Fabrication and Characterization of Large Numerical Aperture, High-Resolution Optical Fiber Bundles Based on High-Contrast Pairs of Soft Glasses for Fluorescence Imaging

Fabrication and characterization of flexible optical fiber bundles (FBs) with inhouse synthesized high-index and low-index thermally matched glasses are presented. The FBs composed of around 15000 single-core fibers with pixel sizes between 1.1 and 10 μm are fabricated using the stack-and-draw technique from sets of thermally matched zirconiumsilicate ZR3, borosilicate SK222, sodium-silicate K209, and F2 glasses. With high refractive index contrast pair of glasses ZR3/SK222 and K209/F2, FBs with numerical apertures (NAs) of 0.53 and 0.59 are obtained, respectively. Among the studied glass materials, ZR3, SK222, and K209 are in-house synthesized, while F2 is commercially acquired. Seven different FBs with varying pixel sizes and bundle diameters are characterized. Brightfield imaging of a micro-ruler and a Convallaria majalis sample and fluorescence imaging of a dye-stained paper tissue and a cirrhotic mice liver tissue are demonstrated using these FBs, demonstrating their good potential for microendoscopic imaging. Brightfield and fluorescence imaging performance of the studied FBs are compared. For both sets of glass compositions, good imaging performance is observed for FBs, with core diameter and core-to-core distance values larger than 1.6 μm and 2.3 μm, respectively. FBs fabricated with K209/F2 glass pairs revealed better performance in fluorescence imaging due to their higher NA of 0.59

The effects of weekly mupirocin application on infections in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients.

Application of mupirocin to the nares or catheter exit site and frequency of mupirocin administration in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients remain controversial. The objective of our study was to evaluate, using a historical control group, the efficacy on CAPD-related infections of once-weekly application of mupirocin at the catheter exit site. We instructed 18 CAPD patients, who did not initially use prophylactic antibiotic treatment, about once-weekly application of mupirocin ointment to the exit site as part of their exit-site care. We recorded the incidence of catheter-related infections, the causative micro-organisms, and the rate of catheter loss. We observed 17 acute exit-site infections (AESIs: 0.45 episodes/patient-year) before mupirocin treatment and 2 AESIs (0.06 episodes/patient-year) after treatment. The relative rate of AESI reduction was 86%. Before application of mupirocin, 52% of AESIs were attributable to Staphylococcus-aureus; after mupirocin administration, no AESIs were staphylococcal. Peritonitis episodes were also reduced from 21 before mupirocin treatment (0.56 episodes/patient-year), to 9 after mupirocin administration (0.29 episodes/patient-year). The relative rate of peritonitis reduction was 48%. Once-weekly application of mupirocin to the exit site resulted in a reduction in exit-site infections and peritonitis episodes comparable to those obtained with daily application

DNA methylation pattern of TM6SF2 influences NAFLD progression in genotype-dependent manner

International Liver Congress / 54th Annual Meeting of the European-Association-for-the-Study-of-the-Liver (EASL) -- APR 10-14, 2019 -- Vienna, AUSTRIAWOS: 000463481702178Background and aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) arises due to complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Evidence suggests that transmembrane 6 superfamily member 2 (TM6SF2) E167K variant is associated with NAFLD susceptibility and progression. The loss of function mutation in TM6SF2 plays a pivotal role in hepatic lipid accumulation, however, it remains unknown if there is an interplay between genetic and epigenetic mechanisms modifying disease pathogenesis. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether epigenetic marks of TM6SF2 could affect development of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis.European Assoc Study Live

Additional file 5: Figure S2. of DNA methylation profiling identifies novel markers of progression in hepatitis B-related chronic liver disease

Validation of the bisulfite modification and pyrosequencing assays for relevant loci in HDAC4, HOXA2 and PPP1R18 genes. Plots comparing 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 % of methylated DNA with obtained methylation results are shown; only assays with an acceptable performance (r 2 values over 0.95) were used in this study. (TIF 149 kb

Additional file 2: Table S1. of DNA methylation profiling identifies novel markers of progression in hepatitis B-related chronic liver disease

Summary of differentially methylated regions. (DOCX 16 kb

Additional file 7: Table S4. of DNA methylation profiling identifies novel markers of progression in hepatitis B-related chronic liver disease

Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of the non-progressors and progressors in serial biopsies. (DOCX 18 kb