Medicine Techniques Research Articles

Applying the Atomic Force Microscopy Technique in Medical Sciences-A Narrative Review.

Penetrating deep into the cells of the human body in real time has become increasingly possible with the implementation of modern technologies in medicine. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) enables the effective live imaging of cellular and molecular structures of biological samples (such as cells surfaces, components of biological membranes, cell nuclei, actin networks, proteins, and DNA) and provides three-dimensional surface visualization (in X-, Y-, and Z-planes). Furthermore, the AFM technique enables the study of the mechanical, electrical, and magnetic properties of cells and cell organelles and the measurements of interaction forces between biomolecules. The technique has found wide application in cancer research. With the use of AFM, it is not only possible to differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells, but also to distinguish between the stages of cancerous conditions. For many years, AFM has been an important tool for the study of neurodegenerative diseases associated with the deposition of peptide amyloid plaques. In recent years, a significant amount of research has been conducted on the application of AFM in the evaluation of connective tissue cell mechanics. This review aims to provide the spectrum of the most important applications of the AFM technique in medicine to date.

Benefits of Modern Imaging Techniques in Medicine

Relevance. For more than 100 years, medical practice has used imaging methods to observe pathological changes localized in the human body. The first method was radiography, which became popular among doctors, but later it turned out that high radiation exposure increases the incidence of tumor diseases, which is why standards for permissible radiation doses were developed for patients and radiologists. The introduction of radiocontrast agents also had contraindications that should be taken into account. Ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and angiography methods have significantly increased the diagnostic capabilities of instrumental methods. The purpose of this review is to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of modern imaging methods in medicine. Methods. To achieve the purpose of the review, a literature search was conducted in Google Scholar and PubMed databases. Results. 1) The main indication for the X-ray method is visualization of bone structures. 2) X-ray contrast methods are optimal for studying hollow organs and blood vessels. 3) The advantage of MRI is the ability to visualize soft tissue well. 4) CT helps to reconstruct the spatial architecture of organs. 5) Ultrasound allows you to observe the condition of the embryo and fetus, as well as internal organs.

Techniques in medicine: ipsilateral transforaminal epidural steroid injection in Bertolotti's syndrome.

Bertolotti's syndrome, also known as lumbosacral transitional vertebrae, is a relatively rare spinal condition characterized by an anatomical variation in the lower spine. Conservative approaches such as physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications and lifestyle modifications may be recommended for mild cases. In more severe cases or when conservative measures fail to provide relief, injections such as may be considered to alleviate pain. This case is unique in that we document a challenging technique of ipsilateral transforaminal epidural steroid injection in a patient with Bertolotti's syndrome.

3D reconstruction of brain tumors from 2D MRI scans: An improved marching cube algorithm

MRI is a popular imaging technique in medicine, particularly for the diagnosis of brain malignancies. Like any other acquisition approach, it has several drawbacks in addition to its many advantages. One of these is the problem of noise, which can provide extraneous and incorrect information that can fool the human eye. Methods such as MRI and CT, produce 2D images of the body's internal organs. This research aims with the 3D reconstruction of brain tumor, as it is very crucial for surgical planning, and biological study because 2D images can never capture a tumor's true appearance. However, it is extremely difficult to visualize the tumors in MRIs due to the different complexity of tumors. This work develops an Improved Marching Cube Algorithm (IMCA) based 3D reconstruction of brain tumors under 2 phases. Phase 1 will include MF-based preprocessing, segmentation based on Modified BIRCH (M-BIRCH) and hybrid classification combining optimized CNN and optimized Bi-LSTM. The suggested Self Adaptive Chimp Optimization Algorithm (SA-CHOA) will optimize the weight of CNN and Bi-LSTM. Phase 2 involves IMC (Improved Marching Cube) based 3D reconstruction. The validation outcomes demonstrate the suggested model's superiority to other established models for 3D reconstruction.

