Influence of optical clearing agents on the scattering properties of human nail bed and blood microrheological properties: In vivo and in vitro study.

Optical clearing agents (OCAs) are substances that temporarily modify tissue's optical properties, enabling better imaging and light penetration. This study aimed to assess the impact of OCAs on the nail bed and blood using in vivo and in vitro optical methods. In the in vivo part, OCAs were applied to the nail bed, and optical coherence tomography and optical digital capillaroscopy were used to evaluate their effects on optical clearing and capillary blood flow, respectively. In the in vitro part, the collected blood samples were incubated with the OCA and blood aggregation properties were estimated using diffuse light scattering techniques. The results indicate that OCAs significantly influence the optical properties of the nail bed and blood microrheology. These findings suggest that OCAs hold promise for improving optical imaging and diagnostics, particularly for nail bed applications, and can modify blood microrheology.

Label-Free Multiphoton Microscopy: The Origin of Fluorophores and Capabilities for Analyzing Biochemical Processes.

Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) is a method of molecular imaging and specifically of intravital imaging that is characterized by high spatial resolution in combination with a greater depth of penetration into the tissue. MPM is a multimodal method based on detection of nonlinear optical signals - multiphoton fluorescence and optical harmonics - and also allows imaging with the use of the parameters of fluorescence decay kinetics. This review describes and discusses photophysical processes within major reporter molecules used in MPM with endogenous contrasts and summarizes several modern experiments that illustrate the capabilities of label-free MPM for molecular imaging of biochemical processes in connective tissue and cells.

Combined influence of the local atmosphere conditions and space weather on three parameters of 24-h electrocardiogram monitoring.

The effect of local atmosphere status and space weather on the healthy volunteers and the patients suffering arterial hypertension (AH) is studied. The research group included 12 healthy volunteers and 15 patients suffering AH of 1-2 degree. In the period of 24-h electrocardiogram monitoring (ECG), all the patients suffering AH continued to take effective antihypertensive therapy individually prescribed. All the patients and volunteers had normal sinus rhythm without disorders in cardiac conduction pathways. The ECG monitoring covered the period from November 23, 2016 till March 29, 2017. During this period, 4 moderate and 11 minor magnetic storms occurred. The horizontal component of the magnetic field recorded ranged from 140 to 270 nT. We used multi-classifier algorithm based on the decision tree with parallel branching, which specially developed by the authors. Apart from the horizontal component of magnetic field, 6 basic characteristics of the local weather data were used as the predictors of the algorithm. The output of this algorithm is elementary statement of cause-consequence connection (insight). In the periods of weak frost and intense precipitations (snow or rain with snow), the combination of rather high horizontal component of the magnetic field with elevated atmospheric pressure and humidity resulted in abnormal RR, PR, and QT intervals of ECG.

Effect of geomagnetic storms on the erythrocyte sedimentation rate in ischemic patients.

The dynamics of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) in patients with ischemic disease shows a significantly different pattern in the days of raised geomagnetic activity as compared to quiet days. This is revealed by a greater intensity of ESR variations during geomagnetic storms as compared to the days of when there was little or no sun activity (quiet sun). Such behavior of red blood cells reflects the patient's individual sensitivity to geomagnetic field fluctuations. This article discusses a possible mechanism of ESR variations.