SP-D values were significantly higher for both hospitalized COVID-19 and dead patients, with threshold values of 150 and 250 ng/mL, respectively. SP-D levels at admission and increasing differences among follow-up and admission values resulted in the strongest significant risk factors of mortality. Therefore, this study demonstrated the role of SP-D as a predictive marker of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its outcome. A significant correlation of SP-D with patient mortality indicated that it is also a prognostic factor in terms of mortality, and its early detection should be considered to design adequate preventive treatments for COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19, surfactant protein-D (SP-D), mortality, biomarker

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Authors: Somayyeh Salari, Marziyeh Nayefi, Mohsen Sari, Mehdi Behgar

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of electron beam- irradiated cottonseed meal at a dose of 30 KGy on carcass characteristics and some blood parameters of broiler chicks. Various levels of cottonseed meal (CSM) (0, 12, and 24%, radiation and no radiation) were used with 5 dietary treatments, 4 replicates and 10 birds of each for 42 days in completely randomized design. At 42 d of age, two birds per pen were randomly selected for determination of carcass characteristics and blood parameters. Relative weights of liver, gastrointestinal tract (GI), pancreatic, gizzard and abdominal fat were increased with increasing levels of CSM in the diet (p<0/05). Glucose, cholesterol, HDL, triglyceride, and phosphorous concentrations increased and LDL concentration decreased as the dietary CSM levels increased (p<0/05). But radiation had not significant effect on blood parameters. Electron irradiation seems to be a good procedure to improve the nutritional quality of CSM but it seems higher dose of it was needed to improve blood parameters of chickens.

Keywords: blood parameters, carcass characteristics, cottonseed meal, electron beam

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Authors: Johnson Joseph Kwabina Arhinful, Owusu-Ansah Emmanuel Degraft Johnson, Okyere Gabrial Asare, Adebanji Atinuke Olusola

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This paper proposes a model to describe the blood types distribution of new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases using the Bayesian Poisson - Hidden Markov Model (BP-HMM). With the help of the Gibbs sampler algorithm, using OpenBugs, the study first identifies the number of hidden states fitting European (EU) and African (AF) data sets of COVID-19 cases by blood type frequency. The study then compares the state-dependent mean of infection within and across the two geographical areas. The study findings show that the number of hidden states and infection rates within and across the two geographical areas differ according to blood type.

Keywords: BP-HMM, COVID-19, blood types, GIBBS sampler

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Authors: D. Hammad, D. P. Tonge

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a disabling and common autoimmune disease during which the body's immune system attacks healthy tissues. This results in complicated and long-lasting actions being carried out by the immune system, which typically only occurs when the immune system encounters a foreign object. In the case of RA, the disease affects millions of people and causes joint inflammation, ultimately leading to the destruction of cartilage and bone. Interestingly, the disease mechanism still remains unclear. It is likely that RA occurs as a result of a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors including an imbalance in the microorganism population inside our body. The human microbiome or microbiota is an extensive community of microorganisms in and on the bodies of animals, which comprises bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa. Recently, the development of molecular techniques to characterize entire bacterial communities has renewed interest in the involvement of the microbiome in the development and progression of RA. We believe that an imbalance in some of the specific bacterial species in the gut, mouth and other sites may lead to atopobiosis; the translocation of these organisms into the blood, and that this may lead to changes in immune system status. The aim of this study was, therefore, to characterize the microbiome of RA serum samples in comparison to healthy control subjects using 16S rRNA gene amplification and sequencing. Serum samples were obtained from healthy control volunteers and from patients with RA both prior to, and following treatment. The bacterial community present in each sample was identified utilizing V4 region 16S rRNA amplification and sequencing. Bacterial identification, to the lowest taxonomic rank, was performed using a range of bioinformatics tools. Significantly, the proportions of the Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, and Halmonadaceae families were significantly increased in the serum of RA patients compared with healthy control serum. Furthermore, the abundance of Bacteroides and Lachnospiraceae nk4a136_group, Lachnospiraceae_UGC-001, RuminococcaceaeUCG-014, Rumnococcus-1, and Shewanella was also raised in the serum of RA patients relative to healthy control serum. These data support the notion of a blood microbiome and reveal RA-associated changes that may have significant implications for biomarker development and may present much-needed opportunities for novel therapeutic development.

