No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

In rural Bangladesh people drink water from an estimated 10-11 million tube wells, many with arsenic concentrations well above the national standard of 50µg/L. Characteristic skin lesions and more serious health effects are probable. The research reported here was designed to determine the relation between arsenic concentration and skin lesions on hands and feet controlling for education, use of tube well water, protein consumption and body mass index (BMI). The investigation included a well survey, a prevalence survey and a nested case-referent analysis. Studies were conducted in two villages (population 11670) in northern Bangladesh. In the well survey 1509 wells in use were identified and measurements of arsenic concentration made in 1422 (94%). Three estimates were made for each well, which yielded correlation among repeats = 0.93. The overall median was 47mg/L and the highest recorded 1760 mg/L. Paramedics examined soles and palms of 11087 individuals for skin lesions and identified 168 cases (1.5%). In the third phase, cases (over 16 years) were matched by age, gender and village to referents (target of 3) without skin lesions. Cases and referents were interviewed about protein in diet, use of well water, education and residential history. Conditional logistic regression was used to assess the effects of arsenic concentration, controlling for confounders. Subjects with lesions had a higher median concentration (250µg/L) than those without (47µg/L). Prevalence increased with both age and arsenic concentration, reaching 26.7% in those over 50 years of age and >500 µg/L. Of the 160 cases (≥16 years) 137 were interviewed, 127 with arsenic concentration measured in well water, together with their 504 referents. Cases were somewhat more likely to have lived in the villages throughout their lives and less likely to report using tube well water for cooking. The final model confirmed the high risk of lesions associated with arsenic concentrations. Using ≤50µg/L for comparison, an odds ratio of 15.2 (95%CI 7.2-32.2) was observed for those using tube wells with concentrations >500 µg/L, adjusting for use of tube well water in cooking and lifetime residence in the villages. The results from this research provide continuing support for the use of 50µg/L as a useful national standard. While the enforcement of this standard has immediate value, it cannot be considered final without comparable information on more serious health risks.

No description available.

It is common for pigs to engage in physical aggression when mixed into new social groups, in order to establish dominance relationships. Phenotyping aggression is time consuming, however skin lesions resulting from physical aggression are quick to record, are genetically correlated with aggressive behavioural traits, and have low to moderate heritability (0.19 to 0.43). Reducing aggression via selection on skin lesion traits would provide a socially acceptable, long-term solution to the problem. Barriers to implementing selection against skin lesions lie in the lack of understanding regarding the underlying genetic basis of aggression, and its relationship with other behaviour and production traits. This thesis has focused on dissecting the phenotypic and genetic relationship between skin lesions recorded 24 hours after mixing (SL24h), and either 3 or 5 weeks later (SL3wk/SL5wk, respectively), with aggression performed at mixing, and several production traits. Chapter 2 provided evidence of a potential trade-off between involvement in aggression upon first mixing, and receipt of aggressive attacks several weeks after mixing. In particular, animals that avoid aggression at mixing had the highest fresh skin lesion numbers at 3 weeks. This suggests that reciprocal fighting at mixing may be beneficial for long-term group social stability. It also suggests that it may be possible to phenotype the least aggressive individuals in a group using SL3wk. In Chapter 3, I quantified the magnitude of reduction in complex aggressive behavioural traits when using SL24h or SL3wk as selection criteria, to identify the optimum skin lesion trait for selection purposes. The results of Chapter 3 provided evidence that selection against anterior SL24h would result in the greatest genetic and phenotypic reduction in aggressive behaviour recorded at mixing. Although there is evidence that selection for increased SL3wk would reduce aggression at mixing, current understanding of aggressive behaviour under stable group conditions is insufficient to recommend using this trait for selection purposes. Chapter 4, presented genetic associations between skin lesion traits as a measure of short- and long-term aggression, and commonly used commercial performance measures: growth, feed intake, feed efficiency, and carcass traits. The results suggested that, genetically, animals that receive many lesions show improved performance compared to those with few lesions, except for anterior SL24h, which have been shown to be genetically positively correlated with the initiation of nonreciprocal attacks. The aim of Chapter 5, was to determine whether skin lesion traits are phenotypically or genetically associated with behavioural measures of fearfulness. As found in Chapter 4, there was some evidence of an association between SL5wk and the traits, however this was not the case for anterior SL24h. For the 6th and final Chapter, we used skin lesion data from 1,840 pigs to perform genome wide association studies (GWAS), which detected a single SNP significantly associated with SL5wk on a genome wide level, as well as several SNPs associated with both SL24h and SL5wk on a chromosome wide level.

