Label-free monitoring of embolotherapy via catheter electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

Catheter-based embolization has become a widely adopted minimally-invasive treatment for a broad range of applications. However, assessment of embolization endpoints requires x-ray fluoroscopic monitoring, exposing patients and physicians performing embolization procedures to harmful ionizing radiation. Moreover, x-ray fluoroscopy assessment of embolization endpoints is low sensitivity, subjective, and may not reflect the actual physiology of blood flow reduction, thus providing little oversight of the embolization procedure.

Design and implementation of a cost-effective, open-source, and programmable pulsatile flow system.

The primary objective of this research was to design, implement, and validate a programmable open-source pulsatile flow system to cost-effectively simulate vascular flows. We employed an Arduino-compatible microcontroller combined with a motor driver to control a centrifugal direct current (DC) motor pump. The system was programmed to produce pulsatile flows with an arterial pulse waveform.

The Role of Physician-Driven Device Preference in the Cost Variation of Common Interventional Radiology Procedures.

Purpose: To analyze the impact of physician-specific equipment preference on cost variation for procedures typically performed by interventional radiologists at a tertiary care academic hospital.

Materials And Methods: From October 2017 to October 2019, data on all expendable items used by 9 interventional radiologists for 11 common interventional radiology procedure categories were compiled from the hospital analytics system. This search yielded a final dataset of 44,654 items used in 2,121 procedures of 11 different categories.

Comparison of Opioid Medication Use after Conventional Chemoembolization versus Drug-Eluting Embolic Chemoembolization.

Purpose: To assess the use of opioid analgesics and/or antiemetic drugs for pain and nausea following selective chemoembolization with doxorubicin-based conventional (c)-transarterial chemoembolization versus drug-eluting embolic (DEE)-transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Materials And Methods: From October 2014 to 2016, 283 patients underwent 393 selective chemoembolization procedures including 188 patients (48%) who underwent c-transarterial chemoembolization and 205 (52%) who underwent DEE-transarterial chemoembolization. Medical records for all patients were retrospectively reviewed.

Fluorous-phase iron oxide nanoparticles as enhancers of acoustic droplet vaporization of perfluorocarbons with supra-physiologic boiling point.

Perfluorocarbon emulsion nanodroplets containing iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) within their inner perfluorohexane (PFH) core were prepared to investigate potential use as an acoustically activatable ultrasound contrast agent, with the hypothesis that incorporation of IONPs into the fluorous phase of a liquid perfluorocarbon emulsion would potentiate acoustic vaporization. IONPs with an oleic acid (OA) hydrophobic coating were synthesized through chemical co-precipitation. To suspend IONP in PFH, OA was exchanged with perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) via ligand exchange to yield fluorophilic PFNA-coated IONPs (PFNA-IONPs).

Thrombin-Activatable Microbubbles as Potential Ultrasound Contrast Agents for the Detection of Acute Thrombosis.

Acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is the formation of a blood clot in the deep veins of the body that can lead to fatal pulmonary embolism. Acute DVT is difficult to distinguish from chronic DVT by ultrasound (US), the imaging modality of choice, and is therefore treated aggressively with anticoagulants, which can lead to internal bleeding. Here we demonstrate that conjugating perfluorobutane-filled (PFB-filled) microbubbles (MBs) with thrombin-sensitive activatable cell-penetrating peptides (ACPPs) could lead to the development of contrast agents that detect acute thrombosis with US imaging.

Polymer-Stabilized Perfluorobutane Nanodroplets for Ultrasound Imaging Agents.

In this paper, we describe a method for the stabilization of low-boiling point (low-bp) perfluorocarbons (PFCs) at physiological temperatures by an amphiphilic triblock copolymer which can emulsify PFCs and be cross-linked. After UV-induced thiol-ene cross-linking, the core of the PFC emulsion remains in liquid form even at temperatures exceeding their boiling points. Critically, the formulation permits vaporization at rarefactional pressures relevant for clinical ultrasound.

Evaluation of Knee Donor and Elbow Recipient Sites for Osteochondral Autologous Transplantation Surgery in Capitellar Osteochondritis Dissecans.

Background: Osteochondral autologous transplantation surgery (OATS) has been advocated for treatment of osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the capitellum in adolescents. However, little information is available regarding the optimal knee harvest site to match the contour and cartilage thickness of the recipient elbow lesion.

Purpose: To characterize the capitellar anatomic structure in adolescents with and without OCD and to compare these measurements to normal adolescent knees to identify the optimal site for osteochondral graft harvest.

Domains of apoE4 required for the biogenesis of apoE-containing HDL.

INTRODUCTION. We have studied the functions of truncated apoE4 forms in vitro and in vivo in order to identify the domains of apoE4 required for the biogenesis of apoE-containing high-density lipoprotein (HDL). RESULTS.

Molecular etiology of a dominant form of type III hyperlipoproteinemia caused by R142C substitution in apoE4.

We have used adenovirus-mediated gene transfer in apolipoprotein (apo)E(-/-) mice to elucidate the molecular etiology of a dominant form of type III hyperlipoproteinemia (HLP) caused by the R142C substitution in apoE4. It was found that low doses of adenovirus expressing apoE4 cleared cholesterol, whereas comparable doses of apoE4[R142C] greatly increased plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, and apoE levels, caused accumulation of apoE in VLDL/IDL/LDL region, and promoted the formation of discoidal HDL. Co-expression of apoE4[R142C] with lecithin cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) or lipoprotein lipase (LPL) in apoE(-/-) mice partially corrected the apoE4[R142C]-induced dyslipidemia.