Pigmented Spots Research Articles

Comparative analysis of skin characteristics evaluation by a dermatologist and the Janus-III measurement system.

The Janus-III measurement system evaluates the overall skin characteristics such as skin pore, wrinkle, sebum, porphyrin, skin pigmentation, and skin color using high-resolution facial images. The values are measured from five different facial areas, namely, the forehead, nose, corner of/skin below the eyes, and cheeks. Owing to its convenience and diverse measuring characteristics, Janus-III has been widely used in skin research and the cosmetic industry in Korea. In our previous study, we revealed the consistency and reliability of the system with repeatedly measured values. Its measuring performance was investigated statistically, but to make it more reliable for academic skin research, additional verification by a professional dermatologist is needed. In this study, we conducted comparative analysis of three skin characteristics (pigmented spot, skin color, and eye wrinkle) by a dermatologist and the Janus-III measurement system. We utilized 330 image data that were cropped from the whole facial images of 330 different participants to avoid correlation among the three measuring items. Pearson's correlation coefficient exhibited similar patterns between the system and the dermatologist's findings. The main finding of our study was that the measured value of skin characteristics by the Janus-III system showed clear correlation with the values evaluated by a dermatologist, especially in a pigmented spot. Therefore, it would be a plausible idea to consider the Janus-III system for specialized research of skin characteristics even with a small sample size.

Lacydoniidae (Annelida) Off the Coast of North-eastern Japan: A Description of Lacydonia japonica sp. nov.

Lacydonia japonica sp. nov. (Annelida, Lacydoniidae) is described based on material found in sediments collected off the Pacific coast of northern Honshu, Japan, at depths of 262 m and 407 m. The sediments were obtained by a remotely operated vehicle equipped with a suction sampler during a Tohoku Ecosystem-Associated Marine Sciences (TEAMS) project in 2019. Lacydonia japonica sp. nov. belongs to the eyeless group of lacydoniids and is discriminated from the morphologically most similar congener, Lacydonia papillata Uschakov, 1958 by its reddish pigments on both the dorsal and ventral parapodial cirri and four pigment spots on the pygidium. To assess the phylogenetic position of the new species among other lacydoniids for which sequence data are available in public databases, analyses were performed using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and 16S rRNA, as well as the nuclear 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA genes. We additionally obtained some lacydoniids by sledging off western Japan, but these were severely fragmented and broken during collection. Using the paucity of morphological data, they were left unidentified as Lacydonia sp. but included in the molecular analyses. Genetic distances between Lacydonia eliasoni Hartmann-Schröder, 1996, Lacydonia japonica, and Lacydonia sp. off western Japan were 10.4-17.1% uncorrected p-distance (11.3-18.6% K2P) in terms of 658-bp COI sequences.

A Pediatric Case of Parotid Manifestation of Recklinghausen Neurofibromatosis

A 12-year-old girl is refered to our ORL department. The disease started in childhood with the appearance of multiple hyper pigmented skin macules. Dermatological exam showed of hyper pigmented skin macules on the chest and back, multiple pigmented spots with diameter> 1.5 cm

Deep Learning-Based Detection of Pigment Signs for Analysis and Diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Ophthalmological analysis plays a vital role in the diagnosis of various eye diseases, such as glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and diabetic and hypertensive retinopathy. RP is a genetic retinal disorder that leads to progressive vision degeneration and initially causes night blindness. Currently, the most commonly applied method for diagnosing retinal diseases is optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based disease analysis. In contrast, fundus imaging-based disease diagnosis is considered a low-cost diagnostic solution for retinal diseases. This study focuses on the detection of RP from the fundus image, which is a crucial task because of the low quality of fundus images and non-cooperative image acquisition conditions. Automatic detection of pigment signs in fundus images can help ophthalmologists and medical practitioners in diagnosing and analyzing RP disorders. To accurately segment pigment signs for diagnostic purposes, we present an automatic RP segmentation network (RPS-Net), which is a specifically designed deep learning-based semantic segmentation network to accurately detect and segment the pigment signs with fewer trainable parameters. Compared with the conventional deep learning methods, the proposed method applies a feature enhancement policy through multiple dense connections between the convolutional layers, which enables the network to discriminate between normal and diseased eyes, and accurately segment the diseased area from the background. Because pigment spots can be very small and consist of very few pixels, the RPS-Net provides fine segmentation, even in the case of degraded images, by importing high-frequency information from the preceding layers through concatenation inside and outside the encoder-decoder. To evaluate the proposed RPS-Net, experiments were performed based on 4-fold cross-validation using the publicly available Retinal Images for Pigment Signs (RIPS) dataset for detection and segmentation of retinal pigments. Experimental results show that RPS-Net achieved superior segmentation performance for RP diagnosis, compared with the state-of-the-art methods.

