An elastography method based on the scanning contact resonance of a piezoelectric cantilever

Liquid biopsy: An arsenal for tumour screening and early diagnosis

At the moment, there are a huge number of risk factors for the development of a tumor process in the ovaries. One of the fundamental niches that allow us to suspect the presence of an imbalance in the body, and the presence of neoplasms is laboratory diagnostics. The purpose of our work was to evaluate changes in laboratory blood tests as a predictor of the development of oncological tumor process in the ovaries in patients of reproductive age (18-40 years). The collection and processing of laboratory data of 168 outpatient and inpatient medical histories of patients of reproductive age, operated on the basis of the Department of oncogynecology of the sbuz SOKOD for tumors and ovarian tumours from 2012 to 2015. Statistical analysis was performed using the statistical package SPSS21, license number 20130626-3 (An IBM Company; USA) and Microsoft Excel (Microsoft; USA). To achieve this goal, the patients were divided into groups according to the who morphological classification of 2013. A study of clinical blood analysis and biochemical blood analysis at the preoperative and early postoperative stages of treatment was conducted. The CA-125 titer was evaluated in two stages: as a qualitative and quantitative indicator. A study was also conducted for the presence of a genetic mutation in the BRCA 1 and 2 genes by taking a blood sample. In conclusion, we can conclude that on the basis of laboratory data it is impossible to conduct a differential diagnosis between tumors and tumor-like formations of the ovaries. When evaluating changes in General clinical blood tests, no significant changes were detected. Our work in a group of patients of reproductive age revealed the absence of mutations in the BRCA 1 and 2 genes. There was a significant increase in the tumor marker of the CA-125 titer (p = 0.015) in a group of patients with tumors and ovarian tumours aged 18–40 years.

Early diagnosis of acoustic tumors plays an important role in minimizing the disorder caused by operation and in the aspect of rehabilitation. It can be said that the otorhinolaryngologists' mission is to make an early diagnosis of acoustic tumors. A present, however, unfortunately, acoustic tumors are only rarely detected at the stage where the affected area is confined to the internal auditory meatus, i. e, so-called “ear tumor”. In many cases of early acoustic tumors, there are no abnormal objective findings except perceptive deafness and a reduced or extinct response on caloric nystagmus examination. On many occasions, neuro-otolbgical examination does not lead to a definite diagnosis of acoustic tumor but only suggests its presence. Therefore, we cannot but resort to diagnostic imaging in order to confirm the presence or absence of a tumor. As a next step, CT is performed following plain roentogenography, pluridirectional tomography, etc. Conventional CT where the limits of the detectable image in the diameter of the tumor have been considered to be 1.5-2cm is, however, not helpful for early diagnosis. For this reason, we have been troubled with a gap between what the functional test results indicate and CT-findings. We are now equipped with CT (from the Review of metrizamide cisternograms produced by GE CT/T) which seems to adequately fill such a gap and be useful for early diagnosis of acoustic tumors. We believe that CT-scan will reveal a greater number of cases of “ear tumor”.

The cellular signaling and regulatory role of protein phosphatase in tumor diagnosis: Upstream miRNAs of PTEN

We have investigated both experimentally and theoretically the resonance frequency change of a piezoelectric unimorph cantilever due to the mass loaded at the tip of the cantilever. The piezoelectric cantilever was composed of a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) layer and a stainless steel layer. The dependence of the resonance frequency shift, Δf, with respect to a loaded mass, Δm, on the cantilever length, L, width, w, and the resonance modes was examined. For Δm much smaller than the effective mass of the cantilever, we showed that Δf/Δm increased with an increasing eigen value, νn2, and decreasing length, L, and decreasing width, w, as Δfn/Δm=−(νn2/4π)(1/L3w)(1/0.23612ρ̃)Ẽ/ρ̃, where Ẽ and ρ̃ are the effective Young’s modulus and effective density of the unimorph cantilever that depends on the thickness fraction, Young’s modulus and density of each of the individual layers. Thus, given the same Ẽ and ρ̃ by maintaining the same layer thickness fractions of the individual layers, Δf/Δm is increased by a factor of α−4 when a cantilever is reduced in size by a factor α in proportion in all dimensions. We also showed that the same scaling relationship can be applied to a strip mass loaded at the tip as well as uniformly distributed mass on the cantilever surface provided that the uniformly distributed mass does not form a continuous solid film rigidly bonded to the cantilever surface.