Keywords: blood microbiome, gut and oral bacteria, Rheumatoid arthritis, 16S rRNA gene sequencing

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Authors: Manal Hassan Abdel Aziz, Fatma Mohamed Magdy Badr El Dine, Nourhan Mohamed Mohamed Saeed

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Establishing association between lip print patterns and those of fingerprints as well as blood groups is of fundamental importance in the forensic identification domain. The first aim of the current study was to determine the prevalent types of ABO blood groups, lip prints and fingerprints patterns in both studied populations. Secondly, to analyze any relation found between the different print patterns and the blood groups, which would be valuable in identification purposes. The present study was conducted on 60 healthy volunteers, (30 males and 30 females) from each of the studied population. Lip prints and fingerprints were obtained and classified according to Tsuchihashi's classification and Michael Kuchen’s classification, respectively. The results show that the ulnar loop was the most frequent among both populations. Blood group A was the most frequent among Egyptians, while blood groups O and B were the predominant among Malaysians. Significant relations were observed between lip print patterns and fingerprint (in the second quadrant for Egyptian males and the first one for Malaysian). For Malaysian females, a statistically significant association was proved in the fourth quadrant. Regarding the blood groups, 89.5% of ulnar loops were significantly related to blood group A among Egyptian males. The results proved an association between the fingerprint pattern and the lip prints, as well as between the ABO blood group and the pattern of fingerprints. However, further researches with larger sample sizes need to be directed to approve the current results.

Keywords: ABO, cheiloscopy, dactylography, Egyptians, Malaysians

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Authors: Merih Şimşek, Recep Keşli, Özgül Çetinkaya, Cengiz Demir, Adem Aslan

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Bacteremia is a clinical entity with high morbidity and mortality rates when immediate diagnose, or treatment cannot be achieved. Microorganisms which can cause sepsis or bacteremia are easily isolated from blood cultures. Fifty-five positive blood cultures were included in this study. Microorganisms in 55 blood cultures were isolated by conventional microbiological methods; afterwards, microorganisms were defined in terms of the phenotypic aspects by the Vitek-2 system. The same microorganisms in all blood culture samples were defined in terms of genotypic aspects again by Multiplex-PCR DNA Low-Density Microarray System. At the end of the identification process, the DNA microarray system’s success in identification was evaluated based on the Vitek-2 system. The Vitek-2 system and DNA Microarray system were able to identify the same microorganisms in 53 samples; on the other hand, different microorganisms were identified in the 2 blood cultures by DNA Microarray system. The microorganisms identified by Vitek-2 system were found to be identical to 96.4 % of microorganisms identified by DNA Microarrays system. In addition to bacteria identified by Vitek-2, the presence of a second bacterium has been detected in 5 blood cultures by the DNA Microarray system. It was identified 18 of 55 positive blood culture as E.coli strains with both Vitek 2 and DNA microarray systems. The same identification numbers were found 6 and 8 for Acinetobacter baumanii, 10 and 10 for K.pneumoniae, 5 and 5 for S.aureus, 7 and 11 for Enterococcus spp, 5 and 5 for P.aeruginosa, 2 and 2 for C.albicans respectively. According to these results, DNA Microarray system requires both a technical device and experienced staff support; besides, it requires more expensive kits than Vitek-2. However, this method should be used in conjunction with conventional microbiological methods. Thus, large microbiology laboratories will produce faster, more sensitive and more successful results in the identification of cultured microorganisms.

Keywords: microarray, Vitek-2, blood culture, bacteremia

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Authors: Peter Parkinson

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The research investigates the effects of temperature, humidity, wind speed, and fabric composition on the drying times of blood and assesses the degree of blood transfer that can occur during the drying process. An assortment of fabrics, of different composition and thicknesses, were collected and stained using two blood volumes and exposed to varying environmental conditions. The conclusion reached was that temperature, humidity, wind speed, and fabric thickness do have an effect on drying times. An increase in temperature and wind speed results in a decrease in drying times while an increase in fabric thickness and humidity extended the drying times of blood under similar conditions. Transfer experimentation utilized three donor fabrics, 100% white cotton, 100% acrylic, and 100% cotton denim, which were bloodstained using two blood volumes. The fabrics were subjected to both full and low/light force contact from the donor fabrics onto the recipient fabric, under different environmental conditions. Transfer times onto the 100% white cotton (recipient fabric) from all donor fabrics were shorter than the drying times observed. The intensities of the bloodstains decreased from high to low with time during the drying process. The degree of transfer at high, medium, and low intensities varied significantly between different materials and is dependent on the environmental conditions, fabric compositions, blood volumes, the type of contact (full or light force), and the drying times observed for the respective donor fabrics. These factors should be considered collectively and conservatively when assessing the time frame of secondary transfer in casework.