The potential risk of Schistosoma mansoni transmission by the invasive freshwater snail Biomphalaria straminea in South China.

Schistosomes infect more than 200 million people worldwide, and globally, over 700 million people are at risk of infection. The snail Biomphalaria straminea, as one of the intermediate hosts of Schistosoma mansoni, consecutively invaded Hong Kong in 1973, raising great concern in China. In this study, a malacological survey was conducted over a period of four years, and investigations were performed on the mechanism of susceptibility of B. straminea to S. mansoni. B. straminea was investigated in China from 2014 to 2018. Out of 185 investigated sites, 61 were positive for stages of black B. straminea (BBS), which shows pigmented spots. Twenty of the 61 sites were positive for red B. straminea (RBS), which is partially albino and red colored. Phylogenetic analyses based on cox1 and 18S rRNA sequences demonstrated that both phenotypes were clustered with Brazilian strains. No S. mansoni infections were detected in field-collected snail. However, in laboratory experiments, 4.17% of RBS were susceptible to a Puerto Rican strain of S. mansoni, while BBS was not susceptible. The highest susceptibility rate (70.83%) was observed in the F2 generation of RBS in lab. The density of RBS has increased from south to north and from west to east in Guangdong since 2014. Five tyrosinase tyrosine metabolism genes were upregulated in BBS. Transcriptome comparisons of RBS and BBS showed that ficolin, C1q, MASP-like, and membrane attack complex (MAC)/perforin models of the complement system were significantly upregulated in BBS. Our study demonstrated that B. straminea is widely distributed in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, which is expanding northwards very rapidly as a consequence of its adaptation to local environments. Our results suggest that B. straminea from South China is susceptible to S. mansoni, implying the high potential for S. mansoni transmission and increased S. mansoni infection risk in China.

Human Melanocyte-Derived Spheroids: A Precise Test System for Drug Screening and a Multicellular Unit for Tissue Engineering.

Pigmentation is the result of melanin synthesis, which takes place in melanocytes, and its further distribution. A dysregulation in melanocytes' functionality can result in the loss of pigmentation, the appearance of pigment spots and melanoma development. Tissue engineering and the screening of new skin-lightening drugs require the development of simple and reproducible in vitro models with maintained functional activity. The aim of the study was to obtain and characterize spheroids from normal human melanocytes as a three-dimensional multicellular structure and as a test system for skin-lightening drug screening. Melanocytes are known to lose their ability to synthesize melanin in monolayer culture. When transferred under non-adhesive conditions in agarose multi-well plates, melanocytes aggregated and formed spheroids. As a result, the amount of melanin elevated almost two times within seven days. MelanoDerm™ (MatTek) skin equivalents were used as a comparison system. Cells in spheroids expressed transcription factors that regulate melanogenesis: MITF and Sox10, the marker of developed melanosomes—gp100, as well as tyrosinase (TYR)—the melanogenesis enzyme and melanocortin receptor 1 (MC1R)—the main receptor regulating melanin synthesis. Expression was maintained during 3D culturing. Thus, it can be stated that spheroids maintain melanocytes' functional activity compared to that in the multi-layered MelanoDerm™ skin equivalents. Culturing both spheroids and MelanoDerm™ for seven days in the presence of the skin-lightening agent fucoxanthin resulted in a more significant lowering of melanin levels in spheroids. Significant down-regulation of gp100, MITF, and Sox10 transcription factors, as well as 10-fold down-regulation of TYR expression, was observed in spheroids by day 7 in the presence of fucoxanthin, thus inhibiting the maturation of melanosomes and the synthesis of melanin. MelanoDerm™ samples were characterized by significant down-regulation of only MITF, Sox10 indicating that spheroids formed a more sensitive system allowed for quantitative assays. Collectively, these data illustrate that normal melanocytes can assemble themselves into spheroids—the viable structures that are able to accumulate melanin and maintain the initial functional activity of melanocytes. These spheroids can be used as a more affordable and easy-to-use test system than commercial skin equivalents for drug screening.

