All the measurements were performed in backscattering geometry and demonstrated that nonlinear spectral imaging has the ability to differentiate hypertrophic scar tissue from normal skin based on noninvasive SHG imaging, and TPEF imaging revealed the microstructure and spectral features of collagen and elastin fibres. With the advances in spectral imaging apparatus miniaturization, we have good reason to believe that this approach can become a valuable tool for the in vivo pathophysiology study of human skin hypertrophic scars and for assessing the treatment responses of this disfiguring disease in clinic. It can also be used to track the development of hypertrophic scars and to study wound healing processes in a noninvasive fashion without biopsy, fixation, sectioning and the use of exogenous dyes or stains.

The layered-resolved microstructure and spectroscopy of mouse oral mucosa are obtained using a combination of multiphoton imaging and spectral analysis with different excitation wavelengths. In the keratinizing layer, the keratinocytes microstructure can be characterized and the keratinizing thickness can be measured. The keratin fluorescence signal can be further characterized by emission maxima at 510 nm. In the epithelium, the cellular microstructure can be quantitatively visualized with depth and the epithelium thickness can be determined by multiphoton imaging excited at 730 nm. The study also shows that the epithelial spectra excited at 810 nm, showing a combination of NADH and FAD fluorescence, can be used for the estimation of the metabolic state in epithelium. Interestingly, a second-harmonic generation (SHG) signal from DNA was observed for the first time within the epithelial layer in backscattering geometry and provides the possibility of analyzing the chromatin structure. In the stroma, the combination of multiphoton imaging and spectral analysis excited at 850 nm in tandem can obtain quantitative information regarding the biomorphology and biochemistry of stroma. Specifically, the microstructure of collagen, minor salivary glands and elastic fibers, and the optical property of the stroma can be quantitatively displayed. Overall, these results suggest that the combination of multiphoton imaging and spectral analysis with different excitation wavelengths has the potential to provide important and comprehensive information for early diagnosis of oral cancer.

Our results suggested that MPM has the ability to monitor the wound healing progression of elastic cartilage, based on the visualization of cell growth and proliferation and quantitative characterization of collagen morphology during wound healing.

Abstract. The aim of this study was to observe the clinical efficacy and safety of propranolol in the treatment of hemangioma, and to reveal its possible mechanism. A total of 129 cases of proliferative hemangioma were divided into two groups: i) Treatment (n=97), in which the patients received oral propranolol therapy and ii) observation (n=32), in which the patients underwent clinical observation. The changes in the hemangiomas were noted and compared between the two groups. In addition, the heart rate, blood glucose levels, liver, kidney and thyroid function of the patients in the treatment group were monitored prior to and following treatment; the ELISA method was used for the measurement of the patients' serum concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) at the same time-points. A significant difference in curative effect was found between the treatment and observation group. The concentration of free thyroxine and sensitive thyroid-stimulating hormone and the heart rate of the treatment group exhibited significant changes prior to and following medication, but no statistical significance was found in the changes in blood glucose, liver and kidney function and free triiodothyronine concentration. Furthermore, the serum concentrations of VEGF, bFGF and MMP-9 in the treatment group 8 weeks after medication were decreased significantly compared with those before treatment. In conclusion, oral propranolol has a good curative effect in the treatment of proliferative hemangioma, with few side effects and a high level of safety. The mechanism underlying the effects of propranolol may be associated with the downregulation of VEGF, bFGF and MMP-9 expression. IntroductionHemangioma is one of the most common types of infantile benign tumor and is a congenital dysplasia that appears in the process of embryonic blood vessel formation. The incidence rate of all newborns is 1.1-2.6% (1), and the condition, which usually occurs in the head and neck of infants, is more common in premature infants, particularly females. According to the biological characteristics of the endothelial cells in hemangioma and its clinical manifestations, the natural course of the condition can be divided into the proliferating, involuting and involuted phases (2,3). Hemangiomas at the proliferative stage exhibit rapid growth and may affect the normal development of the body. The development of hemangioma in certain parts of the body may affect the appearance of the patient, have an impact on the normal function of body and even prove life-threatening; therefore, such hemangiomas require aggressive treatment promptly (4,5).At present, with the improvement in living standards, noninvasive methods of treatment tend to be preferred by patients; therefore, drug treatments are commonly selected. Drug therapy includes topical drug therapy and oral medication. In 2008, Léauté-Labrèze et al (6) found that the β-receptor blocker propranolol was able to treat infan...

