Nanoparticle targeting to diseased vasculature for imaging and therapy.

Unlabelled: Significant challenges remain in targeting drugs to diseased vasculature; most important being rapid blood flow with high shear, limited availability of stable targets, and heterogeneity and recycling of cellular markers. We developed nanoparticles (NPs) to target degraded elastic lamina, a consistent pathological feature in vascular diseases. In-vitro organ and cell culture experiments demonstrated that these NPs were not taken up by cells, but instead retained within the extracellular space; NP binding was proportional to the extent of elastic lamina damage.

Tension Tamer: delivering meditation with objective heart rate acquisition for adherence monitoring using a smart phone platform.

Objectives: This brief report demonstrates the proof of concept of the Tension Tamer (TT) smartphone application, which integrates photoplethysmograph capabilities with breathing awareness meditation (BAM), to reduce stress and measure heart rate and adherence.

Design: Methods for objectively measuring heart rate and adherence to BAM were developed as part of a future randomized controlled trial.

Setting/location: The study was conducted at Jerry Zucker Middle School of Science and the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.

Development and validation of a smartphone heart rate acquisition application for health promotion and wellness telehealth applications.

Objective. Current generation smartphones' video camera technologies enable photoplethysmographic (PPG) acquisition and heart rate (HR) measurement. The study objective was to develop an Android application and compare HRs derived from a Motorola Droid to electrocardiograph (ECG) and Nonin 9560BT pulse oximeter readings during various movement-free tasks.