Ocular infestation by a juvenile leech, Myxobdella sinanensis in Japan

[Purpose] The case of ocular infestation by a leech is rare. We reported that Myxobdella sinanensis infests conjunctiva. [Observations] A 5-year-old girl presented with blood clots in the inner corner of the left eye, and a history bloody eye discharge and bloody tears for 5 days. She was prescribed 0.5% levofloxacin ophthalmic drops for conjunctival damage. However, her parent watched a worm moving in her conjunctiva while taking a bath. She presented again the same day, and a worm was found in the left eye of the lower conjunctival fornix and was adsorbed to the inner corner. We removed a worm under eye drop anesthesia, the next day the patient had no symptoms. We captured the worm, and it was identified morphologically and genetically as Myxobdella sinanensis. This was the first case reported of Myxobdella sinanensis be infestation in a human. [Conclusions and Importance] The ecological trait of Myxobdella sinanensis still did not remain clear, so this case report was helpful to find out a life cycle of Myxobdella sinanensis. As the outdoor population continues to increase, the cases of human parasites such as leech are expected to increase. When a patient with bloody eye discharge and bloody tears presents, we should carefully examine the conjunctiva and ocular surfaces, and interview recent history of exposure to stream water

Phased Array with Surface Acoustic Wave (SAWPA) for Screening and Sizing of Surface Defects

Nondestructive inspection of whole structures is important for the safety and reliability. For the inspection of internal defects, ultrasonic testing (UT) with bulk waves has been widely used, whereas such UT cannot inspect surface due to a dead zone. To this end, we proposed a phased array with surface acoustic wave (SAW PA) [1,2] for rapidly inspecting surface defects with a high sensitivity. However, the performance has yet to be fully educed because it was not optimized in terms of the wedge and imaging region. The objective of this study is to improve SAW PA and to demonstrate the wide-range and detailed imaging capabilities for screening and sizing, respectively. The schematic of SAWPA is illustrated in Fig. 1. An array transducer is set on a wedge with a critical angle of Rayleigh wave. Following a delay law, SAWis focused on multiple focal points on the surface, providing an image over the scan area. Note that SAWPA has a capability of a real-time imaging. In this study, the wedge for SAW generation was improved. In the previous study [1], the wedge was made of acrylic resin that is inexpensive and has good workability. It is however relatively attenuative, so that the incident wave was significantly attenuated during the propagation in the wedge. Therefore, it was changed to polystyrene that is less attenuative. The polystyrene has smaller critical angle than acrylic resin, thus also shortening the propagation distance in the wedge. This is useful for both screening and sizing. To show the wide-range imaging capability, a hole specimen (A6063) was imaged with varying the propagation distance of Rayleigh wave. As a result, a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio was obtained even in a far distance of 400 mm (Fig. 2). Subsequently, it was applied to the crack specimen, where the imaging area was set beneath the wedge to attain high resolution and sensitivity, although the region outside the wedge was selected for screening and in Ref. [1]. As a result, the crack was clearly imaged with a high resolution. These results show that the improved SAWPA is useful for both screening and sizing

Human intestinal spirochetosis accompanied by human immunodeficiency virus infection:a case report

We present a middle-aged, heterosexual Japanese man with mixed infections including human intestinal spirochetosis, which led us to the detection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. The patient had syphilis without related physical or neurological findings. An examination for the serum antibody for HIV performed 9 years previously was negative. In a complete medical checkup at the present time, human intestinal spirochetosis and unspecified entamebic cysts were suggested by histological examination of colonic biopsy material and parasitic examination of the intestinal fluid, respectively. Moreover, a serological test for the antibody for HIV was positive. In specimens obtained by colonoscopy, Brachyspira aalborgi was diagnosed by ultrastructural study and the polymerase chain reaction method for bacterial 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid. Although HIV infection remains at low prevalence in Japan, we recommend examination for HIV infection in patients with human intestinal spirochetosis, especially when other co-infections are apparent.</p

21セイキ ノ カンドウミャク インターベンション

Coronary intervention has come to achieve good results with the use of new devices, such as Rotablator (ROTA), new directional coronary atherectomy (DCA), and a special guide wire, even for lesions in which good results were not obtained with plain old balloon angioplasty. In the present study, we evaluated the initial results in patients who underwent ROTA procedures, coronary intervention for chronic total occlusion (CTO), and new DCA procedures in our hospital between January and December 2001. (1) There were 99 patients who underwent ROTA, with an average age of 68±12 years, a lesion length of 15.9±9.9 mm, a reference vessel diameter of 2.7±0.6 mm, and a success rate of 98%. Among these 99 patients, there were 82 patients (83%) with B2 or C type lesion, which is difficult to treat. (2) There were 61 patients with CTO who underwent coronary intervention, with an average age of 63±9 years, an occlusion length of 22.8±13.3 mm, a reference vessel diameter of 2.6±0.7 mm, and a success rate of 82%. (3) There were 5 patients who underwent DCA for ostial lesion of left anterior desending artery and the target lesion was successfully dilated in all these patients. These results indicated that new devices for coronary intervention have made it possible to treat a wider range of lesions, but restenosis still remains to be solved. In Europe and the U.S.A., restenosis is reported to have been drastically reduced by drug eluting stents, which are expected to be introduced in Japan in the future

Fundamental wave amplitude difference imaging for detection and characterization of embedded cracks

International audienceAn ultrasonic technique for imaging nonlinear scatterers, such as partially-closed cracks, buried in a medium has been recently proposed. The method called fundamental wave amplitude difference (FAD) consists of a sequence of acquisitions with different subsets of elements for each line of the image. An image revealing nonlinear scatterers in the medium is reconstructed line by line by subtracting the responses measured with the subsets of elements from the response obtained with all elements transmitting. In order to get a better insight of the capabilities of FAD, two metallic samples having a fatigue or thermal crack are inspected by translating the probe with ultrasonic beam perpendicular (i.e. parallel) to the crack direction which is the most (i.e. less) favorable case. Each time, the responses of the linear scatterers (i.e. conventional image) and nonlinear scat-terers (i.e. FAD image) are compared in term of intensity and spatial repartition. FAD exhibits higher detection specificity of the crack with a better contrast than conventional ultrasound imaging. Moreover, we observe that both methods give complementary results as nonlinear and linear scatterers are mostly not co-localized. In addition, we show experimentally that FAD resolution in elevation and lateral follows the same rule as the theoretical resolution of conventional ultrasonic technique. Finally, we report that FAD gives the possibility to perform parametric studies which let the opportunity to address the physical mechanisms causing the distortion of the signal. FAD is a promising and reliable tool which can be directly implemented on a conventional open scanner ultrasound device for real-time imaging. This might contribute to its fast and wide spread in the industry

Imaging of three-dimensional crack open/closed distribution by nonlinear ultrasonic phased array based on fundamental wave amplitude difference

International audienceWe investigated the imaging capability of fixed-voltage fundamental wave amplitude difference (fixed-voltage FAD), which is one of the nonlinear ultrasonic phased array imaging techniques, for three-dimensional crack open/closed distribution. We fabricated two fatigue crack specimens with different thicknesses, which were selected to create different open/closed distributions in them. As a result of applying fixed-voltage FAD with mechanical scans to the thick and thin specimens, the difference in the crack open/closed distribution was successfully visualized. The results are in good agreement with fracture mechanics. Thus, it was demonstrated that fixed-voltage FAD is useful not only for nondestructive testing for aging infrastructures but also for the progress in fracture mechanics