Single Channel Image Enhancement (SCIE) of White Blood Cells Based on Virtual Hexagonal Filter (VHF) Designed over Square Trellis.

White blood cells (WBCs) are the important constituent of a blood cell. These blood cells are responsible for defending the body against infections. Abnormalities identified in WBC smears lead to the diagnosis of disease types such as leukocytosis, hepatitis, and immune system disorders. Digital image analysis for infection detection at an early stage can help fast and precise diagnosis, as compared to manual inspection. Sometimes, acquired blood cell smear images from an L2-type microscope are of very low quality. The manual handling, haziness, and dark areas of the image become problematic for an efficient and accurate diagnosis. Therefore, WBC image enhancement needs attention for an effective diagnosis of the disease. This paper proposed a novel virtual hexagonal trellis (VHT)-based image filtering method for WBC image enhancement and contrast adjustment. In this method, a filter named the virtual hexagonal filter (VHF), of size 3 × 3, and based on a hexagonal structure, is formulated by using the concept of the interpolation of real and square grid pixels. This filter is convolved with WBC ALL-IBD images for enhancement and contrast adjustment. The proposed filter improves the results both visually and statically. A comparison with existing image enhancement approaches proves the validity of the proposed work.

Utility Of Heart Type Fatty Acid Binding Protein (H-Fabp) Point Of Care Test In The Early Hours Of Stemi Compared With Troponin-I In Pakistani Population.

BACKGROUND: Acute coronary syndrome remains a dominant cause of high morbidity and mortality despite advancements in treatment This study was conducted to examine the utility of point-of-care test of heart-type fatty-acid binding protein (h-FABP) and compare it with the point-of-care test of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in the first 06 hours of STEMI. METHODS: This cross-sectional, comparative study which was conducted in Rawalpindi institute of cardiology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from January to June 2015. Serum samples of 125 patients with the diagnosis of STEMI, presenting with chest pain of less than 6 hours' duration, were analysed for quantitative and qualitative determination of h-FABP and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) using rapid immunochromatographic technique in the emergency department. Samples were taken at presentation and after 12 hours. RESULTS: Out of 125 patients, 112 were males and 13 were females with a mean age of 54.26±9.53 years. The average symptom-to-sample time was 3.19±1.44 hours (median 3 hours). Mean h-FABP levels were significantly higher than the mean cTnI levels (29.10±30.66 vs 0.94±2.02; p=0.000). Overall, HFABP was more sensitive than cTnI (72% vs 26.4%). The sensitivity of cTnI within 0-2, 2-4, and 4-6 hours of symptom onset was calculated to be 0%, 17.7%, and 75.9%, whereas sensitivity of HFABP was 35.3%, 79.03% and 100% respectively. There was not a single patient who was cTnI positive and H-FABP negative as compared to 57 patients who were FABP positive and cTnI negative. CONCLUSIONS: h-FABP is a promising cardiac biomarker for the early identification of myocardial ischemia and infarction. It could be a superior biomarker for earlier detection of ACS and screening of patients with non-cardiac chest pain.

(177) Lu-5-Fluorouracil a potential theranostic radiopharmaceutical: radiosynthesis, quality control, biodistribution, and scintigraphy.

The aim of this study is to develop (177) Lu-5-Flourouracil as a potential cancer therapeutic radiopharmaceutical. 5-Flourouracil (5-FU) is widely accepted as an anticancer drug of broad spectrum fame. The labeling of 5-FU was carried out at different set of experimental conditions using high specific activity of (177) LuCl3 . The optimum conditions for maximum radiochemical yield was set: 5-FU (5 mg), (177) LuCl3 (185 MBq), diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (10 µg), reaction volume (2 mL), pH (5.5), temperature (80°C), and reaction time (20 min). The radiochemical labeling was assessed with Whatman No. 2 paper, instant thin layer chromatographic, and radio-HPLC, which revealed >94% labeling results with sufficient stability up to 6 h. Serum stability study also showed (177) Lu-5-FU promising stability. Biodistribution study in normal rats and rabbits showed liver, stomach, kidney, and heart as area of increased tracer accumulation just after injection, which decreased to 1.4%, 0.4%, 0.2%, and 0.39% ID/g, respectively, after 72 h. Glomerular filtration rate and cytotoxicity study results of (177) Lu-5-FU showed it had no adverse effect on renal function and nontoxic to blood cells. The promising characteristics of (177) Lu-5-FU, that is, clever elimination from kidney and nontoxic nature toward blood cells make it the radiopharmaceutical for further testing in patients for therapeutic purposes.

Preparation of (99m)Tc-labelled methotraxate by a direct labeling technique as a potential diagnostic agent for breast cancer and preliminary clinical results.

Methotrexate (MTX) is being used in clinical oncology for the treatment of a wide variety of cancers. The aim of the present study was to label directly MTX with (99m)Tc by using Sn/pyrophosphate as reducing agent and to use this labeled compound as a potential anticancer radiopharmaceutical for breast cancer imaging. We studied the labeling efficiency of the (99m)Tc-MTX compound by paper chromatography and instant thin layer chromatography (ITLC) in acetone and saline and found it to be more than 95%. In vitro stability of labeled MTX in serum was studied up to 5h. Partition coefficient in n-octanol and saline indicated that the labeled radiopharmaceutical was hydrophilic. We then tested (99m)Tc-MTX in 5 breast cancer female patients. Protein bound (99m)Tc-MTX showed rapid clearance from blood. The biodistibution data suggested that (99m)Tc-MTX was cleared by the kidneys and the liver. Patients ' data also showed highly significant uptake of (99m)Tc-MTX in breast cancer. In conclusion, this study indicated that (99m)Tc-MTX may be used as a potential diagnostic agent for breast cancer patients imaging and may show treatment efficiency in case MTX is to be used for treatment.