Portable wireless ultrasound has been emerging as a new ultrasound device due to its unique advantages including small size, lightweight, wireless connectivity and affordability. Modern portable ultrasound devices can offer high quality sonogram images and even multiple ultrasound modes such as color Doppler, echocardiography, and endovaginal examination. However, none of them can provide elastography function yet due to the limitations in computational performance and data transfer speed of wireless communication. Also phase-based strain estimator (PSE) that is commonly used for conventional elastography cannot be adopted for portable ultrasound, because ultrasound parameters such as data dumping interval are varied significantly in the practice of portable ultrasound. Therefore, this research aims to propose a new elastography method suitable for portable ultrasound, called the robust phase-based strain estimator (RPSE), which is not only robust to the variation of ultrasound parameters but also computationally effective. Performance and suitability of RPSE were compared with other strain estimators including time-delay, displacement-gradient and phase-based strain estimators (TSE, DSE and PSE, respectively). Three types of raw RF data sets were used for validation tests: two numerical phantom data sets modeled by an open ultrasonic simulation code (Field II) and a commercial FEA (Abaqus), and the one experimentally acquired with a portable ultrasound device from a gelatin phantom. To assess image quality of elastograms, signal-to-noise (SNRe) and contrast-to-noise (CNRe) ratios were measured on the elastograms produced by each strain estimator. The computational efficiency was also estimated and compared. Results from the numerical phantom experiment showed that RPSE could achieve highest values of SNRe and CNRe (around 5.22 and 47.62 dB) among all strain estimators tested, and almost 10 times higher computational efficiency than TSE and DSE (around 0.06 vs. 5.76 s per frame for RPSE and TSE, respectively).
Dataset ; Echocardiography ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; Gelatin ; Methods ; Ultrasonics ; Ultrasonography

Thermodynamically immiscible poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) were blended and solution-cast by adding the 3% compatibilizer (tributyl citrate, TBC) of the PCL weight. In the PLA/PCL composition range of 99/1–95/5 wt%, mechanical properties of the PLA/PCL films with TBC were always superior to those of the films without TBC. The tensile strength of 42.9 ± 3.5 MPa and the elongation at break of 10.3 ± 2.7% were observed for the 93/7 PLA/PCL films without TBC, indicating that PCL addition is effective for strength and ductility. However, the tensile strength of 54.1 ± 3.4 MPa and the elongation at break of 8.8 ± 1.8% were found for the 95/5 PLA/PCL with TBC, indicating that the effect of co-addition of PCL and TBC on mechanical properties of the films is more pronounced. No cytotoxicity was observed for the PLA/PCL films regardless of TBC addition.
Cell Proliferation ; Citric Acid ; Tensile Strength

Amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) occurs either in isolation or in association with other dental abnormalities and systemic disorder. A rare syndrome associating AI with nephrocalcinosis was named as Enamel Renal Syndrome (ERS; OMIM #204690). This syndrome is characterized by severe enamel hypoplasia, failed tooth eruption, intra pulpal calcifications, enlarged gingiva, and nephrocalcinosis. Nephrocalcinosis is a condition where calcium salts are deposited in renal tissue, and this may lead to critical kidney complications. This rare syndrome shows pathognomonic oral characteristics that are easily detectable at an early age, which proceeds the onset of renal involvement. Pediatric dentists are the first oral health practitioners whom ERS patients will meet at early age. The role of pediatric dentists is critically important for early diagnosis and referral of patients to both nephrologists for renal assessment and geneticists for identification of causative mutation and diagnosis. Early detection of renal involvement may provide chances to prevent further undesired renal complications.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the clinical characteristics of men with testosterone replacement therapy (TRT)-induced hypogonadism and its effect on assisted reproductive technology (ART) in infertile couples.METHODS: This study examined the records of 20 consecutive male patients diagnosed with azoospermia or severe oligozoospermia (<5×10⁶/mL) who visited a single infertility center from January 2008 to July 2018. All patients were treated at a primary clinic for erectile dysfunction or androgen deficiency symptoms combined with low serum testosterone. All men received a phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor and TRT with testosterone undecanoate (Nebido®) or testosterone enanthate (Jenasteron®). Patients older than 50 years or with a chronic medical disease such as diabetes were excluded.RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 37 years and the mean duration of infertility was 16.3±11.6 months. At the initial presentation, eight patients had azoospermia, nine had cryptozoospermia, and three had severe oligozoospermia. Serum follicle-stimulating hormone levels were below 1.0 mIU/mL in most patients. Three ongoing ART programs with female factor infertility were cancelled due to male spermatogenic dysfunction; two of these men had normal semen parameters in the previous cycle. After withholding TRT, serum hormone levels and sperm concentrations returned to normal range after a median duration of 8 months.CONCLUSION: TRT with high-dose testosterone can cause spermatogenic dysfunction due to suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis, with adverse effects on infertility treatment programs. TRT is therefore contraindicated for infertile couples attempting to conceive, and the patient's desire for fertility must be considered before initiation of TRT in a hypogonadal man.
Azoospermia ; Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterases, Type 5 ; Erectile Dysfunction ; Family Characteristics ; Female ; Fertility ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; Humans ; Hypogonadism ; Infertility ; Infertility, Male ; Male ; Oligospermia ; Reference Values ; Reproductive Techniques, Assisted ; Semen ; Spermatozoa ; Testosterone

Receptor-interacting serine/threonine-protein kinase (RIPK) 3 is a member of the TNF receptor-I signaling complex and mediates necroptosis, an inflammatory cell death. Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an excessive inflammatory disease caused by uncontrolled T cell activation. The current study is aimed to determine whether RIPK3 inhibitor attenuates UC development inhibiting inflammation and necroptosis using experimental colitis mice model. Dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis mice were administered RIPK3 inhibitor (3 mg/ml) 3 times and their tissues were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. RIPK3, mixed lineage kinase domain-like (MLKL), phosphorylated MLKL, IL-17, and CD4 in colitis patient colon tissues were detected using confocal microscopy. Protein levels were measured using immunohistochemistry and ELISA. The differentiation of Th17 cells was evaluated using flow cytometry. The expression of proinflammatory cytokines and necroptosis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from UC patients was decreased markedly by RIPK3 inhibitor treatment. We also observed that the injection of RIPK3 inhibitor improves colitis severity and protects intestinal destruction. RIPK3 inhibitor reduced necroptosis factors and proinflammatory cytokines in the colon and consequently protected colon devastation. The expression of inflammatory mediators in experimental colitis mice splenocytes was decreased significantly by RIPK3 inhibitor treatment. These results suggest that RIPK3 inhibitor ameliorates severity of experimental colitis and reduces inflammation through the inhibition of inflammatory response and necroptosis and support RIPK3-targeting substances for treatment of UC.