In vivo analysis of the stratum corneum of Japanese neonates and infants using confocal Raman spectroscopy: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Physiological skin properties of neonates and infants change drastically after birth and are implicated in the onset of atopic dermatitis and other diseases. Studies have measured physiological skin properties in infants; however, how these properties change over time remains unclear. No reports have measured ceramide in the stratum corneum of infants using confocal Raman spectroscopy; hence, we used it to measure the physiological properties of the skin, including ceramide, in infants. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The water content and other factors in the skin of infants aged 0, 1, and 6 months were measured. All measurements were performed five times indoors at 22 ± 2°C and 50% ± 10% relative humidity in the middle of the calf at 4-µm distances, and their mean was calculated. RESULTS: The water content of the area between the skin surface and superficial layers was the lowest in newborns as compared with other ages, and the deeper the skin layer, the higher the water content. The stratum corneum, evaluated using confocal Raman spectroscopy, was the thickest in newborns and gradually thinned with age. Its water content was the lowest in newborns. The levels of natural moisturizing factor, ceramide, and cholesterol were higher in newborns and tended to decrease with age. CONCLUSION: This report is the first to evaluate ceramide in the stratum corneum of infants using confocal Raman spectroscopy and could help in conducting subsequent longitudinal measurements of physiological skin properties in neonates and infants.

Structural and transport properties of neutral radical crystals of CoIII(tmp)(CN)2 (tmp = 5,10,15,20-tetramethylporphyrinato) and the CN-bridged polymer [CoIII(tmp)(CN)]n.

An axially ligated Co(tmp) (tmp = 5,10,15,20-tetramethylporphyrinato) anion, [CoIII(tmp)(CN)2]-, has been prepared and subjected to electrochemical oxidation to obtain the open shell tmp π-ligand. With acetone as the solvent, solvent-free neutral radical crystals of CoIII(tmp)(CN)2 are obtained, whereas solvent-inclusive crystals of CoIII(tmp)(CN)2·2CH3CN are obtained with CH3CN as the solvent. In both crystals, the open shell tmp ring deforms into a ruffled form, which makes the π-π interactions in the crystal weak. Thus, the electrical conductivity is low, and the crystals behave as semiconductors with a room temperature resistivity of 106 Ω cm and an activation energy of about 0.3 eV. When the solvent is acetone, non-oxidized crystals of the CN-bridged polymer {[CoIII(tmp)(CN)](acetone)}n are obtained as a byproduct. The closed shell tmp ring deforms into a ruffled form, and there π-π interactions in the crystal are negligible. The room temperature resistivity is rather high at about 108 Ω cm.

Laryngeal tuberculosis: A report of 17 cases.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to reduce misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment of laryngeal tuberculosis. METHODS: Between April 2009 and March 2013, 1660 inpatients with tuberculosis were treated at the Osaka Prefectural Medical Center for Respiratory and Allergic Diseases. Seventeen of these patients were diagnosed with laryngeal tuberculosis. Criteria used for diagnosis were findings of histologic examination of biopsy specimens (2 patients) or clinical response of granuloma to antituberculosis therapy (15 patients). Medical records were used for this retrospective study. RESULTS: Patients' age ranged from 30 to 84 years with an average of 51.4±14.0 years (mean±SE); nine were men and eight were women. The most frequent chief complaint was hoarseness (n=15). Thirteen patients had persistent cough before they showed otolaryngologic symptoms. Endoscopic findings were categorized into five types of lesions: perichondritic (n=6), ulcerative (n=6), granulomatous (n=6), polypoid (n=1) and nonspecific inflammatory (n=1). Laryngeal tuberculosis showed as a single lesion in one patient and as multiple lesions in the other patients. The most commonly involved site was the true vocal cord (n=16, 94.1%), while 16 patients showed radiographic evidence of active pulmonary tuberculosis. These results indicate that deterioration of the lesions tended to result in the occurrence of multiple lesions. CONCLUSION: While morbidity in tuberculosis has been decreasing in Japan, a significant number of patients still has laryngeal tuberculosis in association with advanced pulmonary tuberculosis. If a patient has a protracted cough, laryngeal tuberculosis should be taken into consideration for differential diagnosis. Pulmonary imaging study should be performed for early diagnosis and to prevent the infection from spreading.

A novel approach to automated genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis using a panel of 15 MIRU VNTRs.

In this study, we present a new approach to variable number tandem repeats (VNTR) analysis using the QIAxcel capillary electrophoresis system and a software-integrated peak calling function. Allelic ladders representing 15 mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units (MIRU)-VNTR loci were used to define peak calling tables thereby enabling high precision Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain identification.

[Comparative study of the efficacy of the COBAS TaqMan and LAMP assay for the rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis].

UNLABELLED: OBJECTIVE; The COBAS TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay (TaqMan assay) is a well-accepted and widely distributed molecular-based diagnostic test for tuberculosis. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of the LAMP assay (loopamp MTBC detection kit) as an alternative molecular-based diagnostic kit for tuberculosis, through comparison with the TaqMan assay. STUDY PERIOD AND METHODS: This study was conducted over a period of approximately 2 months, between May and July 2012. We collected 48 samples (43 sputum, 2 gastric fluid, 2 pleural fluid, and 1 pus fluid samples) from patients who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis through the culture method, but had not received any treatment for more than one week. All samples were processed using the CC-E pre-treatment reagent (Japan BCG) prior to performing the TaqMan and LAMP assay. For the TaqMan assay, 100 microL of supernatant was used after centrifugation at 1,000 rpm for 1 minute, whereas 60 microL of the precipitate in the same sample was used for the LAMP assay. RESULTS: In total, 23 out of 48 samples were identified as positive for tuberculosis according to smear microscopy tests, among which 15, 4, and 4 samples had smear test scores or 1+, 2+, and 3+, respectively. All the samples that tested positive in the smear test, regardless of the score, also tested positive in both the TaqMan and TB-LAMP assays (100%). Of the 25 smear-negative samples, we noted that 16 tested positive by the TaqMan assay (64%), whereas 20 tested positive by the LAMP assay (80%). DISCUSSION: Compared with the TaqMan assay, the LAMP assay showed a higher positive rate among the smear-negative samples. We believe that this is because substances in the samples acted as co-precipitating agents, resulting in the presence of a larger number of bacteria in the precipitates than in the supernatants. Thus, the findings indicate that the application of the LAMP method to precipitates obtained following CC-E pre-treatments may lead to prompt diagnosis of tuberculosis, with a level of sensitivity comparable to that of culture tests.