Keywords: blood, drying time, blood stain transfer, different environmental conditions, fabrics

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Authors: Simone Jane Dennis

Abstract:

This paper leverages the spatial and temporal investigative strategy utilized by crime scene investigators – blood spatter work– to engage with the real and metaphorical memorialization of blood-soaked places. It uses this key trope with phenomenological sensibility, to trace the physical and temporal movement of blood outbound from the human body to sites beyond. Working backward, as crime scene investigators do, this paper traces the importance of both space and time and their confluence, to developing a comprehensive theory of violence. To do this work, the paper engages a range of geo-violent scales, from murder scenes to genocides, to both engage an extraordinarily replete literature of bloodshed across history and to move beyond analyses of how significance is assigned to the sites in which blood comes to rest to instead consider the importance of space and time to the structure of violence itself. It is in this regard that the kind of investigative work upon which blood spatter analysis depends is crucial: it engages time and space in reverse to understand the microscopic relations between bodies, places, and numerous (biological, clock, and seasonal) temporalities. Considering the circumstances under which blood escaped a body, the details of its destination in place, and the temporal circumstances of corporal departure, is crucial to making new knowledge about the peculiar temporality and spatiality of violence itself.

Keywords: blood, crime scenes, temporality, violence

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Authors: Katarzyna Lubecka, Kirsty Flower, Megan Beetch, Lucinda Kurzava, Hannah Buvala, Samer Gawrieh, Suthat Liangpunsakul, Tracy Gonzalez, George McCabe, Naga Chalasani, James M. Flanagan, Barbara Stefanska

Abstract:

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most prevalent type of primary liver cancer, is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Late onset of clinical symptoms in HCC results in late diagnosis and poor disease outcome. Approximately 85% of individuals with HCC have underlying liver cirrhosis. However, not all cirrhotic patients develop cancer. Reliable early detection biomarkers that can distinguish cirrhotic patients who will develop cancer from those who will not are urgently needed and could increase the cure rate from 5% to 80%. We used Illumina-450K microarray to test whether blood DNA, an easily accessible source of DNA, bear site-specific changes in DNA methylation in response to HCC before diagnosis with conventional tools (pre-diagnostic). Top 11 differentially methylated sites were selected for validation by pyrosequencing. The diagnostic potential of the 11 pyrosequenced probes was tested in blood samples from a prospective cohort of cirrhotic patients. We identified 971 differentially methylated CpG sites in pre-diagnostic HCC cases as compared with healthy controls (P < 0.05, paired Wilcoxon test, ICC ≥ 0.5). Nearly 76% of differentially methylated CpG sites showed lower levels of methylation in cases vs. controls (P = 2.973E-11, Wilcoxon test). Classification of the CpG sites according to their location relative to CpG islands and transcription start site revealed that those hypomethylated loci are located in regulatory regions important for gene transcription such as CpG island shores, promoters, and 5’UTR at higher frequency than hypermethylated sites. Among 735 CpG sites hypomethylated in cases vs. controls, 482 sites were assigned to gene coding regions whereas 236 hypermethylated sites corresponded to 160 genes. Bioinformatics analysis using GO, KEGG and DAVID knowledgebase indicate that differentially methylated CpG sites are located in genes associated with functions that are essential for gene transcription, cell adhesion, cell migration, and regulation of signal transduction pathways. Taking into account the magnitude of the difference, statistical significance, location, and consistency across the majority of matched pairs case-control, we selected 11 CpG loci corresponding to 10 genes for further validation by pyrosequencing. We established that methylation of CpG sites within 5 out of those 10 genes distinguish cirrhotic patients who subsequently developed HCC from those who stayed cancer free (cirrhotic controls), demonstrating potential as biomarkers of early detection in populations at risk. The best predictive value was detected for CpGs located within BARD1 (AUC=0.70, asymptotic significance ˂0.01). Using an additive logistic regression model, we further showed that 9 CpG loci within those 5 genes, that were covered in pyrosequenced probes, constitute a panel with high diagnostic accuracy (AUC=0.887; 95% CI:0.80-0.98). The panel was able to distinguish pre-diagnostic cases from cirrhotic controls free of cancer with 88% sensitivity at 70% specificity. Using blood as a minimally invasive material and pyrosequencing as a straightforward quantitative method, the established biomarker panel has high potential to be developed into a routine clinical test after validation in larger cohorts. This study was supported by Showalter Trust, American Cancer Society (IRG#14-190-56), and Purdue Center for Cancer Research (P30 CA023168) granted to BS.

