Ultrasonic Evaluation of the Asian Nasal Soft Tissue Envelope.

OBJECTIVE: The thickness of the nasal soft tissue envelope (STE) plays a crucial role in the final rhinoplasty results. The Asian nasal contour is typically characterized by a thicker STE and broader nasal tip, but objective data are lacking. The purpose of this study was to objectively measure nasal dermal thickness and overall STE thickness and to determine any demographic differences. METHODS: From July to September 2023, 110 patients presenting for consultation underwent ultrasound evaluation of their nasal STE. STE thickness was measured at predetermined subsites and compared with published data on white patients. RESULTS: The thickness of the STE in Asian patients was greater than that in white patients. The STE was thickest at the supratip (mean [SD]), (4.88 [0.74] mm) rather than at the nasion and thinnest at the rhinion (2.25 [0.51] mm). The nasal tip (4.07 [0.72] mm) showed comparable STE thickness with the nasion (4.13 [0.72] mm) but had a significantly thicker dermis than the nasion (2.35 ± 0.49 mm vs. 1.35 ± 0.35 mm, P < 0.05). Male sex and higher BMI tended to be correlated with a thicker nasal STE, but age did not show any relationship. A thicker nasal tip STE showed significantly greater nasal tip width and nasal alar thickness. CONCLUSION: STE thickness at different nasal subsites varies and affects external nasal contour and rhinoplasty outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Differential proteomics analysis of serum exosomein burn patients.

The exosome is an emerging concepts biomarkers due to their abnormal expression in various diseases. Research on exosome has already shifted from the laboratory to clinical application. This study uses bioinformatics technology to identify functional changes in proteins of serum exosomes from burn patients. A total of 231 quantifiable differentially-expressed proteins were screened out, 31 of them had statistically significant changes in expression levels. In the test group, expression of2 proteins had downregulated, whereas that of 29 proteins upregulated. Gene Ontology analysis demonstrates that differentially-expressed proteins were primarily identified in extracellular vesicles and platelet α granules, which can alter enzyme inhibitor activities, heparin-binding, coagulation, and lipid transport. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis demonstrates that ITGA2B and ITGB3 proteins, which were significantly upregulated in the burn group, were primarily involved in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Western blotting confirmed that the expressions of ITGA2B and ITGB3 in burn patient tissue samples were higher than those in the control group; conversely, the expression of CD9 was lower than that in the control group. In burn patients, the upregulated proteins ITGA2B and ITGB3 of serum exosomes likely participate in injury detection and repair via PI3K/AKT signaling pathways.

Spatial-Temporal Changes of Mechanical Microenvironment in Skin Wounds During Negative Pressure Wound Therapy.

Cell migration, proliferation, and differentiation are regulated by mechanical cues during skin wound healing. Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) reduces the healing period by optimizing the mechanical microenvironment of the wound bed. Under NPWT, it remains elusive how the mechanical microenvironment (e.g., stiffness, strain gradients) changes both in time and space during wound healing. To illustrate this, the healing time of full-thickness skin wounds under NPWT, with pressure settings ranging from -50 to -150 mm Hg, were evaluated and compared with gauze dressing treatments (control group), and three-dimensional finite element models of full-thickness skin wounds on days 1 and 5 after treatment were developed on the basis of MR 3D imaging data. Shear wave elastography (SWE) was applied to detect the stiffness of wound soft tissue on days 1 and 5, and nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) was used to represent the spatial-temporal environment of the 3D strain field of the wound under NPWT vs the control group. Compared with the control group, NPWT with -50, -80, and -125 mm Hg promoted wound healing. SWE showed that the elastic modulus of wounded skin increased during healing. Meanwhile, the elastic modulus in wounded skin under NPWT was significantly smaller than in the control group. Strain and its gradient decreased under NPWT during wound healing, while no significant change was observed in the control group. This study, which is based on MR 3D imaging, shear wave elastography, and nonlinear FEA, provides an in-depth understanding of changes of the skin mechanical microenvironment under NPWT in the time-space dimension and the associated wound healing.