Hidradenitis suppurativa: Current understanding, diagnostic and surgical challenges, and developments in ultrasound application.

BACKGROUND: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is debilitating, costly, chronic disease for which no cure exists and which often precipitates greater health concerns. While we are making advances in understanding, HS remains an area of attention which is evidenced by a 400% increase in research studies involving HS in the past 5 years. This includes research regarding the advantages and limitations of ultrasound (US) imaging and its ability to enhance the surgical treatment and medical management of HS. Herein, we describe the diagnostic and surgical obstacles that HS presents, the foremost of which is detection of subclinical information, and perform an in-depth synthesis of current knowledge regarding the use of US imaging to mitigate these obstacles. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive literature review of US imaging in HS patients and a supplementary review of the current state of HS were conducted. CONCLUSION: Ultrasound imaging is a powerful tool in the diagnosis, monitoring, clinical management, and preoperative assessment of HS. However, it also has relevant limitations that necessitate additional consideration. SIGNIFICANCE: Hidradenitis suppurativa is a disabling skin disease that presents a diagnostic and surgical challenge. The invaluable advantages and relevant limitations that US imaging offers are beginning to be understood, leading to standardization and increased implementation. US imaging has the potential to drastically improve patient care and merits further attention.

Photoacoustic/Ultrasound/Optical Coherence Tomography Evaluation of Melanoma Lesion and Healthy Skin in a Swine Model.

The marked increase in the incidence of melanoma coupled with the rapid drop in the survival rate after metastasis has promoted the investigation into improved diagnostic methods for melanoma. High-frequency ultrasound (US), optical coherence tomography (OCT), and photoacoustic imaging (PAI) are three potential modalities that can assist a dermatologist by providing extra information beyond dermoscopic features. In this study, we imaged a swine model with spontaneous melanoma using these modalities and compared the images with images of nearby healthy skin. Histology images were used for validation.

Review of cost reduction methods in photoacoustic computed tomography.

Photoacoustic Computed Tomography (PACT) is a major configuration of photoacoustic imaging, a hybrid noninvasive modality for both functional and molecular imaging. PACT has rapidly gained importance in the field of biomedical imaging due to superior performance as compared to conventional optical imaging counterparts. However, the overall cost of developing a PACT system is one of the challenges towards clinical translation of this novel technique. The cost of a typical commercial PACT system originates from optical source, ultrasound detector, and data acquisition unit. With growing applications of photoacoustic imaging, there is a tremendous demand towards reducing its cost. In this review article, we have discussed various approaches to reduce the overall cost of a PACT system, and provided a cost estimation to build a low-cost PACT system.