"Chasing Rainbows" Beyond Kaposi Sarcoma's Dermoscopy: A Mini-Review.

The dermoscopic rainbow pattern (RP), also known as polychromatic pattern, is characterized by a multicolored appearance, resulting from the dispersion of polarized light as it penetrates various tissue components. Its separation into different wavelengths occurs according to the physics principles of scattering, absorption, and interference of light, creating the optical effect of RP. Even though the RP is regarded as a highly specific dermoscopic indicator of Kaposi's sarcoma, in the medical literature, it has also been documented as an atypical dermoscopic finding of other non-Kaposi skin entities.

Evaluation of Delayed Contact Hypersensitivity in Patients with Rosacea.

Introduction: Rosacea is a common chronic inflammatory dermatosis characterized by erythema, telangiectasia, papules, and pustules on the central face. The frequency of contact sensitization complicating rosacea and its therapy is unknown, with only few studies published in the literature. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate contact sensitivity in patients with rosacea.

Use of Dermoscopy among Greek Dermatologists in Everyday Clinical Practice: A National Questionnaire-Based Study.

: Dermatoscopy has been established as an important diagnostic tool for a wide range of skin diseases. This study aims to evaluate the use of dermatoscopy in clinical practice among Greek dermatologists. : A nationwide questionnaire-based survey was conducted collecting data on the frequency of dermatoscopic examinations, the types of lesions examined, training and educational resources, as well as factors influencing the choice to incorporate dermatoscopy into daily clinical routines.

Resorcinol 10% as a Promising Therapeutic Option for Mild Hidradenitis Suppurativa: A Prospective, Randomized, Open Study.

Introduction: Treatment of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is challenging, and in Hurley stage I, it is based on topical measures. Our aim was to compare the efficacy and safety of topical resorcinol 10% with topical clindamycin 1% and no therapy, in Hurley stage I HS.

Methods: In this open, prospective, randomized trial, we studied 60 Hurley stage I patients with IHS4 ≤10.

Respiratory distress syndrome prediction at birth by optical skin maturity assessment and machine learning models for limited-resource settings: a development and validation study.

Background: A handheld optical device was developed to evaluate a newborn's skin maturity by assessing the photobiological properties of the tissue and processing it with other variables to predict early neonatal prognosis related to prematurity. This study assessed the device's ability to predict respiratory distress syndrome (RDS).

Methods: To assess the device's utility we enrolled newborns at childbirth in six urban perinatal centers from two multicenter single-blinded clinical trials.

Gestational age assessed by optical skin reflection in low-birth-weight newborns: Applications in classification at birth.

Introduction: A new medical device was previously developed to estimate gestational age (GA) at birth by processing a machine learning algorithm on the light scatter signal acquired on the newborn's skin. The study aims to validate GA calculated by the new device (test), comparing the result with the best available GA in newborns with low birth weight (LBW).

Methods: We conducted a multicenter, non-randomized, and single-blinded clinical trial in three urban referral centers for perinatal care in Brazil and Mozambique.

Dermoscopy of Actinic Keratosis: Is There a True Differentiation between Non-Pigmented and Pigmented Lesions?

Dermoscopic features of actinic keratosis (AK) have been widely studied, but there is still little evidence for their diagnostic accuracy. Our study investigates whether established dermoscopic criteria are reliable predictors in differentiating non-pigmented actinic keratosis (NPAK) from pigmented actinic keratosis (PAK). For this purpose, dermoscopic images of 83 clinically diagnosed AK (45 NPAK, 38PAK) were examined, and the sensitivity (Se), specificity (Sp), positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) were assessed.

The IL-4/-13 Axis and Its Blocking in the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a common inflammatory skin disease with a complex pathophysiology, intertwining immune dysregulation, epidermal barrier dysfunction, IgE sensitization, environmental factors and genetic predisposition. It has been recently identified that interleukins -4 and -13 play crucial roles in the type-2-driven inflammation that characterizes AD, contributing to its symptomatology. Novel therapeutic approaches that target Th2 cytokines and their respective pathways have been developed, aiming to optimize the treatment of AD.

Newborn Skin Maturity Medical Device Validation for Gestational Age Prediction: Clinical Trial.

