Oral versus topical propranolol for management of superficial infantile hemangiomas: a comparative study

Background/purpose: Oral propranolol has been used successfully for the treatment of infantile hemangiomas (IHs). However, its safety is questioned. Topical therapy with 1% propranolol ointment has been reported to be safeand effective. The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness and safety of oral versus topical propranolol (1% ointment) as a nonselective b-blocker in the management of cutaneous IH.Patients and methods: Forty-eight patients with IH were randomly divided into two equal groups: group A (n= 24) was treated with oral propranolol and group B (n= 24) was treated with propranolol ointment 1%. The patients were followed up for 3 months after treatment was stopped.Results: There was a significant statistical difference between the two groups as regards the effectiveness of the drug (P = 0.041). In the oral group, 50% (n= 12) showed an excellent response, 33.33% (n= 8) showed good response, and 16.67% (n =4) showed a fair response, whereas in the topical group 16.67% (n= 4) showed an excellent response, 45.83% (n= 11) showed good response, and 37.5% (n= 9) showed a fair response. There was no significant adverse event in any group during the follow-up period.Conclusion: Oral propranolol is an effective, safe, and fastacting drug for treating IH and can be monitored on an outpatient basis. Topical propranolol is an easily prepared drug and seems to be an alternative therapeutic option for superficial cutaneous hemangioma. However, the optimal dosing and duration of treatment are still to be defined. Keywords: infantile hemangiomas, propranolol, propranolol ointment, topical propranolo

A protocol for primary isolation and culture of adipose-derived stem cells and their phenotypic profile

Background: Adipose tissue (AT) is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), however, there is no standardized protocol for stem cell isolation and culture. This leads to inconsistency of the results and limits the comparison of the data from different laboratories. Our aim was to provide an applied protocol for ASCS isolation and expansion, study the cell behavior and define their cellular surface markers. ASCs were cultured from both resected adipose tissue (RAT) obtained following abdominoplasty or breast reduction and lipoaspirates (LPA) following laser-free liposuction. Method: the protocol entailed coculturing of stromal vascular fraction (SVF) with RAT as raw pieces using DMEM medium with varying glucose concentration. The coculture protocol aimed to mimic the normal physiological conditions required for cell growth. ASCs were immunophenotyped to define their MSCs surface markers by flowcytometry. Results: ASCs were isolated from coculturing RAT with SVF with fibroblast-like adherent cells morphology. The ASCs yield isolated from LPA was significantly greater than from RAT on day 14 and 28 (p = 0.002, <0.001, respectively). Significant increase in ASCs proliferation rate was detected when ASCs were cultured under high glucose (4.5 g/L) compared to low glucose (1 g/ L) condition on day 7 and 14 (p = 0.04, 0.015, respectively). ASCs isolated from both protocols were positive for CD34, CD49d, CD73, CD90 and CD105 and negative for CD3, CD14, CD19, CD45 and HLA-DR. Conclusion: We concluded that the cells harvested by our protocol were ASCs. Hence, our method can be an efficient isolation tool to obtain primary ASCs under culture conditions mimicking normal physiological status. This will help in providing ASCs which can be similar to cells in human tissue for further study

From imaging to simulation: a framework applied to simulate the blood flow in the carotids

In this work we present a methodology to extract information from medical imaging and use it for hemodynamical simulation in arteries. Based on in-vivo magnetic resonance images (MRI), the velocity of the blood flow has been measured at different positions and times. Also, the anatomy of the vessel has been converted into a volume mesh suitable for numerical modeling. This data has been used to solve computationally the dynamics of the fluid inside the artery in healthy and pathologic cases. As an application, we have developed a computational model within the carotids. The next step in the pipeline will be to extend the simulation to fluidstructure interaction (FSI) to find the parameters in an atherosclerotic plaque that could lead to rupture.Peer Reviewe

From imaging to simulation: a framework applied to simulate the blood flow in the carotids

In this work we present a methodology to extract information from medical imaging and use it for hemodynamical simulation in arteries. Based on in-vivo magnetic resonance images (MRI), the velocity of the blood flow has been measured at different positions and times. Also, the anatomy of the vessel has been converted into a volume mesh suitable for numerical modeling. This data has been used to solve computationally the dynamics of the fluid inside the artery in healthy and pathologic cases. As an application, we have developed a computational model within the carotids. The next step in the pipeline will be to extend the simulation to fluidstructure interaction (FSI) to find the parameters in an atherosclerotic plaque that could lead to rupture.Peer Reviewe

Borel-Cantelli sequences

A sequence $\{x_{n}\}_1^\infty$ in $[0,1)$ is called Borel-Cantelli (BC) if for all non-increasing sequences of positive real numbers $\{a_n\}$ with $\underset{i=1}{\overset{\infty}{\sum}}a_i=\infty$ the set $$\underset{k=1}{\overset{\infty}{\cap}} \underset{n=k}{\overset{\infty}{\cup}} B(x_n, a_n))=\{x\in[0,1)\mid |x_n-x|<a_n \text{for} \infty \text{many}n\geq1\}$$ has full Lebesgue measure. (To put it informally, BC sequences are sequences for which a natural converse to the Borel-Cantelli Theorem holds). The notion of BC sequences is motivated by the Monotone Shrinking Target Property for dynamical systems, but our approach is from a geometric rather than dynamical perspective. A sufficient condition, a necessary condition and a necessary and sufficient condition for a sequence to be BC are established. A number of examples of BC and not BC sequences are presented. The property of a sequence to be BC is a delicate diophantine property. For example, the orbits of a pseudo-Anosoff IET (interval exchange transformation) are BC while the orbits of a "generic" IET are not. The notion of BC sequences is extended to more general spaces.Comment: 20 pages. Some proofs clarifie

Capability of GLAS/ICESat data to estimate forest canopy height and volume in mountainous forests of Iran

International audienceThe importance of measuring biophysical properties of forest for ecosystem health monitoring and forest management encourages researchers to find precise, yet low cost methods especially in mountainous and large area. In the present study Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on board ICESat was used to estimate three biophysical characteristics of forests located in north of Iran: 1) maximum canopy height (Hmax), 2) Lorey's height (HLorey), and 3) Forest volume (V). A large number of Multiple Linear Regressions (MLR) and also Random Forest (RF) regressions were developed using different set of variables: waveform metrics, Principal Components (PCs) produced from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Wavelet Coefficients (WCs) generated from wavelet transformation. To validate and compare different models, statistical criteria were calculated based on a five-fold cross validation. The best model concerning the maximum canopy height was an MLR with an RMSE of 5.0 m which combined two metrics extracted from waveforms (waveform extent "Wext" and height at 50% of waveform energy "H50"), and one from the Digital Elevation Model (Terrain Index: TI). The mean absolute error (MAPE) of maximum canopy height estimates is about 16.4%. For Lorey's height, a simple MLR model including two metrics (Wext and TI) represents the highest performance (RMSE=5.1 m, MAPE=24.0%). Totally, MLR models showed better performance rather than RF models, and accuracy of height estimations using waveform metrics was greater than those based on PCs or WCs. Concerning forest volume, employing regression models to estimate volume directly from GLAS data led to a better result (RMSE=128.8 m3/ha) rather than volume-HLorey relationship (RMSE=167.8 m3/ha)