Age-Deterring and Skin Care Function of a Polyphenol Rich Sugarcane Concentrate

Increasing evidence suggests that environmental stress, such as UV radiation, generates reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in skin cells, leading to histochemical changes including skin disorders and aging, hyper pigmentation, and increased formation of wrinkles. Besides the defensive system in skin composed of vitamins and intrinsic antioxidant enzymes, topical and skin conditioning products have been used commonly to eradicate or eliminate these skin ailments. Among various ingredients providing nourishing and moisturizing effect in skin, antioxidants have been reported to be a key ingredient to counteract skin aging processes and skin disorders. Derived from a patented extraction process, a polyphenol rich sugarcane concentrate (Officinol™) becomes the focus of this study due to its rich content of polyphenols known to be strong antioxidants. In this work, we carried out a series of cell-based in vitro studies to examine the use of Officinol™ in anti-aging and skin care functions. Our studies show that Officinol™ activated telomerase, a major biomarker that have been reported to be associated with slowed cellular aging process. When skin cells were under environmental stress such as UV radiation, Officinol™ inhibited MMP-1, an interstitial collagenase in skin cells, and deterred the breakdown of collagen that provides supple texture in skin. Officinol™ also inhibited cellular expression of melanin pigmentation and tyrosinase activity, two major biomarkers causing skin pigmentation and aging spots, and inhibited elastase, an enzyme that facilities the reduction of skin elasticity. At the end of the investigation, we carried out a 10-person, pilot study to examine the effect of Officinol™ on skin lightening and fine line and wrinkle reduction in human skin. The combination of the in vitro and the human pre-study indicates that Officinol™ could provide significant preventative and protective functions including antioxidant, anti-aging, wrinkle reduction, and skin brightening for human skin suffering from aging and other stress. These findings are to be confirmed with a larger scale clinical study at a later stage.

Mutation analysis of related genes in hamartoma polyp tissue of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome

BACKGROUNDPeutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a rare disease with clinical manifestations of pigmented spots on the lips, mucous membranes and extremities, scattered gastrointestinal polyps, and susceptibility to tumors. The clinical heterogeneity of PJS is obvious, and the relationship between clinical phenotype and genotype is still unclear.AIMTo investigate the mutation status of hereditary colorectal tumor-associated genes in hamartoma polyp tissue of PJS patients and discuss its relationship with the clinicopathological data of PJS.METHODSTwenty patients with PJS were randomly selected for this study and were treated in the Air Force Medical Center (former Air Force General Hospital) PLA between 2008 and 2017. Their hamartoma polyp tissues were used for APC, AXIN2, BMPR1A, EPCAM, MLH1, MLH3, MSH2, MSH6, MUTYH, PMS1, PMS2, PTEN, SMAD4, and LKB1/STK11 gene sequencing using next-generation sequencing technology. The correlations between the sequencing results and clinical pathological data of PJS were analyzed.RESULTSFourteen types of LKB1/STK11 mutations were detected in 16 cases (80.0%), of which 8 new mutations were found (3 types of frameshift deletion mutations: c.243delG, c.363_364delGA, and c.722delC; 2 types of frameshift insertions: c. 144_145insGCAAG, and c.454_455insC; 3 types of splice site mutations: c.464+1G>T, c.464+1G>A, and c.598-1G>A); 9 cases (45.0%) were found to have 18 types of heterozygous mutations in the remaining 13 genes except LKB1/STK11. Of these, MSH2: c.792+1G>A, MSH6: c.3689C>G, c.4001+13C>CTTAC, PMS1: c.46C>t, and c.922G>A were new mutations.CONCLUSIONThe genetic mutations in hamartoma polyp tissue of PJS are complex and diverse. Moreover, other gene mutations in PJS hamartoma polyp tissue were observed, with the exception of LKB1/STK11 gene, especially the DNA mismatch repair gene (MMR). Colorectal hamartoma polyps with LKB1/STK11 mutations were larger in diameter than those with other gene mutations.