No / In recent years, different genes and proteins have been highlighted as potential biomarkers for psoriasis, one of the most common inflammatory skin diseases worldwide. However, most of these markers are not only psoriasis-specific but also found in other inflammatory disorders. We performed an unsupervised cluster analysis of gene expression profiles in 150 psoriasis patients and other inflammatory skin diseases (atopic dermatitis, lichen planus, contact eczema, and healthy controls). We identified a cluster of IL-17/tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα)-associated genes specifically expressed in psoriasis, among which IL-36γ was the most outstanding marker. In subsequent immunohistological analyses, IL-36γ was confirmed to be expressed in psoriasis lesions only. IL-36γ peripheral blood serum levels were found to be closely associated with disease activity, and they decreased after anti-TNFα-treatment. Furthermore, IL-36γ immunohistochemistry was found to be a helpful marker in the histological differential diagnosis between psoriasis and eczema in diagnostically challenging cases. These features highlight IL-36γ as a valuable biomarker in psoriasis patients, both for diagnostic purposes and measurement of disease activity during the clinical course. Furthermore, IL-36γ might also provide a future drug target, because of its potential amplifier role in TNFα- and IL-17 pathways in psoriatic skin inflammation.

O ultra-som terapêutico é o recurso físico mais empregado como coadjuvante na promoção do reparo tecidual em vários tipos de lesão de partes moles. Neste trabalho, foi estudada a influência do ultra-som terapêutico no processo de cicatrização de feridas cutâneas num modelo experimental em coelhos. Foram utilizados 36 coelhos adultos, nos quais foram produzidas três lesões cutâneas no dorso, pela ressecção de um segmento circular de pele de 1 cm de diâmetro, distando 5 cm uma da outra, em linha. Uma das lesões era submetida ao tratamento efetivo com o ultra-som, a outra era submetida a tratamento placebo e a terceira era deixada intocada. Os animais foram divididos em dois grupos de 18 cada, conforme a intensidade do ultra-som aplicado, de 0,8 W/cm2 e 0,4 W/cm2, respectivamente. O tratamento foi iniciado no primeiro dia pós-operatório e aplicado diariamente até o sétimo dia, após o que os animais eram sacrificados e as lesões eram ressecadas com larga margem de segurança, para posterior exame histopatológico. Foram obtidos cortes histológicos de 5 &#956m de espessura, corados com duas técnicas e examinados ao microscópio de luz. Os parâmetros avaliados foram o infiltrado inflamatório, fibrose e reepitelização, aos quais foram atribuídos valores numéricos, de 0 a 3, que permitissem a análise estatística. Os resultados mostraram que o ultra-som induz a alterações teciduais e celulares variáveis, mas não significativas em nenhum dos parâmetros avaliados. / Therapeutic ultrasound is the most used adjunct physical resource to promote tissue repair in many types of soft tissue lesion. In the present work the influence of therapeutic ultrasound on the healing process of skin wounds was studied in rabbits. Thirty-six adult rabbits were used, three round skin wounds of 1 cm in diameter being made on the dorsum about 5 cm in line from one another. Ultrasound treatment was applied to one of the wounds only, a placebo being applied to another and the third being left untouched. The animals were distributed into two groups of 18 according to the intensity of the ultrasound applied, of 0.8 W/cm2 and 0.4 W/cm2, respectively. The treatment was started on the first postoperative day and applied daily till the seventh day. The animals were killed the next day and the wounds were resected with a wide safety margin for histology, 5 &#956m-thick sections being cut and died with two different techniques. The sections were examined on the light microscope for inflammatory infiltrate, fibrosis and regeneration of the epithelium, which were quantified from 0 to 3, so as to make the statistical study possible. Results showed that ultrasound induces cell and tissue alterations but not significantly in any of the parameters analyzed.