As a class of oligosaccharide chain-containing proteins, glycoproteins are of great value in screening and early diagnosis of malignant tumors and other major diseases. Herein, we report a universal boronate affinity-based electrochemical aptasensor for point-of-care glycoprotein detection. Aptasensing of glycoproteins involves the specific recognition and capture of target glycoproteins by end-tethered nucleic acid aptamers and the site-specific labeling of ferrocene tags via the phenylboronic acid (PBA)-based boronate affinity interactions because the cis-diol sites of oligosaccharide chains on glycoproteins can selectively react with the PBA receptor groups to form cyclic phenylborates in aqueous basic media. Due to the presence of hundreds to thousands of cis-diol sites on a glycoprotein, a large number of ferrocene tags can be recruited for the signal-on aptasensing of glycoproteins at a low-abundance level, eliminating the need for extra amplification strategies. As a result, the boronate affinity-based electrochemical aptasensor is highly sensitive and selective for glycoprotein detection and tolerant to the false-positive results. The detection limit for α-fetoprotein (AFP) is 0.037 ng/mL, with a linear response ranging from 0.1 to 100 ng/mL. In addition to the merits of simple operation, short assay time, and low detection cost, the aptasensor is applicable to the detection of glycoproteins in serum samples and the point-of-care detection using disposable flexible electrodes. Overall, this work provides a universal and promising platform for the point-of-care detection of glycoproteins, holding great potential in screening and early diagnosis of glycoprotein-related malignant tumors and other major diseases.

Air meatography

Simple SummaryCanine mammary tumors (CMTs) are the most common neoplasms in female dogs, and their high rate of recurrence and metastasis result in a poor prognosis; therefore, timely and effective diagnosis is essential. In this study, the tumors were identified by histopathology and combined with X-ray and ultrasonography to assess the presence of organ metastases. Changes in certain indicators that suggested multiple direct or paraneoplastic changes associated with tumors were detected/suspected by hematological examination. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) revealed that HER-2 serum concentrations were significantly different between healthy dogs and dogs with malignant tumors. mRNA expression of HER-2, E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Vimentin, CEA, CA15-3 and SF were measured in CMT tissues by qPCR. The expression of these tumor markers (except for E-cadherin) in the malignant tumor group was significantly higher than in the benign group and the healthy control group (p < 0.05), however, there were no significant differences between the benign mammary tumor group and the healthy control group (p > 0.05). Measurement of biomarkers in dogs by serological and molecular biological assays represents a milestone in the early diagnosis of tumors, assessment of disease progression and response to chemotherapy.Canine mammary tumors (CMTs) are one of the most common tumors in female dogs, and they are associated with a poor prognosis owing to their high rate of recurrence and metastasis rates, which make their diagnosis especially important in clinical veterinary medicine. In this study, the characteristics of tumors were observed in dogs suffering from CMTs, and clinical diagnosis and histopathology were used to identify tumors. Furthermore, the expression levels of tumor markers for CMTs were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and quantitative PCR (qPCR). Upon clinical examination, dogs with CMTs displayed a distinct and irregular mass in the mammary gland, and X-ray (Latero-lateral and ventro-dorsal views) and ultrasonography of the abdomen revealed a moderately echogenic mass at the mammary gland with slightly stronger density than the surrounding tissue. A total of 30 tumors were identified by histopathology, 11 benign and 19 malignant. Changes in some indicators in dogs suffering from CMTs and healthy dogs suggested that there were multiple direct or paraneoplastic changes associated with tumors that could be detected/suspected by hematological examination, and ELISA revealed the HER-2 serum concentrations were significantly different between healthy animals and those with malignant tumors. qPCR indicated that tumor markers N-cadherin, Vimentin, HER-2, CEA, CA15-3 and SF were higher in dogs with malignant tumors than healthy dogs, with a low level of E-cadherin in malignant tumors. This study verified that serological tests and molecular biological tests were essential to the early diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of dogs with tumors.