Real needle for minimal invasive procedures training using motion sensors and optical flow

Minimally invasive percutaneous insertion procedures are widely used techniques in medicine. Their success is highly dependent on the skills of the practitioner. This paper presents a haptic simulator for training in these procedures, whose key component is a real percutaneous insertion needle with a sensory system incorporated to track its 3D location at every instant.By means of the proposed embedded vision system, the attitude (spatial orientation) and depth of insertion of a real needle are estimated. The proposal is founded on a novel depth estimation procedure based on optical flow techniques, complemented by sensory fusion techniques with the attitude calculated with data from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor. This procedure allows estimating the needle attitude with an accuracy of tenths of a degree and the displacement with an accuracy of millimeters. The computational algorithm runs on an embedded computer with real-time constraints for tracking the movement of a real needle. This haptic needle location data is used to reproduce the movement of a virtual needle within a simulation app.As a fundamental result, an ergonomic and realistic training simulator has been successfully constructed for healthcare professionals to acquire the mental model and motor skills necessary to practice percutaneous procedures successfully.

Mnemonic techniques in medicine: experience of dental mnemonics usage in teaching of therapeutic dentistry for foreign students

Annotation. The ability to memorize new and vast material is a necessary component of students’ success. Mnemonic techniques are a variety of strategies that help to store complex and extensive information in long-term memory. Most researchers consider that mnemonics improve memory by using natural memory processes such as visual imagery, organization, and detailed encoding. Mnemonic techniques can lead to long-term storage of information and can work with complex materials in combination with other techniques when the appropriate conditions are created. The purpose of the study was the implementation of dental mnemonics when teaching of therapeutic dentistry for foreign students to facilitate memorization, reproduction and analysis of vast amounts of information. A review of the literature was performed and the results were synthesized in the form of a narrative. The manuscript presents dental mnemonics and mnemonic techniques, which are used in integration with other teaching methods for English-speaking students to facilitate mastering of the material in order to improve their knowledge, skills and abilities. We used verbal, visual and linguistic dental mnemonics. It was established that foreign students prefer alternative learning strategies, among various mnemonic techniques choose the simple methods. The most widely used mnemonic among students is the technique of first letters (or acronyms), followed by rhyming and keyword methods. Complex techniques such as the methods of loci, binding and phonetic system are the least popular. Mnemonics facilitate learning, consolidation and recall of information, that significantly improves training productivity. Mnemonic techniques cannot replace standard teaching methods, but in conjunction with other strategies, it is an effective educational tool. In the future, new mnemonics will be developed to present fresh information in a more systematic and organized format, which can be used as a step for creation updated mnemonic technique.

Exploring the State of Machine Learning and Deep Learning in Medicine: A Survey of the Italian Research Community

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important, especially in the medical field. While AI has been used in medicine for some time, its growth in the last decade is remarkable. Specifically, machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques in medicine have been increasingly adopted due to the growing abundance of health-related data, the improved suitability of such techniques for managing large datasets, and more computational power. ML and DL methodologies are fostering the development of new “intelligent” tools and expert systems to process data, to automatize human–machine interactions, and to deliver advanced predictive systems that are changing every aspect of the scientific research, industry, and society. The Italian scientific community was instrumental in advancing this research area. This article aims to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the ML and DL methodologies and applications used in medicine by the Italian research community in the last five years. To this end, we selected all the papers published in the last five years with at least one of the authors affiliated to an Italian institution that in the title, in the abstract, or in the keywords present the terms “machine learning” or “deep learning” and reference a medical area. We focused our research on journal papers under the hypothesis that Italian researchers prefer to present novel but well-established research in scientific journals. We then analyzed the selected papers considering different dimensions, including the medical topic, the type of data, the pre-processing methods, the learning methods, and the evaluation methods. As a final outcome, a comprehensive overview of the Italian research landscape is given, highlighting how the community has increasingly worked on a very heterogeneous range of medical problems.