Dentre os diferentes tipos, o câncer de pele é o tipo de câncer com maior incidência no mundo. É crescente o interesse em explorar técnicas que auxiliem no diagnóstico de lesões malignas e pré-malignas, assim como no monitoramento da eficácia dos tratamentos existentes. As lesões tumorais apresentam temperatura diferente se comparadas a tecidos normais e, com o desenvolvimento de detectores térmicos cada vez mais sensíveis e com melhor qualidade de resolução, a termografia tem se apresentado como uma abordagem de interesse cada vez maior. Os objetivos deste estudo foram: (1) avaliar o uso do imageamento termográfico para o monitoramento e diferenciação de lesões clinicamente semelhantes e (2) analisar a eficiência da terapia fotodinâmica durante o tratamento. Um monitoramento piloto por termografia do crescimento de tumores de Ehrlich (hipotérmicos) injetados no dorso de camundongos Swiss mostrou capacidade para a detecção de tumores a partir de 4 mm de diâmetro. Na avaliação de lesões clínicas, foi investigada a discriminação de pares de lesões cutâneas potencialmente semelhantes clinicamente: CBC versus nevo intradérmico, carcinoma espinocelular (CEC) versus queratose actínica (QA) e queratose seborreica (QSP) versus melanoma. As lesões de CEC foram discriminadas com maior facilidade, apresentando aumento da temperatura na área da lesão em comparação com a região adjacente, enquanto as outras lesões clinicamente identificadas como QA, que podem evoluir para CEC, quase não se diferenciam termicamente do tecido saudável circundante. Uma rotina de processamento das imagens das lesões utilizando um classificador de rede neural mostrou capacidade de diferenciar as lesões dos tipos CBC versus nevo em 67,2% dos casos; em 80% para as lesões de CEC versus QA, e em 50% para as lesões QSP versus melanoma. O monitoramento da terapia fotodinâmica (TFD) foi realizado em lesões clínicas de CBC tratadas em duas sessões. Verificou-se que a região da lesão fica mais evidente termicamente ao longo do procedimento, e as definições das bordas da lesão tornam-se mais delimitadas após o término da iluminação. Com a obtenção das imagens térmicas de TFD criou-se um modelo simplificado para estimar a energia convertida nos processos de transferência de energia envolvidos na TFD. Mesmo com as aproximações realizadas, mostrou-se que a maior parte da energia depositada foi convertida em ação fotodinâmica (53,8%), seguida da parcela que foi dissipada pela perfusão do sangue (37,2%), mostrando que a maior parte da energia depositada no tecido durante o procedimento é incorporada ao efeito fotodinâmico. Esta é uma evidencia de que a ação fotodinâmica não apresenta componente térmica relevante, aspecto importante para o estudo de seus mecanismos. / Among the different cancer types, skin cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer in the world. In most cases, the survival rates are higher when the diagnosis occurs in the early stages of the disease. Thus, there is a growing interest in techniques that aid in the diagnosis of malignant and premalignant lesions, as well as in monitoring the efficacy of existing treatments. Concerning tumor diagnosis, tumor lesions present different temperature compared to normal tissues. Thermography has been presented as an approach of increasing interest due to the development of thermal detectors with better resolution quality and increased sensitivity. The objective of this study was therefore to evaluate the possibility of differentiating clinically similar lesions and monitoring the efficiency of photodynamic therapy during the treatment by using thermographic images and neural network classifiers. A monitoring of the growth of Ehrlich (hypothermic) tumors injected into the Swiss mouse back using thermography showed the technique is able to detect tumors from 4 mm in diameter. For the evaluation of clinical lesions, the discrimination of potentially clinically similar cutaneous lesions: BCC versus intradermal nevus, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) versus actinic keratosis (AK) and seborrheic keratosis (PSK) versus melanoma were investigated. SCC lesions were more easily discriminated, showing an increase of temperature in the lesion area compared to the adjacent region, while the lesions that were clinically identified as AK (which can possible progress towards SCC lesions) can hardly be thermally differentiated differ thermally from the surrounding healthy tissue. This is a very relevant result, given the great difficulty in diagnosing SCC lesions by the standard dermatoscopy technique. An images processing routine using a neural network classifier showed the ability to differentiate lesions between BCC and nevus types in 67.2% of the cases; 80% for SCC versus AK lesions, and 50% for PSK lesions versus melanoma. The monitoring of photodynamic therapy (PDT) was performed in BCC lesions treated in two sessions. The lesion region becomes more thermally evident throughout the procedure, and the definitions of the lesion edges become more clearly delimited visually after the end of the illumination. By obtaining the thermal images of PDT a model was created to calculate the amount of light energy converted to heat, damage, and other energy transfer processes involved in the PDT. Despite the approximations made, it was shown that most of the deposited energy was converted into photodynamic action (53.8%), followed by the portion cleared from the irradiated tissue by the blood perfusion (37.2%), showing that most of the energy deposited in the tissue during the procedure is incorporated into the photodynamic effect. This is an evidence that the photodynamic action does not present a relevant thermal component, an important aspect for the study of its mechanisms.

