The band electrode: Ongoing experience with a novel turp loop to improve hemostasis in 265 patients

Introduction: Intraoperative bleeding, one of the major complications of conventional transurethral resection of the prostate ( TURP), has led to a search for various alternative methods of tissue ablation in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. In 1996, we introduced the newly designed Band Electrode, which combines a high degree of resection efficiency with a better hemostasis. Material and Methods: 265 consecutive patients with prostatism underwent TURP with the Band Electrode. This modified loop electrode does not consist of a thin wire but is rather a flat metal band with a width of 1.2 mm. International prostate symptom score (IPSS), Life Quality Index ( L), peak urine flow and postvoid residual urine were evaluated pre- and postoperatively. Additionally, electrical parameters have been recorded with a specially designed high-frequency generator. Results: Median IPSS decreased from 23 preoperatively to 8 and 9 at 12 (n = 194) and 24 months ( n = 172), respectively (p < 0.001). Life Quality Index ( L) dropped from 4 to 2 and 2, respectively (p < 0.001). Peak urine flow increased from 8.2 ml/s to 18.2 (at postoperative day 3), 17.8 and 17.4 ml/s, respectively (p < 0.001). Median postvoid residual urine decreased from 77 to 15, 22 and 21 ml, respectively (p < 0.001). Resected tissue mass averaged 25 (8 - 102) g, resection time was 36.5 ( 18 - 82) min. Indwelling catheters were removed 32 ( 24 - 72) h postoperatively. None of the patients required blood transfusions or showed signs of a TUR syndrome. Despite a 1.3 times higher power need, the total energy application in vivo was comparable to conventional TURP. Conclusions: This simple exchange of active electrodes leads to a superior hemostasis and thus safety in TURP. Resection speed, tissue ablation and total energy need remain identical. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Simultaneous microsurgical spermatic vein ligation and sclerotherapy - A combined procedure for the treatment of recurrent or persistent varicocele

Objectives: Microsurgical ligation as well as antegrade sclerotherapy have been established in varicocele treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a combination of microsurgery. and sclerotherapy can: provide a safe and effective treatment of varicocele recurrence or persistence. Methods. Nine patients with, recurrent or persistent varicoceles were operated by means of the combination method. Under microscopic control varix veins were ligated selectively preserving: lymphatics and arteries. Ectopic veins as a possible source for varicocele persistence or recurrence were also ligated. Finally, an intraoperative venography with subsequent sclerotherapy was, performed through one of the dissected veins. Results. Despite: difficult anatomical situations after previous surgical interventions, the operations were perform, ed successfully without any complications. Clinical controls showed varicocele disappearance without damage of the testis. No varicocele recurrence or persistence was observed. Conclusions. This method combines the advantages of both methods. Precision of the microsurgical technique is combined with velocity of sclerotherapy. Thus, it may represent an Interesting alternative to conventional operation methods especially in the treatment of recurrent or persistent varicoceles. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel

Quantum Criticality in an Organic Magnet

Exchange interactions between $S=\frac{1}{2}$ sites in piperazinium hexachlorodicuprate produce a frustrated bilayer magnet with a singlet ground state. We have determined the field-temperature phase diagram by high field magnetization and neutron scattering experiments. There are two quantum critical points: $H_{c1}=7.5$ T separates a quantum paramagnet phase from a three dimensional, antiferromagnetically-ordered state while $H_{c2}=37$ T marks the onset of a fully polarized state. The ordered phase, which we describe as a magnon Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), is embedded in a quantum critical regime with short range correlations. A low temperature anomaly in the BEC phase boundary indicates that additional low energy features of the material become important near $H_{c1}$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. Replaced original text with additional conten

An Instance Segmentation Dataset of Yeast Cells in Microstructures

Extracting single-cell information from microscopy data requires accurate instance-wise segmentations. Obtaining pixel-wise segmentations from microscopy imagery remains a challenging task, especially with the added complexity of microstructured environments. This paper presents a novel dataset for segmenting yeast cells in microstructures. We offer pixel-wise instance segmentation labels for both cells and trap microstructures. In total, we release 493 densely annotated microscopy images. To facilitate a unified comparison between novel segmentation algorithms, we propose a standardized evaluation strategy for our dataset. The aim of the dataset and evaluation strategy is to facilitate the development of new cell segmentation approaches. The dataset is publicly available at https://christophreich1996.github.io/yeast_in_microstructures_dataset/ .Comment: IEEE EMBC 2023 (in press), Christoph Reich and Tim Prangemeier - both authors contributed equall

High-sensitivity monitoring of micromechanical vibration using optical whispering gallery mode resonators

The inherent coupling of optical and mechanical modes in high finesse optical microresonators provide a natural, highly sensitive transduction mechanism for micromechanical vibrations. Using homodyne and polarization spectroscopy techniques, we achieve shot-noise limited displacement sensitivities of 10^(-19) m Hz^(-1/2). In an unprecedented manner, this enables the detection and study of a variety of mechanical modes, which are identified as radial breathing, flexural and torsional modes using 3-dimensional finite element modelling. Furthermore, a broadband equivalent displacement noise is measured and found to agree well with models for thermorefractive noise in silica dielectric cavities. Implications for ground-state cooling, displacement sensing and Kerr squeezing are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure

Multiclass Yeast Segmentation in Microstructured Environments with Deep Learning

Cell segmentation is a major bottleneck in extracting quantitative single-cell information from microscopy data. The challenge is exasperated in the setting of microstructured environments. While deep learning approaches have proven useful for general cell segmentation tasks, existing segmentation tools for the yeast-microstructure setting rely on traditional machine learning approaches. Here we present convolutional neural networks trained for multiclass segmenting of individual yeast cells and discerning these from cell-similar microstructures. We give an overview of the datasets recorded for training, validating and testing the networks, as well as a typical use-case. We showcase the method's contribution to segmenting yeast in microstructured environments with a typical synthetic biology application in mind. The models achieve robust segmentation results, outperforming the previous state-of-the-art in both accuracy and speed. The combination of fast and accurate segmentation is not only beneficial for a posteriori data processing, it also makes online monitoring of thousands of trapped cells or closed-loop optimal experimental design feasible from an image processing perspective.Comment: IEEE CIBCB 2020 (accepted