High Sensitivity of Mobile Phone Microscopy Screening for Schistosoma haematobium in Azaguié, Côte d'Ivoire.

Schistosomiasis infections continue to impact African settings disproportionately, and there is an urgent need for novel tools to evaluate infection control and elimination strategies at the community level. Mobile phone microscopes are portable and semiautomated devices with multiple applications for screening neglected tropical diseases. In a community-based schistosomiasis screening program in Azaguié, Côte d'Ivoire, mobile phone microscopy demonstrated a sensitivity of 85.

Point-of-Care Sample Preparation and Automated Quantitative Detection of Schistosoma haematobium Using Mobile Phone Microscopy.

Schistosoma haematobium continues to pose a significant public health burden despite ongoing global control efforts. One of several barriers to sustained control (and ultimately elimination) is the lack of access to highly sensitive diagnostic or screening tools that are inexpensive, rapid, and can be used at the point of sample collection. Here, we report an automated point-of-care diagnostic based on mobile phone microscopy that rapidly images and identifies S.

Amplification-free detection of SARS-CoV-2 with CRISPR-Cas13a and mobile phone microscopy.

The December 2019 outbreak of a novel respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2, has become an ongoing global pandemic due in part to the challenge of identifying symptomatic, asymptomatic, and pre-symptomatic carriers of the virus. CRISPR diagnostics can augment gold-standard PCR-based testing if they can be made rapid, portable, and accurate. Here, we report the development of an amplification-free CRISPR-Cas13a assay for direct detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasal swab RNA that can be read with a mobile phone microscope.

In Southern Nigeria Blood Microfilaria Density is Very Low Even in Areas with High Prevalence of Loiasis: Results of a Survey Using the New LoaScope Technology.

Ivermectin treatment can cause central nervous system adverse events (CNS-AEs) in persons with very high-density microfilaremia (≥ 30,000 mf/mL blood). Hypoendemic onchocerciasis areas where is endemic have been excluded from ivermectin mass drug administration programs (MDA) because of the concern for CNS AEs. The rapid assessment procedure for (RAPLOA) is a questionnaire survey to assess history of eye worm.

Mobile microscopy as a screening tool for oral cancer in India: A pilot study.

Oral cancer is the most common type of cancer among men in India and other countries in South Asia. Late diagnosis contributes significantly to this mortality, highlighting the need for effective and specific point-of-care diagnostic tools. The same regions with high prevalence of oral cancer have seen extensive growth in mobile phone infrastructure, which enables widespread access to telemedicine services.

A Test-and-Not-Treat Strategy for Onchocerciasis in Loa loa-Endemic Areas.

Background: Implementation of an ivermectin-based community treatment strategy for the elimination of onchocerciasis or lymphatic filariasis has been delayed in Central Africa because of the occurrence of serious adverse events, including death, in persons with high levels of circulating Loa loa microfilariae. The LoaScope, a field-friendly diagnostic tool to quantify L. loa microfilariae in peripheral blood, enables rapid, point-of-care identification of persons at risk for serious adverse events.

Accuracy of Mobile Phone and Handheld Light Microscopy for the Diagnosis of Schistosomiasis and Intestinal Protozoa Infections in Côte d'Ivoire.

Background: Handheld light microscopy using compact optics and mobile phones may improve the quality of health care in resource-constrained settings by enabling access to prompt and accurate diagnosis.

Methodology: Laboratory technicians were trained to operate two handheld diagnostic devices (Newton Nm1 microscope and a clip-on version of the mobile phone-based CellScope). The accuracy of these devices was compared to conventional light microscopy for the diagnosis of Schistosoma haematobium, S.

Multi-Contrast Imaging and Digital Refocusing on a Mobile Microscope with a Domed LED Array.

We demonstrate the design and application of an add-on device for improving the diagnostic and research capabilities of CellScope--a low-cost, smartphone-based point-of-care microscope. We replace the single LED illumination of the original CellScope with a programmable domed LED array. By leveraging recent advances in computational illumination, this new device enables simultaneous multi-contrast imaging with brightfield, darkfield, and phase imaging modes.

Point-of-care quantification of blood-borne filarial parasites with a mobile phone microscope.

Parasitic helminths cause debilitating diseases that affect millions of people in primarily low-resource settings. Efforts to eliminate onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis in Central Africa through mass drug administration have been suspended because of ivermectin-associated serious adverse events, including death, in patients infected with the filarial parasite Loa loa. To safely administer ivermectin for onchocerciasis or lymphatic filariasis in regions co-endemic with L.

Diagnosis of Schistosoma haematobium infection with a mobile phone-mounted Foldscope and a reversed-lens CellScope in Ghana.