Keywords: biomarker, DNA methylation, early detection, hepatocellular carcinoma

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Authors: Nuralam Sam, Irawan Yusuf, Irfan Idris, Endi Adnan

Abstract:

The most case in the shoulder in the the adult is the frozen shoulder. It make an uncomfortable sensation which disturbance daily activity. The studies of frozen shoulder are still limited. This study used a true experimental pre and post test design with a group design. The participant underwent dextrose prolotherapy injection in the rotator cuff, intraarticular glenohumeral joint, long head tendon biceps, and acromioclavicular joint injections with 15% dextrose, respectively, at week 2, week 4, and week 6. Participants were followed for 12 weeks. The specific biomarker MMP and TIMP, ROM, DASH score were measured at baseline, at week 6, and week 12. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis (repeated measurement ANOVA, Paired T-Test, and Wilcoxon) to determine the effect of the intervention. The result showed a significant decrease in The Disability of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) score in prolo injection patients in each measurement week (p < 0.05). While the measurement of Range of Motion (ROM), each direction of shoulder motion showed a significant difference in average each week, from week 0 to week 6 (p <0.05).Dextrose prolotherapy injection results give a significant improvement in functional outcome of the shoulder joint, and ROMand did not show significant results in assessing the specific biomarker, MMP-1, and TIMP-1 in tissue repair. This study suggestion an alternative to the use of injection prolotherapy in Frozen shoulder patients, which has fewer side effects and better effectiveness than the use of corticosteroid injections.

Keywords: frozen shoulder, ROM, DASH score, prolotherapy, MMP-1, TIMP-1

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Tomohiko Utsuki

Abstract:

Currently, brain resuscitation becomes increasingly important due to revising various clinical guidelines pertinent to emergency care. In brain resuscitation, the control of brain temperature (BT), intracranial pressure (ICP), and cerebral blood flow (CBF) is required for stabilizing physiological state of brain, and is described as the essential treatment points in many guidelines of disorder and/or disease such as brain injury, stroke, and encephalopathy. Thus, an integrated control system of BT, ICP, and CBF will greatly contribute to alleviating the burden on medical staff and improving treatment effect in brain resuscitation. In order to develop such a control system, models related to BT, ICP, and CBF are required for control simulation, because trial and error experiments using patients are not ethically allowed. A static model of cerebral blood circulation from intracranial arteries and vertebral artery to jugular veins has already constructed and verified. However, it is impossible to represent the pooling of blood in blood vessels, which is one cause of cerebral hypertension in this model. And, it is also impossible to represent the pulsing motion of blood vessels caused by blood pressure change which can have an affect on the change of cerebral tissue pressure. Thus, a dynamic model of cerebral blood circulation is constructed in consideration of the elasticity of the blood vessel and the inertia of the blood vessel wall. The constructed dynamic model was numerically analyzed using the normal data, in which each arterial blood flow in cerebral blood circulation, the distribution of blood pressure in the Circle of Willis, and the change of blood pressure along blood flow were calculated for verifying against physiological knowledge. As the result, because each calculated numerical value falling within the generally known normal range, this model has no problem in representing at least the normal physiological state of the brain. It is the next task to verify the accuracy of the present model in the case of disease or disorder. Currently, the construction of a migration model of extracellular fluid and a model of heat transfer in cerebral tissue are in progress for making them parts of an integrated model of brain physiological state, which is necessary for developing an future integrated control system of BT, ICP and CBF. The present model is applicable to constructing the integrated model representing at least the normal condition of brain physiological state by uniting with such models.

