41 research outputs found
Hyperspectral microscopy of two-dimensional semiconductors
Here we present an interferometric wide field hyperspectral microscope based on a common-path birefringent interferometer with translating wedges, to measure photoluminescence emission from two-dimensional semiconductors. We show diffraction-limited hyperspectral photoluminescence microscopy from two-dimensional materials across millimeter areas, proving that our hyperspectral microscope is a compact, stable and fast tool to characterize the optical properties and the morphology of 2D materials across ultralarge areas
NT pro BNP plasma level and atrial volume are linked to the severity of liver cirrhosis.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Plasma levels of NT-pro-BNP, a natriuretic peptide precursor, are raised in the presence of fluid retention of cardiac origin and can be used as markers of cardiac dysfunction. Recent studies showed high levels of NT pro BNP in patients with cirrhosis. We assessed NT pro-BNP and other parameters of cardiac dysfunction in patients with cirrhosis, with or without ascites, in order to determine whether the behaviour of NT pro BNP is linked to the stage of liver disease or to secondary cardiac dysfunction. METHODS: Fifty eight consecutive hospitalized patients mostly with viral or NAFLD-related cirrhosis were studied. All underwent abdominal ultrasound and upper GI endoscopy. Cardiac morpho-functional changes were evaluated by echocardiography and NT-pro-BNP plasma levels determined upon admission. Twenty-eight hypertensive patients, without evidence of liver disease served as controls. RESULTS: Fifty eight cirrhotic patients (72% men) with a median age of 62 years (11% with mild arterial hypertension and 31% with type 2 diabetes) had a normal renal function (mean creatinine 0.9 mg/dl, range 0.7-1.06). As compared to controls, cirrhotic patients had higher NT pro-BNP plasma levels (365.2±365.2 vs 70.8±70.6 pg/ml; p<0.001). Left atrial volume (LAV) (61.8±26.3 vs 43.5±14.1 ml; p = 0.001), and left ventricular ejection fraction (62.7±6.9 vs. 65.5±4%,; p = 0.05) were also altered in cirrhotic patients that in controls. Patients with F2-F3 oesophageal varices as compared to F0/F1, showed higher e' velocity (0.91±0.23 vs 0.66±0.19 m/s, p<0.001), and accordingly a higher E/A ratio (1.21±0.46 vs 0.89±0.33 m/s., p = 0.006). CONCLUSION: NT-pro-BNP plasma levels are increased proportionally to the stage of chronic liver disease. Advanced cirrhosis and high NT-pro-BNP levels are significantly associated to increased LAV and to signs of cardiac diastolic dysfunction. NT pro-BNP levels could hence be an useful prognostic indicators of early decompensation of cirrhosis
Strong Coupling of Coherent Phonons to Excitons in Semiconducting Monolayer MoTe
The coupling of the electron system to lattice vibrations and their
time-dependent control and detection provides unique insight into the
non-equilibrium physics of semiconductors. Here, we investigate the ultrafast
transient response of semiconducting monolayer 2-MoTe encapsulated with
BN using broadband optical pump-probe microscopy. The sub-40-fs pump pulse
triggers extremely intense and long-lived coherent oscillations in the spectral
region of the A' and B' exciton resonances, up to 20% of the maximum
transient signal, due to the displacive excitation of the out-of-plane
phonon. Ab-initio calculations reveal a dramatic rearrangement of the optical
absorption of monolayer MoTe induced by an out-of-plane stretching and
compression of the crystal lattice, consistent with an -type
oscillation. Our results highlight the extreme sensitivity of the optical
properties of monolayer TMDs to small structural modifications and their
manipulation with light.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, supporting informatio
Nonlinear interactions of dipolar excitons and polaritons in MoS2 bilayers
Nonlinear interactions between excitons strongly coupled to light are key for
accessing quantum many-body phenomena in polariton systems. Atomically-thin
two-dimensional semiconductors provide an attractive platform for strong
light-matter coupling owing to many controllable excitonic degrees of freedom.
