The Effect of Four-Channel Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation on Swallowing Kinematics and Pressures: A Pilot Study

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the sequential four-channel neuromuscular electrical stimulation system. Design As a prospective case-control study, ten healthy subjects and ten patients with dysphagia were prospectively enrolled. Swallowing with and without sequential four-channel neuromuscular electrical stimulation (suprahyoid, infrahyoid muscles) was evaluated via videofluoroscopic swallowing study and high-resolution manometry. Results Results showed that the sequential four-channel neuromuscular electrical stimulation significantly improved the videofluoroscopic dysphagia scale during thick-fluid swallowing in patients with dysphagia. Furthermore, the kinematic analysis of videofluoroscopic swallowing study showed a tendency that neuromuscular electrical stimulation reduced duration of hyoid bone movement during thin- or thick-fluid swallowing. The high-resolution manometry parameters-maximal pressure of velopharynx, tongue base, cricopharyngeal pressure, minimal upper esophageal sphincter pressure, area of velopharynx, upper esophageal sphincter activity time, and duration of nadir upper esophageal sphincter-during thin-fluid swallowing were significantly improve in both groups compared with the high-resolution manometry parameters without neuromuscular electrical stimulation. Conclusion The sequential four-channel neuromuscular electrical stimulation may help improve the parameters of videofluoroscopic swallowing study, kinematic analysis of the hyoid bone movement, and high-resolution manometry during swallowing. Further investigations are needed to better examine the effects of neuromuscular electrical stimulation in patients with dysphagia.N

A study on longitudinal relationship between ultrafine dust and the prevalence of depression

Abstract Background Recently, the fine dust problem caused by rapid industrialization and science and technological development has emerged as a severe social issue worldwide. This also increases the interest in its effect on human life. In particular, there is a growing concern about the harm of fine dust in Korea. Methods This study is based on the PM 2.5 data from 2017 to 2021 provided by Air Korea to estimate changes in ultrafine dust. In addition, the data from the Community Health Survey provided by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) from 2017 to 2021 were used to examine the effect between the change in ultra-fine dust and the prevalence of depression. A total of 229 local governments were included in the analysis. The Latent Growth Modeling was carried out to estimate the change in ultra-fine dust and the prevalence of depressions and verify the relationship between ultra-fine dust and the prevalence of depression. Results The analysis result revealed that the ultra-fine dust concentration continued to decrease from 2017 to 2021. However, the depression prevalence increased from an average of 2.60% in 2017 to an average of 3.12% in 2021, suggesting the need for adequate and sufficient welfare policies for depression treatment. As a result of estimating the initial value and change rate of ultra-fine dust and depression prevalence, the higher the initial value of ultra-fine dust, the greater the decrease in ultra-fine dust. In terms of depression, the lower the initial value of the prevalence of depression, the larger the increase in depression prevalence. Conclusions This study is significant in that it revealed the strong association of the longitudinal relationship between ultra-fine dust and depression, one of the biggest issues in Korea, by utilizing large-scale longitudinal data

Deep learning-based label-free hematology analysis framework using optical diffraction tomography

Hematology analysis, a common clinical test for screening various diseases, has conventionally required a chemical staining process that is time-consuming and labor-intensive. To reduce the costs of chemical staining, label-free imaging can be utilized in hematology analysis. In this work, we exploit optical diffraction tomography and the fully convolutional one-stage object detector or FCOS, a deep learning architecture for object detection, to develop a label-free hematology analysis framework. Detected cells are classified into four groups: red blood cell, abnormal red blood cell, platelet, and white blood cell. In the results, the trained object detection model showed superior detection performance for blood cells in refractive index tomograms (0.977 mAP) and also showed high accuracy in the four-class classification of blood cells (0.9708 weighted F1 score, 0.9712 total accuracy). For further verification, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) were compared with values obtained from reference hematology equipment, with our results showing reasonable correlation in both MCV (0.905) and MCH (0.889). This study provides a successful demonstration of the proposed framework in detecting and classifying blood cells using optical diffraction tomography for label free hematology analysis

Effect of Concentrated Fibroblast-Conditioned Media on In Vitro Maintenance of Rat Primary Hepatocyte.

