Successful Treatment of Riehl's Melanosis With Mid-Fluence Q-Switched Nd:YAG 1064-nm Laser.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Riehl's melanosis is a chronic acquired hyperpigmentation disorder that causes significant cosmetic problems for patients with this condition. Several treatment options, including low-fluence Q-switched Nd:YAG (QSNY) 1064-nm laser treatment, have been attempted with inconsistent results. We aimed to investigate the beneficial effect of mid-fluence QSNY 1064-nm laser in the treatment of Riehl's melanosis. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted on patients repetitively treated with mid-fluence (3.5-5 J/cm2 with a spot size of 5 mm and a pulse rate of 10 Hz) QSNY 1064-nm laser. Twenty-one patients with Riehl's melanosis were involved. Clinical photographs, treatment parameters, and side effects were reviewed to assess the safety and efficacy of the modality. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 57.00 ±8.2 years, and there were 20 female patients and 1 male patient. The mean number of treatment sessions was 5.95 ± 3.6, and the mean interval between each session was 39.12 ± 13.4 days. After treatment, the mean melasma area and severity index score decreased from 12.53 ± 10.2 to 5.98 ± 5.3. At the final visit, 16 of the 21 (76.1%) patients were considered to have moderately or very much improved. No severe side effects were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Repetitive mid-fluence QSNY 1064-nm laser treatment may be an effective and safe optional modality for Riehl's melanosis. Lasers Surg. Med. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Effects of aromatherapy on the anxiety, vital signs, and sleep quality of percutaneous coronary intervention patients in intensive care units.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of aromatherapy on the anxiety, sleep, and blood pressure (BP) of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) patients in an intensive care unit (ICU). Fifty-six patients with PCI in ICU were evenly allocated to either the aromatherapy or conventional nursing care. Aromatherapy essential oils were blended with lavender, roman chamomile, and neroli with a 6 : 2 : 0.5 ratio. Participants received 10 times treatment before PCI, and the same essential oils were inhaled another 10 times after PCI. Outcome measures patients' state anxiety, sleeping quality, and BP. An aromatherapy group showed significantly low anxiety (t = 5.99, P < .001) and improving sleep quality (t = -3.65, P = .001) compared with conventional nursing intervention. The systolic BP of both groups did not show a significant difference by time or in a group-by-time interaction; however, a significant difference was observed between groups (F = 4.63, P = .036). The diastolic BP did not show any significant difference by time or by a group-by-time interaction; however, a significant difference was observed between groups (F = 6.93, P = .011). In conclusion, the aromatherapy effectively reduced the anxiety levels and increased the sleep quality of PCI patients admitted to the ICU. Aromatherapy may be used as an independent nursing intervention for reducing the anxiety levels and improving the sleep quality of PCI patients.

Geranyl derivative of phloroacetophenone induces cancer cell-specific apoptosis through Bax-mediated mitochondrial pathway in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.

Plant-derived polyhenols inhibit cancer cell proliferation and induce apoptosis. Recently, prenylflavonoids and alkyl-phloroacetophenones have been reported for their in vitro antitumor activity. In the present study, we examined the cytotoxic activity of prenyl (3-PAP) and geranyl (3-GAP) derivatives of phloroacetophenone, and xanthohumol (XN), a prenyl-chalcone, in human breast cancer (MCF-7) and human sarcoma (HT1080) cell lines in vitro. 3-GAP showed the strongest cytotoxicity in these cell lines with IC(50) values of less than 10 µM. In addition, we report that 3-GAP is a more potent anti-cancer agent for breast cancer than XN which is a well-known anticancer flavonoid. Moreover, 3-GAP did not induce cytotoxicity in the normal cell line, TCMK-1, whereas 3-PAP and XN significantly reduced TCMK-1 cell viability. In 3-GAP-treated MCF-7 cells, nuclear accumulation and transcriptional activity of p53 were increased. In addition, pro-apoptotic Bax but not B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) expression was increased by 3-GAP. In accordance with the Bax increase, 3-GAP induced mitochondrial cytochrome c release and activated caspase-9, an initiator of the caspase cascade. In the MCF-7 cell line which does not express caspase-3, activation of caspase-7, a member of the caspase-3 subfamily, was increased by 3-GAP. The present results indicate that synthetic 3-GAP is a safe and effective anti-cancer agent, and the Bax-mediated mitochondrial pathway is the main apoptosis signaling pathway of 3-GAP in MCF-7 cells.