Among these, the recently emerged exciton hybridization opens access to
unexplored excitonic species, with a promise of enhanced interactions. Here, we
employ hybridized interlayer excitons (hIX) in bilayer MoS2 to achieve highly
nonlinear excitonic and polaritonic effects. Such interlayer excitons possess
an out-of-plane electric dipole as well as an unusually large oscillator
strength allowing observation of dipolar polaritons(dipolaritons) in bilayers
in optical microcavities. Compared to excitons and polaritons in MoS2
monolayers, both hIX and dipolaritons exhibit about 8 times higher
nonlinearity, which is further strongly enhanced when hIX and intralayer
excitons, sharing the same valence band, are excited simultaneously. This gives
rise to a highly nonlinear regime which we describe theoretically by
introducing a concept of hole crowding. The presented insight into many-body
interactions provides new tools for accessing few-polariton quantum
correlations
Extrahepatic spread of hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major health problem. The treatment of HCC depends on the tumour stage and on the severity of underlying cirrhosis, however, a majority of HCC patients have advanced disease at presentation. In recent years extra-hepatic spread (ES) of HCC seems to have been observed more frequently than in the past even if few data exist in literature on prevalence, clinical presentation and prognosis of patients with HCC ES. Aim of this brief review is underline the main concerns, pitfalls and warnings in practicing with these patients. ES of HCC are not rare, and the probability of finding ES is higher in patients with advanced intra-hepatic HCC. The more frequent ES sites are lung lymph nodes and bones, but also the head and neck district can be affected. The prognosis of HCC patients with ES is poor and sorafenib seems to be the only therapeutic option
Causes of and prevention strategies for hepatocellular carcinoma.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a challenging malignancy of global importance. It is associated with a high rate of mortality and its prevalence in the United States and in Western Europe is increasing. Cirrhosis is the strongest and the most common known risk factor for HCC, usually due to hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections. However, different lines of evidence identify in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) a possible relevant risk factor for occurrence of HCC. Given the continuing increase in the prevalence of obesity and diabetes, the incidence of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-related HCC may also be expected to increase, and a potential role of behavior treatment and/or insulin-sensitizing drugs can be envisaged. Vaccination against HBV is the most efficient primary prevention measure currently available to reduce the HCC incidence and mortality in high-incidence areas, while data on the role of interferon (IFN) and nucleos(t)ide analogues (NUC) are still controversial. The pooling of data from the literature suggests a slight preventive effect of antiviral therapy on HCC development in patients with HCV-related cirrhosis, but the preventive effect is limited to sustained virological responders
Raw dataset for: High-throughput multimodal wide-field Fourier-transform Raman microscope
This is the Raw spectral dataset of the data published in 10.1364/OPTICA.488860
Data are arranged as follows:
wavenumber [Nx1]
Hyperspectrum_cube [Nx2, A, B]: hyperspectral datacube, where: Hyperspectrum_cube (1:N, :, :) is the real part; Hyperspectrum_cube (N+1:2N, :, :) is the imaginary part
maximum [1x1]
minimum [1x1].
N: number of spectral bands
A and B: size of the spatial coordinates
Spectral amplitudes are obtained by: Hyperspectrum_cube=double(Hyperspectrum_cube)./(2.^16-1).*maximum+minimu
Natural history of untreatable hepatocellular carcinoma: A retrospective cohort study
Abstract
AIM: To investigate the clinical course of untreatable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) identified at any stage and to identify factors associated with mortality.
METHODS: From January 1999 to December 2010,
320 out of 825 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of HCC and not appropriate for curative or palliative treatments
were followed and managed with supportive
therapy. Cirrhosis was diagnosed by histological or clinical features and liver function was evaluated according
to Child-Pugh score. The diagnosis of HCC was performed by Ultra-Sound guided biopsy or by multiphasic contrast-enhanced computed tomography or gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. Data were collected for each patient including all clinical, laboratory and imaging variables necessary for the outcome prediction staging systems considered. HCC staging was performed according Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer
(BCLC) and Cancer of the Liver Italian Program scores. Follow-up time was defined as the number of months from the diagnosis of HCC to death. Prognostic baseline
variables were analyzed by multivariate Cox analysis to identify the independent predictors of survival.
RESULTS: Seventy-five per cent of patients had hepatitis C. Ascites was present in 169 patients (53%), while hepatic encephalopathy was present in 49 patients (15%). The Child-Pugh score was class A in 105
patients (33%), class B in 142 patients (44%), and class C in 73 patients (23%). One hundred patients
(31%) had macroscopic vascular invasion and/or extrahepatic
spread of the tumor. A single lesion > 10 cm
was observed in 34 patients (11%), while multinodular HCC was present in 189 patients (59%). Thirty nine
patients (12%) were BCLC early (A) stage, 55 (17%) were BCLC intermediate (B) stage, 124 (39%) were BCLC advanced (C) stage, and 102 (32%) were endstage BCLC (D). At the time of this analysis (July 2011),
28 (9%) patients were still alive. Six (2%) patients who
were lost during follow-up were censored at the last
visit. The overall median survival was 6.8 mo, and the
1-year survival was 32%. The 1-year survival according
to BCLC classes was 100%, 79%, 12% and 0%,
for BCLC A, B, C and D, respectively. There was a significant
difference in survival between each BCLC class.
The median survival of patients of BCLC stages A, B, C
and D was 33, 17.4, 6.9, and 1.8 mo, respectively (P
< 0.05 for comparison between stages). The median
survival of Child-Pugh A, B and C classes were 9.8 mo (range 6.4-13), 6.1 (range 4.9-7.3), and 3.7 (range
1.5-6), respectively (P < 0.05 for comparison between
stages). By univariate analysis, the variables significantly
associated to an increased liklihood of mortality
were Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance
status (PS), presence of ascites, low level of albumin,
elevated level of bilirubin, international normalized ratio
(INR) and Log-[(α fetoprotein (AFP)]. At multivariate
analysis, mortality was independently predicted by bad
PS (P < 0.0001), high INR values (P = 0.0001) and elevated
Log-(AFP) levels (P = 0.009).
CONCLUSION: This study confirms the heterogeneous
behavior of untreated HCC. BCLC staging remains an
important prognostic guide and may be important in
decision-making for palliative treatment