Assessment of extracted DNA from whole blood and buffy coat in healthy individuals

Deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) are the genetic material in all organisms. Extraction of DNA is the initial gait for the field of molecular biotechnology and biomedical research to advance understanding of human illnesses from various diseases and provide practical solutions for diagnosis and treatment. Routine diagnostic techniques in medicine have been greatly enhanced by molecular biology. Due to research on deoxyribose nucleic acid, it frequently finds use in medicine. Efficient isolation of DNA from a sample is the basis for successful forensic DNA profiling. DNA can be extracted from variety of samples such as a whole blood, buffy coat, hair, skin, tissue, urine, buccal swab, saliva etc. Numerous molecular biologic applications require genomic DNA (gDNA) in high quality and in adequate quantity. We extracted genomic DNA from buffy coat and whole blood samples and compared the results of the product obtained in terms of quantity (concentration of DNA extracted and DNA obtained per ml of blood used) and quality (260nm/280nm ratio) of the obtained yield. The aim of this study was to extract DNA from whole blood and buffy coat and compare quantity or Concentration (μg/ml) and purity (260nm/280nm) of extracted DNA. The present study was a hospital- based comparative and experimental study. The study was conducted over a period of 1 year on 50 samples. The venous blood sample is taken from the healthy individuals who are willing to donate blood in blood bank. The 5 ml of blood sample taken by venipuncture from healthy individuals were equally dividing into two anticoagulant EDTA tubes by equal volume. The first tube was use as it is, as a whole blood sample and second tube were centrifuged to obtained three phase separation and prepare buffy coat. From both of the samples extraction of DNA is carried out by follow the protocols of modified salting out method. The integrity and purity of the extracted DNA are assessed by Thermo Scientific Nano Drop 2000Spectrophotometers. Our results show thatMean±SD of concentration of DNA from whole blood and buffy coat was 37.49±25.31 μg/ml and 101.83±31.22 μg/ml (P < 0.0001). The Mean±SD of purity (260nm/280nm) of DNA from whole blood and buffy coat was 1.66±0.16 and 1.74±0.15 (p≤0.05). The both p value was found to be statistically significant.The present study concluded that DNA extracted from Buffy coat had purity as well as mean concentration significantly higher when compared to DNA extracted from whole blood.

Data mining techniques in breast cancer diagnosis at the cellular-molecular level.

Studies in the field of better diagnosis of breast cancer using machine learning and data mining techniques have always been promising. A new diagnostic method can detect the characteristics of breast cancer in the early stages and help in better treatment. The aim of this study is to provide a method for early detection of breast cancer by reducing human errors based on data mining techniques in medicine using accurate and rapid screening. The proposed method includes data pre-processing and image quality improvement in the first step. The second step consists of separating cancer cells from healthy breast tissue and removing outliers using image segmentation. Finally, a classification model is configured by combining deep neural networks in the third phase. The proposed ensemble classification model uses several effective features extracted from images and is based on majority vote. This model can be used as a screening system to diagnose the grade of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Evaluations have been done using two histopathological microscopic datasets including patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. With extracting high-level features with average accuracies of 92.65% and 93.34% in these two datasets, the proposed method has succeeded in quickly diagnosing and classifying breast cancer with high performance. By combining deep neural networks and extracting features affecting breast cancer, the ability to diagnose with the highest accuracy is provided, and this is a step toward helping specialists and increasing the chances of patients' survival.

Exosome camouflaged coordination-assembled Iridium(III) photosensitizers for apoptosis-autophagy-ferroptosis induced combination therapy against melanoma

Melanoma represents the most fatal form of skin cancer due to its resistance mechanisms and high capacity for the development of metastases. Among other medicinal techniques, photodynamic therapy is receiving increasing attention. Despite promising results, the application of photodynamic therapy is inherently limited due to interference from melanin, poor tissue penetration of photosensitizers, low loading into drug delivery systems, and a lack of tumor selectivity. To overcome these limitations, herein, the coordination-driven assembly of Ir(III) complex photosensitizers with Fe(III) ions into nanopolymers for combined photodynamic therapy and chemodynamic therapy is reported. While remaining stable under physiological conditions, the nanopolymers dissociated in the tumor microenvironment. Upon exposure to light, the Ir(III) complexes produced singlet oxygen and superoxide anion radicals, inducing cell death by apoptosis and autophagy. The Fe(III) ions were reduced to Fe(II) upon depletion of glutathione and reduction of the GPX4 levels, triggering cell death by ferroptosis. To provide tumor selectivity, the nanopolymers were further camouflaged with exosomes. The generated nanoparticles were found to eradicate a melanoma tumor as well as inhibit the formation of metastases inside a mouse model.

