Imaging of the spleen : what the clinician needs to know

The spleen is considered 'the forgotten organ' among radiologists and clinicians, although it is well visualised on abdominal computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Moreover, the spleen is commonly involved in a wide range of pathologic disorders. These include congenital anomalies, infectious and inflammatory diseases, vascular disorders, benign and malignant tumours, and systemic disorders. In this review, we focus on the key imaging findings of the normal spleen, its variants, as well as relevant congenital and acquired abnormalities. It is of utmost importance to recognise and correctly interpret the variable spectrum of abnormalities that may involve the spleen, in order to avoid unnecessary invasive procedures and to guide adequate treatment

Detection of counterfeit Viagra by Raman microspectroscopy imaging and multivariate analysis

&lt;p&gt;During the past years, pharmaceutical counterfeiting was mainly a problem of developing countries with weak enforcement and inspection programs. However, Europe and North America are more and more confronted with the counterfeiting problem. During this study, 26 counterfeits and imitations of Viagra® tablets and 8 genuine tablets of Viagra® were analysed by Raman microspectroscopy imaging. After unfolding the data, three maps are combined per sample and a first PCA is realised on these data. Then, the first principal components of each sample are assembled. The exploratory and classification analysis are performed on that matrix. PCA was applied as exploratory analysis tool on different spectral ranges to detect counterfeit medicines based on the full spectra (200-1800 cm⁻¹), the presence of lactose (830-880 cm⁻¹) and the spatial distribution of sildenafil (1200-1290 cm⁻¹) inside the tablet. After the exploratory analysis, three different classification algorithms were applied on the full spectra dataset: linear discriminant analysis, k-nearest neighbour and soft independent modelling of class analogy. PCA analysis of the 830-880 cm⁻¹ spectral region discriminated genuine samples while the multivariate analysis of the spectral region between 1200 cm⁻¹ and 1290 cm⁻¹ returns no satisfactory results. A good discrimination of genuine samples was obtained with multivariate analysis of the full spectra region (200-1800 cm⁻¹). Application of the k-NN and SIMCA algorithm returned 100% correct classification during both internal and external validation.&lt;/p&gt;</p

Body of Knowledge for the Earth Observation and Geoinformation Sector - A Basis for Innovative Skills Development

Body of Knowledge, Earth Observation, Geoinformation, Skills definition, Market/User Uptak

comparaison et combinaison de techniques spectroscopiques pour la détection de médicaments contrefaits

During this study, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and Raman spectroscopy were applied to 55 samples of counterfeit and imitations of Viagra® and 39 samples of counterfeit and imitations of Cialis®. The aim of the study was to investigate which of these techniques and associations of them were the best for discriminating genuine from counterfeit and imitation samples. Only the regions between 1800-400 cm-1 and 7000-4000 cm-1 were used for FT-IR and NIR spectroscopy respectively. Partial Least Square analysis has been used to allow the detection of counterfeit and imitation tablets. It is shown that for the Viagra® samples, the best results were provided by a combination of FT-IR and NIR spectroscopy. On the other hand, the best results for the Cialis® samples were provided by the combination of NIR and Raman spectroscopy (1400-1190 cm-1). These techniques permitted a clear discrimination between genuine and counterfeit or imitation samples but also the distinction of clusters among illegal samples. This might be interesting for forensic investigations by authorities