Acoustic Lung Imaging Utilized in Continual Assessment of Patients with Obstructed Airway: A Systematic Review.

Smart respiratory therapy is enabled by continual assessment of lung functions. This systematic review provides an overview of the suitability of equipment-to-patient acoustic imaging in continual assessment of lung conditions. The literature search was conducted using Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, SciELO Preprints, and Google Scholar. Fifteen studies remained for additional examination after the screening process. Two imaging modalities, lung ultrasound (LUS) and vibration imaging response (VRI), were identified. The most common outcome obtained from eleven studies was positive observations of changes to the geographical lung area, sound energy, or both, while positive observation of lung consolidation was reported in the remaining four studies. Two different modalities of lung assessment were used in eight studies, with one study comparing VRI against chest X-ray, one study comparing VRI with LUS, two studies comparing LUS to chest X-ray, and four studies comparing LUS in contrast to computed tomography. Our findings indicate that the acoustic imaging approach could assess and provide regional information on lung function. No technology has been shown to be better than another for measuring obstructed airways; hence, more research is required on acoustic imaging in detecting obstructed airways regionally in the application of enabling smart therapy.

Studies on structural properties and immune-enhancing activities of glycomannans from Schizophyllum commune.

Polysaccharides were extracted from Schizophyllum commune (a common mushroom) and their structural and immune-enhancing properties were investigated. Crude and fractions (F1 and F2) were composed of sugars (50.3-82.8%), proteins (1.46-20.1%), and sulfates (1.33-7.01%). Monosaccharide compositions of Cr and F1 were mainly composed of glucose (75.5% and 88.2%) with small amounts of mannose, galactose and xylose whereas the F2 was mainly composed of manose (55.2%) with minor amounts of galactose, glucose, and xylose. Their immune-enhancing activities were tested using RAW264.7 cells. Proliferation activity of RAW264.7 cells was over 100% after treatment with these polysaccharides. In addition, RAW264.7 cells produced large amounts of nitric oxide and various cytokines by up-regulating mRNA expression levels and the activation of nuclear factor-kappa (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) after treatment with these polysaccharides. In addition, RAW264.7 cells were activated mainly through CR-3 and TLR-4 receptors. The backbone of F2 with excellent immune-enhancing activity was mainly linked by (1→3)-linked-mannopyranosyl and (1→2,3)-linked-mannopyranosyl residues.