Review of North American pit viper antivenoms.

Purpose: For the first time in nearly 20 years, 2 antigen-binding fragment (Fab) antivenoms are available to treat patients who incur North American pit viper snakebites: Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab (ovine), or simply FabAV; and Crotalidae immune F(ab')2 (equine), or simply F(ab')2. Pharmacists are in a key position for the selection, dosing, reconstitution, administration, and monitoring of antivenom therapy; however, they encounter inconsistent exposure and experience with these drugs. Thus, an updated review of the literature is necessary.

All-optical extravascular laser-ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging of calcified atherosclerotic plaque in excised carotid artery.

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging may be advantageous as a safe, non-invasive imaging modality to image the carotid artery. However, calcification that accompanies atherosclerotic plaque is difficult to detect with PA due to the non-distinct optical absorption spectrum of hydroxyapatite. We propose reflection-mode all-optical laser-ultrasound (LUS) imaging to obtain high-resolution, non-contact, non-ionizing images of the carotid artery wall and calcification.

A Marchenko equation for acoustic inverse source problems.

From acoustics to medical imaging and seismology, one strives to make inferences about the structure of complex media from acoustic wave observations. This study proposes a solution that is derived from the multidimensional Marchenko equation, to learn about the acoustic source distribution inside a volume, given a set of observations outside the volume. Traditionally, this problem has been solved by backpropagation of the recorded signals.

Adolescent with prolonged toxidrome.

A 13-year-old female was presented to the emergency department following an intentional ingestion. The patient developed significant toxicity including multiple, discreet tonic-clonic seizures. Despite appropriate resuscitation and antidotal management, the patient's symptoms persisted for more than 36 hours post-ingestion.

Nonconfocal all-optical laser-ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging system for angle-dependent deep tissue imaging.

Biomedical imaging systems incorporating both photoacoustic (PA) and ultrasound capabilities are of interest for obtaining optical and acoustic properties deep in tissue. While most dual-modality systems utilize piezoelectric transducers, all-optical systems can obtain broadband high-resolution data with hands-free operation. Previously described reflection-mode all-optical laser-ultrasound (LUS) systems use a confocal source and detector; however, angle-dependent raypaths are lost in this configuration.

PLACE: an open-source python package for laboratory automation, control, and experimentation.

In modern laboratories, software can drive the full experimental process from data acquisition to storage, processing, and analysis. The automation of laboratory data acquisition is an important consideration for every laboratory. When implementing a laboratory automation scheme, important parameters include its reliability, time to implement, adaptability, and compatibility with software used at other stages of experimentation.

Characterizing phantom arteries with multi-channel laser ultrasonics and photo-acoustics.

Multi-channel photo-acoustic and laser ultrasonic waves are used to sense the characteristics of proxies for healthy and diseased vessels. The acquisition system is non-contacting and non-invasive with a pulsed laser source and a laser vibrometer detector. As the wave signatures of our targets are typically low in amplitude, we exploit multi-channel acquisition and processing techniques.

Diagnostic value of lumbar puncture in afebrile infants with suspected new-onset seizures.

No established guidelines address the need for lumbar puncture in fever-free infants younger than 6 months of age with a first seizure. We analyzed cerebrospinal fluid results in infants and found that lumbar puncture adds little diagnostic value to the evaluation of young, well-appearing infants presenting with possible new-onset seizures.

The benefits of a camp designed for children with epilepsy: evaluating adaptive behaviors over 3 years.

Objective: Children with epilepsy attending a condition-specific overnight camp were evaluated for behavioral changes over 3 consecutive years, using a modification of the Vineland Adaptive Behavioral Scale.

Methods: Trained counselors completed pre- and postcamp assessments for each camper. Repeated-measures MANOVA was used to analyze effects of the camp experience for each year, with respect to gender and age.

Effects of social status and moderate alcohol consumption on mammary gland and endometrium of surgically postmenopausal monkeys.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of social subordination stress and chronic moderate alcohol consumption on indices of breast and endometrial cancer risk.

Design: Forty-six adult, ovariectomized, cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were trained to voluntarily drink a placebo or a two-drink/day equivalent of ethanol (0.5 g/kg), 5 days a week for 26 months, the latter resulting in average blood alcohol levels of 42 mg/100 mL.