The effects of concentrated fibroblast-conditioned media were tested to determine whether hepatocyte function can be maintained without direct contact between hepatocytes and fibroblasts. Primary rat hepatocytes cultured with a concentrated conditioned media of NIH-3T3 J2 cell line (final concentration of 55 mg/ml) showed significantly improved survival and functions (albumin and urea) compared to those of control groups. They also showed higher expression levels of mRNA, albumin and tyrosine aminotransferase compared to hepatocyte monoculture. The results suggest that culture with concentrated fibroblast-conditioned media could be an easy method for in vitro maintenance of primary hepatocytes. They also could be contribute to understand and analyze co-culture condition of hepatocyte with stroma cells

Brain hypothyroidism silences the immune response of microglia in Alzheimers disease animal model.

Thyroid hormone (TH) imbalance is linked to the pathophysiology of reversible dementia and Alzheimers disease (AD). It is unclear whether tissue hypothyroidism occurs in the AD brain and how it affects on AD pathology. We find that decreased iodothyronine deiodinase 2 is correlated with hippocampal hypothyroidism in early AD model mice before TH alterations in the blood. TH deficiency leads to spontaneous activation of microglia in wild-type mice under nonstimulated conditions, resulting in lowered innate immune responses of microglia in response to inflammatory stimuli or amyloid-β. In AD model mice, TH deficiency aggravates AD pathology by reducing the disease-associated microglia population and microglial phagocytosis. We find that TH deficiency reduces microglial ecto-5-nucleotidase (CD73) and inhibition of CD73 leads to impaired innate immune responses in microglia. Our findings reveal that TH shapes microglial responses to inflammatory stimuli including amyloid-β, and brain hypothyroidism in early AD model mice aggravates AD pathology by microglial dysfunction

Concentration dependent effects of F-CM on morphology and functions of hepatocytes.

<p>Hepatocytes monoculture and monocultures with F-CMs (5.5, 27.5 and 55 mg/ml) were culture for 9 d. (A) Morphologies of one monoculture and three different concentrations of F-CM added samples on day 9 of culture. Scale bars: 200 μm. (B) Albumin secretion and (C) urea synthesis on the same day were measured using ELISA and colorimetric assay, respectively. The results were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s <i>post hoc</i> test. Bars: ± 1 SD, <i>n</i> > 4. Bars labeled with different letters (a,b,c and d) are significantly different (Tukey’s test, p<0.01)</p

Effect of F-CM on maintaining hepatocyte morphology.

<p>Hepatocyte monoculture (left), co-culture with NIH-3T3 J2 (middle) and monoculture with F-CM (55 mg/ml, right) were observed under phase contrast microscope daily for 7 d. Cells with distinct nuclei and bright boundaries are heathy hepatocytes. Scale bars: 200 μm</p

Increased Incidence and Associated Risk Factors of Aspergillosis in Patients with Bronchiectasis

There are insufficient data regarding the relationship between non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis and incident aspergillosis. We performed a population-based, matched cohort study using data from the Korean National Health Insurance database between 2003 and 2013. The incidence of aspergillosis was 50/100,000 person-years in the bronchiectasis cohort and 11/100,000 person-years in the matched cohort (subdistribution hazard ratio, 4.53; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.25–6.32). Among the bronchiectasis cohort, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (adjusted HR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.07–3.57), previous pulmonary tuberculosis (adjusted HR, 3.67; 95% CI, 2.03–6.64), and non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (adjusted HR, 11.25; 95% CI, 1.49–85.18) increased the risk of incident aspergillosis. The incidence of aspergillosis in patients with bronchiectasis was approximately 4.5-fold that in those without bronchiectasis. Comorbid pulmonary diseases—chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, previous pulmonary tuberculosis, and non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease—significantly increased the risk of aspergillosis in patients with bronchiectasis. Our study indicates that close monitoring is warranted for aspergillosis in patients with bronchiectasis

Effects of F-CM on the RNA levels of hepatocytes.

<p>(A) PCR for identification of mRNA related to actin, albumin and TAT in hepatocyte; isolated hepatocyte on day 0, J2; NIH-3T3 J2 fibroblast, only-H; hepatocyte monoculture on day 7, Co; Hepatocyte co-culture with NIH-3T3 J2 on day 7, and (+) FCM; hepatocyte monoculture with F-CM (55 mg/ml) on day 7. (B) qPCR for albumin and TAT. the data was analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s <i>post hoc</i> test. Bars: ± 1 SD, n = 3. Bars labeled with different letters (a,b, and c) are significantly different (Tukey’s test, P<0.01)</p

Size exclusion chromatography results of cultured F-CM and non-cultured F-CM.

<p>Qualitative composition of concentrated F-CM (red line) and concentrated medium (unconditioned, blue line) were both analyzed using size exclusion chromatography. Contents > 50 kDa were removed before analysis to prevent clogging of columns. Black arrows: reference sizes.</p