Surface analysis of an eagle talon from Krapina

The Krapina white-tailed eagle talons represent a kind of jewelry worn by Krapina Neandertals some 130,000 years ago. New inspection of one Krapina talon (386.1) revealed a fiber, sealed by a thin silicate coating, adhering to the surface within a wide cut mark, as well as concentrated traces of occasional spots of red and yellow pigment and some black stains. We analyzed the fiber and small portions of pigmented areas by non-invasive, infrared synchrotron beam. Different areas were targeted, revealing the protein nature of the fiber, identified as of animal origin. Targeted areas revealed intra- and inter-strand aggregation indicating the fiber to be collagen losing its original triple α-helix conformation, further confirming the diagenetic decay of the original collagen structure and the antiquity of the fiber. It is possible that the fiber is a remnant of the leather or sinew string binding the talons together. Spectroscopic analysis of the pigments in two isolated areas confirmed two types of ochre and that the dark spots are charcoal remnants. Applying novel non-invasive technologies provides new possibilities to further test the hypothesis of using prehistoric objects for symbolic purposes.

Genetic characterisation of the petal spot phenotype for Gossypium arboreum accession PI 408798

The occurrence of floral petal spots is common among flowering plants and plays a major role in attracting pollinators. Cotton genotypes having large red petal spots are frequent in the United States Department of Agriculture, National Plant Germplasm System Gossypium arboreum (L.) collection. One accession, PI 408798, showed a unique faint red petal spot phenotype. To genetically characterise this trait, a F<sub>2</sub> population of 226 plants was developed by crossing PI 408798 with G. arboreum accession PI 529714 that lacked pigmented petal spots. From the population, 161 plants showed the presence of faint red petal spots; whereas, 65 plants lacked pigmented petal spots. These data supported the single dominant gene model for the presence of floral petal spots. Accession PI 408798 will provide an important genetic resource to characterise the genes involved in the pathway controlling floral pigmentation.

Can the French flag and reaction-diffusion models explain flower patterning? Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the French flag model.

It has been 50 years since Lewis Wolpert introduced the French flag model proposing the patterning of different cell types based on threshold concentrations of a morphogen diffusing in the tissue. Sixty-seven years ago, Alan Turing introduced the idea of patterns initiating de novo from a reaction-diffusion network. Together these models have been used to explain many patterning events in animal development, so here we take a look at their applicability to flower development. First, although many plant transcription factors move through plasmodesmata from cell to cell, in the flower there is little evidence that they specify fate in a concentration-dependent manner, so they cannot yet be described as morphogens. Secondly, the reaction-diffusion model appears to be a reasonably good description of the formation of spots of pigment on petals, although additional nuances are present. Thirdly, aspects of both of these combine in a new fluctuation-based patterning system creating the scattered pattern of giant cells in Arabidopsis sepals. In the future, more precise imaging and manipulations of the dynamics of patterning networks combined with mathematical modeling will allow us to better understand how the multilayered complex and beautiful patterns of flowers emerge de novo.

Consumption of Polyphenols in Coffee and Green Tea Alleviates Skin Photoaging in Healthy Japanese Women.

PurposeHyperpigmentation of the skin can occur at any age depending on etiological factors but its intensity increases during adolescence in Japanese females and gradually develops further in adults. The purpose of this study was to characterize factors that influence skin hyperpigmentation, including age, skin type and dietary polyphenol sources.Patients and MethodsA cross-sectional survey of healthy Japanese women aged from 30 to 60 years (n=244) was conducted using food and environmental questionnaires and a VISIA™ facial photoimage analyzer.ResultsUV Pigmented Spot (PS) scores correlated negatively with the consumption of total polyphenols (TPs) (R=−0.224, p<0.001) and the rate of hyperpigmented spot development (PS score/age after 18 years of age) was suppressed by the consumption of TPs. This trend was independent of the melanin index and the skin type, which indicates the ability of the skin to tan after sun exposure. Consumption of coffee, the largest source of TPs, suppressed the PS score (p<0.001). Consumption of green tea, the second largest source of TPs, also suppressed the PS score, which was weaker than coffee but was statistically significant (p=0.029). The PS score was suppressed the most in subjects with both a high consumption of coffee and green tea.ConclusionHigher consumption of TPs may be beneficial to alleviate photoaging of the skin, and coffee as well as green tea contribute to suppress skin hyperpigmentation through adding large amounts of TPs in the diet.

Comparative histology of wild-type and p53-deficient medaka (Oryzias latipes): nephrotoxic effect of ultraviolet A radiation.