Hybrid model with optimal features for non-invasive blood glucose monitoring from breath biomarkers

Analysis of exhaled breath is becoming more and more used as an additional diagnostic technique in medicine. Researchers must create unique algorithms for accurate data interpretation due to the sheer quantity of factors that must be considered. Therefore, a new NICBGM-based model from exhaled breath is introduced in this study. This work exploited median filtering (MF) for pre-processing. Then, “Improved Empirical Wavelet Functions (I-EWF), R-peak detection, QT intervals, PR intervals, Entropy-based feature, improved Discrete wavelet transform (DWT), Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT), and short-time Fourier transformation (I-STFT)” are extracted. Further, optimal features are chosen, which are then put through a hybrid scheme that combines “Deep Max out (DMO) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)”. Then, the mean is taken by DMO and LSTM to attain the fine result. Here, the Wild Beest Updated HGSO (WBU-HGSO) model is used to optimize the LSTM weights. The final step is an analysis that proves the superiority of the WBU-HGSO-based model.

Antibacterial activity of green synthesized ZnO nano-flower using pineapple peel extract

Plant-based nanoparticles provide significant advantages over conventional physico-chemical techniques in medicine and biology. This paper reports the green route to synthesise ZnO particles using pineapple peel extract at various zinc precursor concentrations and evaluate their antibacterial activity. Morphological, structural, and optical properties of ZnO were characterised using SEM, XRD, FTIR, and UV–vis. The antibacterial potential of ZnO particles was evaluated against two clinical strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) using the paper disc diffusion method. SEM images exhibit flower-like ZnO with diameters in the range of 331–538 nm. The hexagonal wurtzite crystal phase of ZnO has been confirmed by XRD analysis with a crystal size of 14–17 nm. The FTIR spectrum has also validated the Zn-O bonding and the presence of additional functional groups in the samples. Antibacterial activity of the nanoflower ZnO towards E. coli and S. aureus displays inhibitory zone widths of 17.23 ± 3.03 mm and 30.14 ± 1.86 mm, respectively. These findings reveal that nanoflower ZnO produced using the pineapple peel extract exhibited a large bacterial inhibition zone, indicating that it is potentially used as food packaging or antibiotics.

Graphene-Related Nanomaterials for Biomedical Applications

This paper builds on the context and recent progress on the control, reproducibility, and limitations of using graphene and graphene-related materials (GRMs) in biomedical applications. The review describes the human hazard assessment of GRMs in in vitro and in vivo studies, highlights the composition-structure-activity relationships that cause toxicity for these substances, and identifies the key parameters that determine the activation of their biological effects. GRMs are designed to offer the advantage of facilitating unique biomedical applications that impact different techniques in medicine, especially in neuroscience. Due to the increasing utilization of GRMs, there is a need to comprehensively assess the potential impact of these materials on human health. Various outcomes associated with GRMs, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, beneficial effects on cell proliferation, differentiation rates, apoptosis, necrosis, autophagy, oxidative stress, physical destruction, DNA damage, and inflammatory responses, have led to an increasing interest in these regenerative nanostructured materials. Considering the existence of graphene-related nanomaterials with different physicochemical properties, the materials are expected to exhibit unique modes of interactions with biomolecules, cells, and tissues depending on their size, chemical composition, and hydrophil-to-hydrophobe ratio. Understanding such interactions is crucial from two perspectives, namely, from the perspectives of their toxicity and biological uses. The main aim of this study is to assess and tune the diverse properties that must be considered when planning biomedical applications. These properties include flexibility, transparency, surface chemistry (hydrophil-hydrophobe ratio), thermoelectrical conductibility, loading and release capacity, and biocompatibility.

Credit for Truly Novel Ideas? A Critical Approach to the Intellectual Authorship in Surgery.