Background: The number of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is increasing. Medication treatment is of great importance to stabilize blood glucose. Previous studies have reported that neuroticism, self-efficacy, and social support are factors associated with medication adherence, but few studies have fully investigated the mechanisms between these factors and medication adherence in patients with T2D.Purpose: To explore the prevalence of medication adherence and the factors associated with medication adherence in patients with T2D.Methods: A cross-sectional study consisting of 483 patients with T2D was conducted from July to December 2020. Questionnaires containing sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS-8), the neuroticism subscale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale (EPQ-RS), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and the Diabetes Management Self-efficacy Scale (DMSES) were used to collect data. The structural equation model (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.Results: This study included 305 (63.1%) medication adherence and 178 (36.9%) medication non-adherence patients with T2D. Social support directly influenced medication adherence (β = 0.115, P = 0.029) and indirectly influenced medication adherence through self-efficacy (β = 0.044, P = 0.016). Self-efficacy directly influenced medication adherence (β = 0.139, P = 0.023). Neuroticism indirectly affected medication adherence through social support (β = −0.027, P = 0.023) and self-efficacy (β = −0.019, P = 0.014). Moreover, there was a sequential mediating effect of social support and self-efficacy on the relationship between neuroticism and medication adherence (β = −0.010, P = 0.012). After controlling for age and gender, similar results were obtained. The model fit indices showed a good fit.Conclusions: The medication adherence of patients with T2D needs to be improved. Neuroticism, social support, and self-efficacy had direct or indirect effects on medication adherence in patients with T2D. Healthcare providers should comprehensively develop intervention programs based on neuroticism, social support, and self-efficacy to improve medication adherence in patients with T2D.

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Quantitative methods for noninvasive diagnosis of scars are a challenging issue in medicine. This work aims to implement a texture analysis method for quantitatively discriminating abnormal scars from normal scars based on second-harmonic generation (SHG) images. A local difference local binary pattern (LD-LBP) operator combined with a wavelet transform was explored to extract diagnosis features from scar SHG images that were related to the alteration in collagen morphology. Based on the quantitative parameters including the homogeneity, directional and coarse features in SHG images, the scar collagen SHG images were classified into normal or abnormal scars by a support vector machine classifier in a leave-one-out cross-validation procedure. Our experiments and data analyses demonstrated apparent differences between normal and abnormal scars in terms of their morphological structure of collagen. By comparing with gray level co-occurrence matrix, wavelet transform, and combined basic local binary pattern and wavelet transform with respect to the accuracy and receiver operating characteristic analysis, the method proposed herein was demonstrated to achieve higher accuracy and more reliable classification of SHG images. This result indicated that the extracted texture features with the proposed method were effective in the classification of scars. It could provide assistance for physicians in the diagnostic process.

Collagen remodeling and transplanted autologous fibroblast metabolic states in mouse dermis after cellular injection are investigated using multimode nonlinear optical imaging. Our findings show that the technique can image the progress of collagen remodeling in mouse dermis. It can also image transplanted autologous fibroblasts in their collagen matrix environment in the dermis, because of metabolic activity. It was also found that the approach can provide two-photon ratiometric redox fluorometry based on autologous fibroblast fluorescence from reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide coenzyme and oxidized flavoproteins for sensing the autologous fibroblast metabolic state. These results show that the multimode nonlinear optical imaging technique may have potential in a clinical setting as an in vivo diagnostic and monitoring system for cellular therapy in plastic surgery.