Ultraviolet radiation is an ecological factor that directly affects terrestrial organisms through suppression of immunity or damage to internal organs. The present study assessed the effects of ultraviolet A (UVA) radiation on the kidneys of both wild-type (WT) and p53-deficient medaka (Oryzias latipes) and evaluated which strain was more resistant to the effects of UVA. Fish were divided into four groups: control group 1 (Cwt and Cp53), kept for 3 days without UVA exposure; group 2 (1wt and 1p53), fish exposed daily to UVA for 1 h day-1 for 3 days; group 3 (2wt and 2p53), fish exposed daily to UVA for 2 h day-1 for 3 days; and group 4 (3wt and 3p53), fish exposed daily to UVA for 3 h day-1 for 3 days. Samples of tissues were obtained 24 h after UVA exposure. The most obvious histopathological changes induced by UVA radiation in kidney tissues of both strains of medaka (WT and p53-deficient) were high levels of vacuolation of tubular cells followed by necrosis. The tubular segments lost their normal shape which appeared like a network structure and their cells with clear cytoplasm. Necrosis of lymphoid tissues and spots of brown pigmentation (possibly melanomacrophages) were sporadically seen in interstitial lymphoid tissues, while shrinkage of glomeruli, diminution of periodic acid-Schiff staining, and increased amount of collagenous fibers were observed. Our results confirmed the harmful effects of UVA radiation on kidney tissues of both WT and p53-deficient medaka. However, WT medaka was affected more than p53-deficient medaka.

ЦВЕТООБОЗНАЧЕНИЯ АLА ‘ПЕГИЙ’ И SЇBAR ‘ПЕСТРЫЙ’ В БАШКИРСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ: ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ И ЛЕКСИЧЕСКАЯ СЕМАНТИКА

The purpose of the article is to study the origin of names for piebald and mottley colors in the Bashkir language, to trace their development on the general Turkic background and to reveal the semantic features of these color designations.The relevance of the research is due to the need to study lexemes both in the comparative-historical aspect and in terms of synchronicity with the identification of denotative and connotative components in their semantics. It is revealed that the difference in the semantics of the lexemes ala ‘piebald’ and sїbar ‘mottley’ is that the word ala denotes a combination of colors with large spots, the lexeme sїbar is a color consisting of small mixed colored areas. Both lexemes are of ancient origin: аlа goes back to the Pre-Turk *ala and Pre- Altaic *ā́ lV ‘mottley’; the Pre-Turk form of the color designation sїbar is reconstructed in the form of čоpur, čаp- ‘mottley, pock-marked’ ‘unkempt, untidy’, ‘pour out (about rashes, teals)’, which is derived from the Pre- Altaic *šop`é ‘freckles, spots’. The semantic load of the lexemes ala and sїbar is stable, since in Bashkir, as well as in all other Turkic languages, they retained their original meaning. In all Turkic languages, including Bashkir, they have additional connotative semantics, which characterizes the antiquity of these meanings. Аlа, in addition to the designation of piebald color, is an epithet of fierce eyes and spring blackened snow, pigment spots on the skin, the word is used in the meanings ‘multi-colored’, ‘prominent’; sїbar is used in the meanings ‘mottled’, ‘pock-marked’, ‘flea-bitten’, ‘diverse’, ‘multicolored’, ‘variegated’, ‘changeable’, ‘freckled’. The same meanings are noted in other Turkic languages.

Comparison of resin infiltration and microabrasion in the treatment of enamel caries

The study compared the efficacy and stability of resin infiltration and microabrasion therapeutic effect in patients with enamel caries. Materials and methods. The study included 80 patients with caries in white or pigmented spot stage on the vestibular surface of the anterior teeth. 40 patients underwent microabrasion, 40 — resin infiltration. Patients were evaluated initially, after oral hygiene, after the procedure, and 1 year later, the intensity of dental caries according to the patient hygiene performance index (PHP), gingival sulcus bleeding index (SBI), community periodontal index (CPI) and hyperesthesia level. Results. In both groups the effect was evaluated in 2 subgroups: 1) with high caries resistance and non-increased tooth sensitivity; 2) with high and medium caries resistance and increased tooth sensitivity. After microabrasion, the greatest changes were observed for hyperesthesia in patients with increased tooth sensitivity (p<0.0001 compared with the baseline and the infiltration group). PHP and CPI measures improved significantly in both microabrasion and infiltration groups. After the procedure microabrasion effectiveness was 75%, caries infiltration — 50%. After a year, relapse was recorded in 5 (12.5%) patients in the microabrasion group and in 28 (70%) people in the infiltration group (p<0.0001). Conclusions. Enamel resistance and tooth sensitivity should be considered while choosing treatment method for enamel caries. For patients with high enamel resistance and lack of dentin hyperesthesia, microabrasion is appropriate followed by remineralizing therapy. For teeth with moderate enamel resistance and dentin hyperesthesia, the combined method is recommended: resin infiltration with remineralizing therapy, followed by enamel microabrasion.