Accurate diagnosis of cancer at an early stage is the key to reduce cancer mortality and improve survival. PET imaging has high sensitivity but low spatial resolution, while CT imaging has good spatial location information. Therefore, the combination of PET and CT imaging can provide complementary advantages to achieve accurate early diagnosis of tumors. However, currently developed PET or CT imaging agents have only a single function. Here, we designed and constructed a self-assembled lipid nanocapsule encapsulated with iodixanol and labeled with self-chelated 64Cu for precise PET/CT imaging of tiny lung tumor. The lipid nanocapsule self-assembled in water using LPPC-Ce6, a conjugate of chlorin e6 (Ce6) and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPPC), to form a bilayer vesicular structure. 64Cu was embedded in the center of the tetrapyrrole ring of Ce6 by natural capture ability for Cu2+ ions. GLT21.T, the aptamer targeting lung cancer, was conjugated to the surface of the lipid nanocapsules. Iodixanol was loaded into the cavity of the lipid nanocapsule (64Cu@LCI-apt). In the nanostructure, the loading of iodixanol was sufficiently high, and the specific activity could be flexibly adjusted according to imaging requirements. The prepared 64Cu@LCI-apt achieves excellent radiolabeling efficiency, stability and effective targeting of lung tumor. In an early orthotopic lung cancer model, 64Cu@LCI-apt demonstrated the capabilities of sensitive PET imaging and enhanced contrast CT imaging to enable efficient high-quality PTE/CT imaging of tiny orthotopic lung tumor with a diameter of 500 μm. 64Cu@LCI-apt has great potential for early, sensitive, and accurate diagnosis of tumors through dual-mode PET/CT imaging.

Fate of Gallium in vivo and its significance in tumour diagnosis and therapy respectively with gallium-67 and cold gallium

Early detection and diagnosis of brain tumors are essential for early intervention and eventually successful treatment plans leading to either a full recovery or an increase in the patient lifespan. However, diagnosis of brain tumors is not an easy task since it requires highly skilled professionals, making this procedure both costly and time-consuming. The diagnosis process relying on MR images gets even harder in the presence of similar objects in terms of their density, size, and shape. No matter how skilled professionals are, their task is still prone to human error. The main aim of this work is to propose a system that can automatically classify and diagnose glioma brain tumors into one of the four tumor types: (1) necrosis, (2) edema, (3) enhancing, and (4) non-enhancing. In this paper, we propose a combined texture discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and statistical features based on the first- and second-order features for the accurate classification and diagnosis of multiclass glioma tumors. Four well-known classifiers, namely, support vector machines (SVM), random forest (RF), multilayer perceptron (MLP), and naïve Bayes (NB), are used for classification. The BraTS 2018 dataset is used for the experiments, and with the combined DWT and statistical features, the RF classifier achieved the highest average accuracy whether for separated modalities or combined modalities. The highest average accuracy of 89.59% and 90.28% for HGG and LGG, respectively, was reported in this paper. It has also been observed that the proposed method outperforms similar existing methods reported in the extant literature.

Piezoelectric cantilevers are widely used in sensing and energy harvesting devices. For bothapplications, a higher induced voltage from a given mechanical excitation is desirable toincrease the sensitivity or energy conversion efficiency of the devices. In this study, weexamined the effect of the length ratio of the nonpiezoelectric layer to the piezoelectriclayer on the induced voltage of the piezoelectric unimorph cantilever due to aconcentrated force applied at the cantilever tip. The cantilever was made of leadzirconate titanate (PZT)–stainless steel (SS) unimorph. The length of the PZT layerwas fixed while that of the SS layer was varied. The induced voltage per unittip displacement was obtained by measuring the induced voltage in the PZTlayer and dividing it by the corresponding tip displacement of the cantilever andthe induced voltage per unit force was obtained by dividing the induced voltageper unit tip displacement by the effective spring constant of the cantilever. Theresults showed that the induced voltage per unit force increased with an increasingSS/PZT length ratio, indicating that under constant force conditions, the optimal inducedvoltage occurs when the SS layer is longer than the PZT layer. In contrast, theinduced voltage per unit tip displacement exhibited a maximum when theSS/PZT length ratio is unity, indicating that under constant tip displacement conditions, theoptimal induced voltage occurs when the PZT layer and the SS layer have the same length.A theoretical analysis based on the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory was carried out tocorrelate the induced voltage of the cantilever to the tip displacement and force. Theexperimental results were consistent with the prediction of the theoretical analysis.