Background: Early access to antenatal care and high-cost technologies for pregnancy dating challenge early neonatal risk assessment at birth in resource-constrained settings. To overcome the absence or inaccuracy of postnatal gestational age (GA), we developed a new medical device to assess GA based on the photobiological properties of newborns' skin and predictive models.

Objective: This study aims to validate a device that uses the photobiological model of skin maturity adjusted to the clinical data to detect GA and establish its accuracy in discriminating preterm newborns.

Assessment of dermal absorption of aluminium from a representative antiperspirant formulation using a (Al)Al microtracer approach: a follow-up study in humans.

A follow-up study was performed in 12 healthy women to evaluate systemic exposure to aluminium following topical application of a representative antiperspirant formulation under real-life use conditions (part A) and to assess the local fate of topically applied aluminium by taking additional tape strips and skin biopsies (Part B). A simple roll-on formulation, containing the maximal possible radioactive dose, was prepared with [Al] aluminium-labeled chlorohydrate (ACH). The microtracer of [Al] was used to distinguish aluminium from the natural background, using accelerator mass spectrometry.

Social Determinants in Self-Protective Behavior Related to COVID-19: Association Rule-Mining Study.

Background: Human behavior is crucial in health outcomes. Particularly, individual behavior is a determinant of the success of measures to overcome critical conditions, such as a pandemic. In addition to intrinsic public health challenges associated with COVID-19, in many countries, some individuals decided not to get vaccinated, streets were crowded, parties were happening, and businesses struggling to survive were partially open, despite lockdown or stay-at-home instructions.

Counterfactual inference with latent variable and its application in mental health care.

This paper deals with the problem of modeling counterfactual reasoning in scenarios where, apart from the observed endogenous variables, we have a latent variable that affects the outcomes and, consequently, the results of counterfactuals queries. This is a common setup in healthcare problems, including mental health. We propose a new framework where the aforementioned problem is modeled as a multivariate regression and the counterfactual model accounts for both observed and a latent variable, where the latter represents what we call the patient individuality factor ( ).

Experimental Design and Optimization of Recovering Bioactive Compounds from through Conventional Extraction.

Microalgae contain an abundance of valuable bioactive compounds such as chlorophylls, carotenoids, and phenolics and, consequently, present great commercial interest. The aim of this work is the study and optimization of recovering the aforementioned components from the microalgae species through conventional extraction in a laboratory-scale apparatus using a "green" mixture of ethanol/water 90/10 /. The effect of three operational conditions-namely, temperature (30-60 °C), duration (6-24 h) and solvent-to-biomass ratio (20-90 mL/g), was examined regarding the extracts' yield (gravimetrically), antioxidant activity, phenolic, chlorophyll, and carotenoid contents (spectrophotometric assays), as well as concentration in key carotenoids, i.

Towards automatic diagnosis of rheumatic heart disease on echocardiographic exams through video-based deep learning.

Objective: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) affects an estimated 39 million people worldwide and is the most common acquired heart disease in children and young adults. Echocardiograms are the gold standard for diagnosis of RHD, but there is a shortage of skilled experts to allow widespread screenings for early detection and prevention of the disease progress. We propose an automated RHD diagnosis system that can help bridge this gap.

Novel Insights for Patients with Multiple Basal Cell Carcinomas and Tumors at High-Risk for Recurrence: Risk Factors, Clinical Morphology, and Dermatoscopy.

Introduction: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) quite frequently presents as multiple tumors in individual patients. Neoplasm's risk factors for local recurrence have a critical impact on therapeutic management.

Objective: To detect risk factors for multiple BCCs (mBCC) in individual patients and to describe clinical and dermatoscopic features of low- and high-risk tumors.

Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasonography and Color Doppler: Guided Intraoperative Embolization of Intracranial Highly Vascularized Tumors.

Background: Preoperative embolization is often considered mandatory in highly vascularized brain tumors to contain blood loss. However, not all lesions are amenable to endovascular preoperative embolization. In the literature, cases of preoperative and intraoperative embolization are described only by arterial catheterization, whereas experiences of tumor embolization through direct puncture of the lesion are anecdotal; furthermore these cases lack an intraoperative control method to assess the effects of the embolizing procedure itself.