We evaluated two novel, portable microscopes and locally acquired, single-ply, paper towels as filter paper for the diagnosis of Schistosoma haematobium infection. The mobile phone-mounted Foldscope and reversed-lens CellScope had sensitivities of 55.9% and 67.

Improved door-to-needle times and neurologic outcomes when IV tissue plasminogen activator is administered by emergency physicians with advanced neuroscience training.

Background: The neurologic emergency department (neuro ED) at our medical center is staffed by emergency medicine physicians who have specialized neuroscience training and give intravenous (IV) tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) independently for acute ischemic stroke patients. Door-to-needle (DTN) times, discharge location, and discharge National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores were studied between the neuro ED and main emergency department (ED) with the hypothesis that all measures would be better in the neuro ED group.

Methods: This is a retrospective study evaluating DTN time, discharge outcomes, and discharge location in acute stroke patients who received IV tPA at our comprehensive stroke center.

Induction of focal adhesions and motility in Drosophila S2 cells.

Focal adhesions are dynamic structures that interact with the extracellular matrix on the cell exterior and actin filaments on the cell interior, enabling cells to adhere and crawl along surfaces. We describe a system for inducing the formation of focal adhesions in normally non-ECM-adherent, nonmotile Drosophila S2 cells. These focal adhesions contain the expected molecular markers such as talin, vinculin, and p130Cas, and they require talin for their formation.

Low-cost mobile phone microscopy with a reversed mobile phone camera lens.

The increasing capabilities and ubiquity of mobile phones and their associated digital cameras offer the possibility of extending low-cost, portable diagnostic microscopy to underserved and low-resource areas. However, mobile phone microscopes created by adding magnifying optics to the phone's camera module have been unable to make use of the full image sensor due to the specialized design of the embedded camera lens, exacerbating the tradeoff between resolution and field of view inherent to optical systems. This tradeoff is acutely felt for diagnostic applications, where the speed and cost of image-based diagnosis is related to the area of the sample that can be viewed at sufficient resolution.

Wax on, wax off: a rare case of catatonia.

Catatonia was first described by a German psychiatrist, Karl Kahlbaum, in 1874. It is a behavioral syndrome marked by an inability to move normally, which can occur in the context of many underlying general medical and psychiatric disorders. A wide variety of neurologic, metabolic, drug-induced, and psychiatric causes of catatonia have been reported.

The efficacy of a novel mobile phone application for goldmann ptosis visual field interpretation.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of a novel mobile phone application that calculates superior visual field defects on Goldmann visual field charts.

Methods: Experimental study in which the mobile phone application and 14 oculoplastic surgeons interpreted the superior visual field defect in 10 Goldmann charts. Percent error of the mobile phone application and the oculoplastic surgeons' estimates were calculated compared with computer software computation of the actual defects.

A genome-wide screen identifies conserved protein hubs required for cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion.

Cadherins and associated catenins provide an important structural interface between neighboring cells, the actin cytoskeleton, and intracellular signaling pathways in a variety of cell types throughout the Metazoa. However, the full inventory of the proteins and pathways required for cadherin-mediated adhesion has not been established. To this end, we completed a genome-wide (~14,000 genes) ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) screen that targeted Ca(2+)-dependent adhesion in DE-cadherin-expressing Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells in suspension culture.

The neurological emergency room and prehospital stroke alert: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Background: Emergency medical services (EMS) prenotification to hospitals regarding the arrival of patients who have had a stroke is recommended to facilitate the workup once the patient arrives. Most hospitals have the patient enter the emergency department (ED) before obtaining a head computed tomography (CT) scan. At Capital Health, prehospital stroke-alert patients are delivered directly to CT and met by a neurological emergency team.

A whole genome RNAi screen of Drosophila S2 cell spreading performed using automated computational image analysis.

Recent technological advances in microscopy have enabled cell-based whole genome screens, but the analysis of the vast amount of image data generated by such screens usually proves to be rate limiting. In this study, we performed a whole genome RNA interference (RNAi) screen to uncover genes that affect spreading of Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells using several computational methods for analyzing the image data in an automated manner. Expected genes in the Scar-Arp2/3 actin nucleation pathway were identified as well as casein kinase I, which had a similar morphological RNAi signature.

Polarized myosin produces unequal-size daughters during asymmetric cell division.

Asymmetric positioning of the mitotic spindle before cytokinesis can produce different-sized daughter cells that have distinct fates. Here, we found an asymmetric division in the Caenorhabditis elegans Q neuroblast lineage that began with a centered spindle but generated different-sized daughters, the smaller (anterior) of which underwent apoptosis. During this division, more myosin II accumulated anteriorly, suggesting that asymmetric contractile forces might produce different-sized daughters.