An Ocimum basilicum Extract Containing Rosmarinic Acid Restores the Disruption of Collagen Fibers Caused by Repetitive UVA Irradiation of Dermal Fibroblasts.

Photoaged skin is characterized by the appearance of pigmented spots such as solar lentigos, deep wrinkles and sags, and progresses due to chronic sun exposure. Among the wavelengths of sunlight, UVA is responsible for the appearance of wrinkles and sags that originate from structural alterations in the dermis of photoaged skin such as the depletion of collagen fibers. Thus, improving and restoring collagen fibers is an effective approach to reduce skin photoaging and maintain a youthful appearance. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of an extract of Ocimum basilicum (OC), which contains rosmarinic acid (RA), as an anti-photoaging material focusing on the capacity to restore collagen fibers that are disrupted due to intracellular oxidative stress. In spite of their relatively low capacities for chemical scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS), both OC and RA showed efficient removal of biological oxidative stress by reducing levels of intracellular ROS and carbonylated proteins (CPs) in fibroblasts following exposure to single or repetitive UVA irradiations. Fibroblasts irradiated with repetitive UVA as a model for chronic sun-exposed cells showed significant increases in matrix metalloproteinase-1 and decreases in type I collagen synthesis and formed reduced numbers of collagen fibers. Since both OC and RA restored the adverse phenomena caused by repetitive UVA irradiation, we conclude that OC containing RA is an effective anti-photoaging material.

Principal component analysis of seven skin-ageing features identifies three main types of skin ageing.

The underlying phenotypic correlations between wrinkles, pigmented spots (PS), telangiectasia and other related facial-ageing subphenotypes are not well understood. To analyse the underlying phenotypic correlation structure between seven features for facial ageing: global wrinkling, perceived age (PA), Griffiths photodamage grading, PS, telangiectasia, actinic keratosis (AK) and keratinocyte cancer (KC). This was a cross-sectional study. Facial photographs and a full-body skin examination were used. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to derive principal components (PCs) of common variation between the features. We performed multivariable linear regressions between age, sex, body mass index, smoking and ultraviolet radiation exposure and the PC scores derived from PCA. We also tested the association between the main PC scores and 140 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously associated with skin-ageing phenotypes. We analysed data from 1790 individuals with complete data on seven features of skin ageing. Three main PCs explained 73% of the total variance of the ageing phenotypes: a hypertrophic/wrinkling component (PC1: global wrinkling, PA and Griffiths grading), an atrophic/skin colour component (PC2: PS and telangiectasia) and a cancerous component (PC3: AK and KC). The associations between lifestyle and host factors differed per PC. The strength of SNP associations also differed per component with the most SNP associations found with the atrophic component [e.g. the IRF4 SNP (rs12203592); P-value = 1·84 × 10-22 ]. Using a hypothesis-free approach, we identified three major underlying phenotypes associated with extrinsic ageing. Associations between determinants for skin ageing differed in magnitude and direction per component. What's already known about this topic? Facial ageing is a complex phenotype consisting of different features including wrinkles, pigmented changes, telangiectasia and cancerous-related growths; it is not clear how these phenotypes are related to each other and to other phenotypes. A few studies have described two main clinical phenotypes for photoageing, namely hypertrophic ageing and atrophic ageing, which have been based solely on the clinical assessment of photoageing characteristics. What does this study add? We are the first to use epidemiology data to identify three main components associated with photoageing, namely a hypertrophic component (global wrinkling; perceived age; Griffiths grading) and atrophic component (pigmented spots; telangiectasia) and a cancer component (actinic keratosis; keratinocyte cancer). Association analysis showed different effects and direction of environmental determinants and genetic associations with the three components, with the most significant gene variants associations found for the atrophic component.