BackgroundExtracellular vesicles (EVs) can mediate cell-to-cell communication and affect various physiological and pathological processes in both parent and recipient cells. Currently, extensive research has focused on the EVs derived from cell cultures and various body fluids. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the EVs derived from tissues. Tissue EVs can reflect the microenvironment of the specific tissue and the cross-talk of communication among different cells, which can provide more accurate and comprehensive information for understanding the development and progression of diseases.MethodsWe review the state-of-the-art technologies involved in the isolation and purification of tissue EVs. Then, the latest research progress of tissue EVs in the mechanism of tumor occurrence and development is presented. And finally, the application of tissue EVs in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of cancer is anticipated.ResultsWe evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various tissue processing and EVs isolation methods, and subsequently analyze the significance of protein characterization in determining the purity of tissue EVs. Furthermore, we focus on outlining the importance of EVs derived from tumor and adipose tissues in tumorigenesis and development, as well as their potential applications in early tumor diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.ConclusionWhen isolating and characterizing tissue EVs, the most appropriate protocol needs to be specified based on the characteristics of different tissues. Tissue EVs are valuable in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of tumors, and the potential risks associated with tissue EVs need to be considered as therapeutic agents.

Introduction. The incidence of oropharyngeal cancer is steadily increasing, mainly due to an increase in the number of cases of HPV (human papillomavirus) infection. This is an important trend from a clinical point of view, since HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer is associated with a better prognosis and treatment results. Despite its visually accessible location, the diagnosis of oropharyngeal cancer can be challenging due to the complexity of its anatomical structure. The active development of minimally invasive transoral microsurgery, combined with fluorescent technologies, demonstrates the effectiveness of early diagnosis of oropharyngeal tumors. Aim. To improve the diagnosis of oropharyngeal tumors, introduction into clinical practice of transoral microsurgical resections with double contrasting. Materials and methods. In the clinic of plastic surgery of the First Moscow Medical University named after I.M. Sechenov, a method for early diagnosis of oropharyngeal cancer was developed. The method consisted in intraoperative sequential double contrasting of the mucous of the oropharynx with indocyanine green and methylene blue, followed by autofluorescent videopharyngoscopy, transoral microsurgical, video-assisted resection based on the use of an operating microscope and rigid end-point optics (endoscope). Eleven surgeries were performed successfully. Results. The postoperative period was smooth and uncomplicated in all patients. According to the data presented, local recurrence was confirmed in 18 % (2 patients out of 11) after special treatment for oropharyngeal cancer using our method. Conclusion. Modern treatment of cancer patients requires not only cure, but also careful monitoring of the disease. The use of transoral video-assisted and microsurgical resection based on double contrasting is an alternative method for early diagnosis of both primary oropharyngeal cancer and its recurrence.

An accurate and early diagnosis of brain tumors based on medical imaging modalities is of great interest because brain tumors are a harmful threat to a person’s health worldwide. Several medical imaging techniques have been used to analyze brain tumors, including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). CT provides information about dense tissues, whereas MRI gives information about soft tissues. However, the fusion of CT and MRI images has little effect on enhancing the accuracy of the diagnosis of brain tumors. Therefore, machine learning methods have been adopted to diagnose brain tumors in recent years. This paper intends to develop a novel scheme to detect and classify brain tumors based on fused CT and MRI images. The proposed approach starts with preprocessing the images to reduce the noise. Then, fusion rules are applied to get the fused image, and a segmentation algorithm is employed to isolate the tumor region from the background to isolate the tumor region. Finally, a machine learning classifier classified the brain images into benign and malignant tumors. Computing statistical measures evaluate the classification potential of the proposed scheme. Experimental outcomes are provided, and the Enhanced Flower Pollination Algorithm (EFPA) system shows that it outperforms other brain tumor classification methods considered for comparison.