The formation of new ideas and techniques in medicine and surgery is crucial to bettering the medical field and the quality of medical care. The transmission of these new ideas is a source of pride and recognition for physicians who devote their lives to patient care. The quality and integrity of the medical literature that results from seminal medical ideas are an essential but unregulated field. From time to time, there are discussions in the medical literature about the authorship of an idea/strategy/technique. In this digital era, where communication works at an unmeasurable speed, the authenticity of medical communication requires honesty and verification. The possibility of unreliable or false information exists, and the need to verify "new" information as accurate and honest is crucial. Rhythm, genuine, and fake (fair/unfair) information circulates at high speed, and suddenly everything one encounters is represented as "true and often represented as new." Regarding medical science and particularly surgery - we are overloaded daily with new techniques, new names, new strategies, and everything. Several questions regarding the authenticity of any publication or scientific communication exist. A critical approach is done in this article.

Development of a Collaborative Robotic Platform for Autonomous Auscultation

Listening to internal body sounds, or auscultation, is one of the most popular diagnostic techniques in medicine. In addition to being simple, non-invasive, and low-cost, the information it offers, in real time, is essential for clinical decision-making. This process, usually done by a doctor in the presence of the patient, currently presents three challenges: procedure duration, participants’ safety, and the patient’s privacy. In this article we tackle these by proposing a new autonomous robotic auscultation system. With the patient prepared for the examination, a 3D computer vision sub-system is able to identify the auscultation points and translate them into spatial coordinates. The robotic arm is then responsible for taking the stethoscope surface into contact with the patient’s skin surface at the various auscultation points. The proposed solution was evaluated to perform a simulated pulmonary auscultation in six patients (with distinct height, weight, and skin color). The obtained results showed that the vision subsystem was able to correctly identify 100% of the auscultation points, with uncontrolled lighting conditions, and the positioning subsystem was able to accurately position the gripper on the corresponding positions on the human body. Patients reported no discomfort during auscultation using the described automated procedure.

Efficacy of Vaginal Misoprostol Administered for Rapid Management of First Trimester Spontaneous Onset Incomplete Abortion in Comparison to Manual Vacuum Aspiration: A Randomised Clinical Trial

Introduction: Both, surgical and medicinal techniques can be used vaginally to treat incomplete abortions. Although, Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) is a safe and efficient surgical treatment for the management of incomplete abortion, it is not frequently offered and is not very cost effective in rural areas, especially in low resource settings. Misoprostol is an alternative to MVA for the treatment of incomplete abortion. Aim: To assess the effectiveness and acceptability of using vaginal misoprostol for the management of first trimester spontaneous incomplete abortion as an alternative to MVA. Materials and Methods: A randomised clinical trial was conducted between February 2020 to July 2021 in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. A total of 144 participants were randomised into two groups with 72 women in each group, to treatment with either MVA or 400 mcg vaginal at 3 hour intervals. The main outcome measures assessed at 24 hour follow-up were complete uterine evacuation confirmed by transvaginal sonography, and client acceptability and satisfaction were assessed from entry in data form by participants. Chi-square (χ2 ) tests were used for categorical data, and the Student’s paired t-test was used for continuous data. Statistical significance in all calculations was defined as p<0.05 and the study would follow the Intention To Treat (ITT) analysis while computing the results. Results: The mean ages were 27.44 years (6.8) and 28.47 years (6.6) for the misoprostol and MVA groups respectively. For the gestational age, the mean gestational ages were 8.88 (2.01) and 8.90 (2.17) weeks for the misoprostol and MVA groups, respectively. A higher failure rate in terms of incomplete abortion was encountered in the misoprostol arm compared to the MVA arm. Although this difference in complete uterine evacuation rate did not reach statistical significance (RR=4, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.879-18.192, p=0.0728). Pyrexia appeared to be a significant complication in the misoprostol group compared to MVA group (p=0.038). There was no significant difference in satisfaction in both groups (p=0.659) and no significant difference in acceptability. Conclusion: As an alternative to surgical intervention, three 400 mcg misoprostol pills could be administered vaginally over the course of three hours to treat spontaneous first trimester uncomplicated incomplete abortion.