Early diagnostic of Addison disease at an outpatient stomatology appointment

Relevance. Nowadays dentists meet with patients with various morphological changes of the oral mucosa in outpatient medical appointment. In certain cases such morphological mucosal changes are considered as normal condition but sometimes the existence of mucosal changes means the manifestation of somatic diseases. For example, oral mucosa pigmentation might be both a normal case and a first clinical manifestation of chronic adrenal insufficiency. Purpose . To investigate dentists’ diagnostic abilities of early Addison’s disease symptoms. Materials and methods . In 8 patients of subsequent study intraoral mucosal pigmentation was detected. Six patients had no general complaints in their case reports, and according to their words, the pigment spots exist from their adolescence. There were general complaints typical to Addison’s disease in the two remaining clinical cases. General blood test and ACTH (synaptic test) were accomplished to identify Addison’s disease. To determine the level of sodium and potassium content biochemical blood test was also carried out. Results. Chronic adrenal insufficiency was detected by laboratory testing in two patients with general complaints who had no clinical manifestations of Addison’s disease of the skin. Conclusion. In some cases oral mucosa pigmentation may be the first clinical manifestation of chronic adrenal insufficiency. Therefore, the knowledge of somatic symptoms of chronic adrenal insufficiency and indices of laboratory diagnostic for on-time diagnostics of Addison’s disease is highly important and necessary for all dental specialists.

Extraction of Iris Crypt, Pigment Spot, and Wolfflin Nodule Biological Feature using Feature Point Selection Algorithms

The iris biometrics is an important biological feature of the human. The iris is the part of human eye. The human eye consists of many features. Iris is one of the unique features of human eye. In this paper we propose an algorithm to extract the features of iris. The existing algorithms are based on combined biological features of iris. We are going to introduce separate biological features and extract them one by one using suitable algorithms. The proposed method is used to extract the biological features of human iris. The proposed method uses crypts, pigment layers, and Wolfflin nodules features of iris. Each feature is extracted initially and suitable feature selection algorithm is identified. The manual cropping is initially applied in the eye image which extracts iris layer. The manual cropping is further applied on iris to locate the biological layers. Canny edge detection is applied on each iris feature. The FAST, SURF, MinEigen, BRISK, and MSER feature points are collected from each biological layer. The MinEigen extracts 218 feature points from the crypt layer. The BRISK extracts 161 and 89 feature points from the pigment and Wolfflin nodules. The proposed system can be used in iris recognition system all over the world for various authentication and security purposes. The individual feature extraction helps to make the recognition system more secure and accurate as compared to the existing systems which uses combined biological features. Thus, the proposed system is advantageous as compared to the existing systems and the efficiency will also be high if it is used for iris recognition.

2737 An Over-the-Scope Clip Rescue of a Perforation During a Conversion Form ESD to EMR of a Symptomatic Large Bleeding Duodenal Lipoma

INTRODUCTION: Lipomas are the second most common benign GI tumors. Their distribution varies vastly among different sections of the digestive system and their management is dictated by the location, size and whether they cause symptoms or not. Traditionally they were removed surgical but with the advancement of the technology and third space endoscopy, endoscopist are more experienced in endoscopic therapy of such lesions. CASE DESCRIPTION/METHODS: 53 yo male with PMHx of morbid obesity had a recent admission for acute blood loss upper GI bleeding (UGIB) with profound acute anemia and a hemoglobin of 6.3 requiring several blood transfusions. On gastroscopy he was found to have an ulcerated 6 cm duodenal pedunculated lesion with a recent bleeding described as a pigmented spot (Forrest IIc). Procedure: The endoscope with a distal cap attached was advanced into the stomach. In order to prevent possible GI hemorrhage, an endoloop was successfully placed on the base of the stalk. An attempt to snare the pedunculated mass with a large hexagonal snare failed given the size of the mass. Subsequently, submucosal dissection was started. Using the SB knife a alternating coag and cut modes were utilized to perform safe dissection. A shiny layer of fat was exposed in the middle of the polypoid lesion. Then the SB knife was switched to an IT knife to complete the dissection. Coag grasper was used to achieve hemostasis, the mass was captured and taken out with a snare. Ex vivo it measured 5.4 cm. After the dissection a 1 cm partial perforation was noted. The dual grasper was used to approximate the defect and a 12 mm OVESCO type was deployed to succefully close the defect. the scope was then withdrawn. The patient was admitted for monitoring and a contrast small bowel series. A gastrografin small bowel series confirmed a contained leak in the duodenum. The patient was NPO for 24 hours. A repeat study at that point showed resolution of the leak. A clear liquid diet was started and the patient was monitored for another 24 hours then was discharged home. DISCUSSION: With the emergence of new tools, technology and technics, third space endoscopy is leading to more invasive resection. This comes at a cost of increased complications. None the less these new advancement are putting at the endoscopist tools to manage these complications independently.