Keywords: dynamic model, cerebral blood circulation, brain resuscitation, automatic control

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Authors: Dahi Ghareab Abdelsalam Ibrahim, R. H. Bakr

Abstract:

Ionizing radiation, such as gamma radiation and X-rays, has many applications in medical diagnoses and cancer treatment. In this paper, we used the windowed Fourier transform to extract the complex image of the deformed red blood cells. The real values of the complex image are used to extract the best fitting of the deformed cell boundary. Male albino rats are irradiated by γ-rays from ⁶⁰Co. The male albino rats are anesthetized with ether, and then blood samples are collected from the eye vein by heparinized capillary tubes for studying the radiation-damaging effect in-vivo by the proposed windowed Fourier transform. The peripheral blood films are prepared according to the Brown method. The peripheral blood film is photographed by using an Automatic Image Contour Analysis system (SAMICA) from ELBEK-Bildanalyse GmbH, Siegen, Germany. The SAMICA system is provided with an electronic camera connected to a computer through a built-in interface card, and the image can be magnified up to 1200 times and displayed by the computer. The images of the peripheral blood films are then analyzed by the windowed Fourier transform method to extract the precise deformation from the best fitting. Based on accurate deformation evaluation of the red blood cells, diseases can be diagnosed in their primary stages.

Keywords: windowed Fourier transform, red blood cells, phase wrapping, Image processing

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Authors: Chien-Lin Wang, Cha-Ling Ko, Tainsong Chen

Abstract:

Pulse wave velocity (PWV) of blood flow provides important information of vessel property and blood pressure which can be used to assess cardiovascular disease. However, the above measurements need expensive equipment, such as Doppler ultrasound, MRI, angiography etc. The photoplethysmograph (PPG) signals are commonly utilized to detect blood volume changes. In this study, two infrared (IR) probes are designed and placed at a fixed distance from finger base and fingertip. An analog circuit with automatic gain adjustment is implemented to get the stable original PPG signals from above two IR probes. In order to obtain the time delay precisely between two PPG signals, we obtain the pulse transit time from the second derivative of the original PPG signals. To get a portable, wireless and low power consumption PWV measurement device, the low energy Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) and the microprocessor (Cortex™-M3) are used in this study. The PWV is highly correlated with blood pressure. This portable device has potential to be used for continuous blood pressure monitoring.

Keywords: pulse wave velocity, photoplethysmography, portable device, biomedical engineering

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Authors: Regina R. Gunawan, Indwiani Astuti, H. Raden Danarto

Abstract:

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. Cancer is caused by mutations that alter the function of normal human genes and give rise to cancer genes. MicroRNA (miRNA) is a small non-coding RNA that regulates the gen through complementary bond towards mRNA target and cause mRNA degradation. miRNA works by either promoting or suppressing cell proliferation. miRNA level expression in cancer may offer another value of miRNA as a biomarker in cancer diagnostic. miRNA-21 is believed to have a role in carcinogenesis by enhancing proliferation, anti-apoptosis, cell cycle progression and invasion of tumor cells. Hsa-miR-21-5p marker has been identified in Prostate Cancer (PCa) and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) patient’s urine. This research planned to explore the diagnostic performance of miR-21 to differentiate PCa and BPH patients. In this study, urine samples were collected from 20 PCa patients and 20 BPH patients. miR-21 relative expression against the reference gene was analyzed and compared between the two. miRNA expression was analyzed using the comparative quantification method to find the fold change. miR-21 validity in identifying PCa patients was performed by quantifying the sensitivity and specificity with the contingency table. miR-21 relative expression against miR-16 in PCa patient and in BPH patient has 12,98 differences in fold change. From a contingency table of Cq expression of miR-21 in identifying PCa patients from BPH patient, Cq miR-21 has 100% sensitivity and 75% specificity. miR-21 relative expression can be used in discriminating PCa from BPH by using a urine sample. Furthermore, the expression of miR-21 has higher sensitivity compared to PSA (Prostate specific antigen), therefore miR-21 has a high potential to be analyzed and developed more.

Keywords: benign prostate hyperplasia, biomarker, miRNA-21, prostate cancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 127