Clinical usefulness of automated cellular analysis of synovial fluids: a paradigmatic case report for diagnosing peri-prosthetic infections

We describe here the case of an 18 years old male patient who underwent osteosynthesis surgery with a plate and screws for multi-fragment fracture of his right femur, in December 2000. The patient developed a series of complications up to May 2017, when he was readmitted with severe functional impairment and inability to walk without crutches. Physical examination revealed erythema, swelling at surgical site and leakage of pus from sinus-tract. An arthrocentesis was hence performed, followed by white blood cell count and differential in synovial fluid with Sysmex XN 2000 body fluid mode. The final leukocyte count was 38 7109/L, with 95% polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN), thus compatible with peri-prosthetic infection. The patient underwent additional surgery to remove the knee replacement, accurate debridement and antibiotic impregnated static cement spacer implantation. Three months after surgery, the patient was readmitted for removing the spacer, replaced by a new static device. In May 2018, surgical debridement and removal of the spacer was scheduled with resection arthroplasty. In November 2018 the patient presented again a sinus tract, and underwent another arthrocentesis for physical and microbiological examination of synovial fluid. The leukocyte count in the synovial fluid was again performed with Sysmex XN 2000 body fluid mode, and revealed the presence of 44.5 7109/L cells, with 90% PMN. The synovial fluid was positive for Van-A Enterococcus faecalis, so that right hip disarticulation was urgently planned. In conclusions, this case provides clear evidence that automated leukocyte count and differential in synovial fluid shall now be considered an unavoidable part of the diagnostic approach to patients with suspected peri-prosthetic infections

Wavefront-division lateral shearing autocorrelator for ultrafast laser microscopy

Nonlinear optical microscopy is a new and rapidly growing technique within which ultrafast laser technology finds a wide range of applications. Pulse widening, due to the microscope optics, is an issue of major concern for nonlinear excitation efficiency. We herewith describe a novel, simple and inexpensive autocorrelation technique to characterize the laser temporal behavior at the microscope focal plane. The method is based on a wavefront-division lateral shearing interferometer which is inserted into the microscope optical path like an ordinary filter, while a spatially uniform fluorescent specimen is observed. The two-photon excited fluorescent image provides the second-order autocorrelation curve

Autocorrelator for Multiphoton Microscopy

No abstract available

Autocorrelator designs for nonlinear optical microscopy

Nonlinear optical microscopy is a relatively new and rapidly growing field of optical engineering, where Ti:sapphire ultrafast laser sources and technologies are finding a wide application. Diagnostic techniques addressed to this kind of application have been widely developed in the last few years. Research efforts have been focused on the evaluation and eventual correction of laser pulse duration widening due to group velocity dispersion of microscope optics, and devices have been specially designed to perform second-order autocorrelation measurements at the objective focal plane. In the present work, innovative, simple setups and procedures are reported that make the best use of all the facilities and characteristics of the microscope itself, so that only a few optical components are needed to temporal characterize the laser pulse at the specimen plane

Laser spectral characterization in multiphoton microscopy

Spectral and temporal characterization is a fundamental task when a tunable Ti:sapphire ultrafast laser system is operated for multiphoton microscopy applications. In the present paper simple procedures are reported that perform laser-peak-emission wavelength and bandwidth measurements without the need of any further instrumentation but a simple and inexpensive diffraction grating, by taking advantage of the confocal microscope imaging capabilities

Optical profilometer with a standalone scanning sensor head

No abstract available

Confocal Microscopy for the Testing of Integrated Optical Devices

No abstract available

Validation of an immunoturbidimetric assay for assessment of C reactive protein in synovial fluid

Validation of an immunoturbidimetric assay for assessment of C reactive protein in synovial flui