EDUKASI DAN PEMBUATAN TAMAN OBAT KELUARGA UNTUK PENCEGAHAN DAN PEMELIHARAAN KESEHATAN MASYARAKAT

Indonesian people have used herbal ingredients for health. However, there are differences in natural resources and knowledge of plant processing techniques in medicine which differ from region to region. This community service aims to increase public knowledge about the types of plants that can be cultivated in Family Medicine Garden and their health benefits. Educational activities and the establishment of a Family Medicine Garden (TOGA) were held at the UHO Faculty of Pharmacy drug park. The method of educational activities is in the form of lectures and question-and-answer interactions, followed by manufacturing and planting medicinal plants at Family Medicine Garden. Education is carried out by introducing the efficacy of 21 plants, the parts used and the benefits of Family Medicine Garden. The activity went well, and the community was enthusiastic about getting new knowledge about types of plants and how to make Family Medicine Garden.

Entropy Measurements for Leukocytes' Surrounding Informativeness Evaluation for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Classification.

The study of leukemia classification using deep learning techniques has been conducted by multiple research teams worldwide. Although deep convolutional neural networks achieved high quality of sick vs. healthy patient discrimination, their inherent lack of human interpretability of the decision-making process hinders the adoption of deep learning techniques in medicine. Research involving deep learning proved that distinguishing between healthy and sick patients using microscopic images of lymphocytes is possible. However, it could not provide information on the intermediate steps in the diagnosis process. As a result, despite numerous examinations, it is still unclear whether the lymphocyte is the only object in the microscopic picture containing leukemia-related information or if the leukocyte's surroundings also contain the desired information. In this work, entropy measures and machine learning models were applied to study the informativeness of both whole images and lymphocytes' surroundings alone for Leukemia classification. This work aims to provide human-interpretable features marking the probability of sickness occurrence. The research stated that the hue distribution of images with lymphocytes obfuscated alone is informative enough to facilitate 93.0% accuracy in healthy vs. sick classification. The research was conducted on the ALL-IDB2 dataset.

Efecto de la diabetes en células madres de la cavidad bucal. Una revisión breve

Tissue engineering is one of the pillars of regeneration techniques in medicine, based on the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs have self-renewal and differentiation capabilities in multiple lines, due to which they are multipotent mature cells. MSCs can be spread over several tiles, a good amount of MSCs is in the oral cavity, including parts such as the alveolar bone, periodontal ligament, dental pulp, dental follicle, oral mucosa and gums. Despite being a major advance in medical sciences, the use of MSCs may be limited by several factors that affect the biological capabilities of these cells. Considering the oral cavity as one of the main sources of obtaining a high amount MSCs, one of the factors that has great repercussions on oral health and diabetes, the clearest example is the two-way relationship that has periodontitis today. periodontitis is considered the sixth complication of diabetes. Given the above, it is necessary to identify the effects thatcould also have on the MSCs obtained in the oral cavity, effects that could hinder their use in tissue engineering. The purpose of this review is to describe the effect of diabetes on MSCs in the oral cavity.

Ethical challenges of cord blood banks: a scoping review.

Cord blood is a rich source of hematopoietic stem cells used to treat many diseases of blood origin. Thus, storage banks were created to store and provide umbilical cord cells. With the development of diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and techniques in medicine, ethical issues have also become more widespread and complex. After the creation of the cord blood banks, efforts were made to address the ethical issues associated with such banks. The present study attempts to identify the ethical challenges in these banks in the published studies. Databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science (WOS), Embase, Proquest, and Google Scholar were searched from January 1996 to January 2021. Then, the ethical challenges of the cord blood bank were extracted from the results section using thematic content analysis. 22 studies were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The ethical challenges raised in the studies included private or public ownership of the bank, fair access to banking services, informed and voluntary consent, failure to provide sufficient information to individuals about the process, confidentiality of user's information, conflict of interest of bank founders (who are commonly doctors). The findings of this study indicated that there are serious ethical concerns regarding umbilical cord blood banks. Responding clearly to these ethical challenges calls for the attention of policymakers and medical ethics professionals; this will require a clear statement of the various aspects of these banks for society.