As lesões dermatológicas submetidas à terapia com fontes de radiação podem apresentar diferentes padrões de malignidade. Os tumores de pele mais comumente encontrados nos serviços de radioterapia são os carcinomas. A radioterapia de lesões dermatológicas é realizada com feixes de radiação de baixa penetração como os raios-X de ortovoltagem, feixes de elétrons e fontes radioativas (192Ir, 198Au, e 90Sr) arranjadas em moldes superficiais ou aplicadores metálicos. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar o perfil de distribuição de dose terapêutica produzida por fontes de radiação utilizadas em procedimentos radioterápicos em lesões superficiais da pele. As medidas experimentais, para as análises dosimétricas das fontes de radiação, foram comparadas com cálculos obtidos no sistema computacional baseado no Método de Monte Carlo. Os resultados obtidos com os cálculos computacionais através do código MCNP-4C apresentaram uma boa concordância com as medidas experimentais. As comparações das medidas experimentais com os cálculos obtidos através do código MCNP-4C, foram utilizadas para validar os cálculos e assim possibilitar o uso de dados de simulação para aplicação em casos clínicos de rotina. A comparação entre diferentes modalidades podem fornecer um indicativo dos procedimentos mais adequados em cada caso clínico. / Skin lesions undergoing therapy with radiation sources may have different patterns of malignancy. Malignant lesions or cancer most commonly found in radiotherapy services are carcinomas. Radiation therapy in skin lesions is performed with low penetration beams and orthovoltage X-rays, electron beams and radioactive sources (192Ir, 198Au, e 90Sr) arranged on a surface mold or in metal applicator. This study aims to analyze the therapeutic radiation dose profile produced by radiation sources used in skin lesions radiotherapy procedures . Experimental measurements for the analysis of dosimetric radiation sources were compared with calculations obtained from a computer system based on the Monte Carlo Method. Computational results had a good agreement with the experimental measurements. Experimental measurements and computational results by the MCNP4C code were both physically consitent as expected. These experimental measurements compared with calculations using the MCNP-4C code have been used to validate the calculations obtained by MCNP code and to provide a reliable medical application for each clinical case.