Investigation of the OAM EM wave tissue irradiation at millimeter-wave frequencies.

Recently, there has been an increase of interest in the use of electromagnetic (EM) waves with helical wavefronts, known as the orbital angular momentum (OAM) waves. Applications in the field of biomedicine have been foreseen, such as medical imaging and diagnosis, deep-tissue imaging, biosensing, and communication with medical implants. Other possible applications include various localized tissue treatments or tissue ablation. The available references mainly study the interaction of OAM light with biological structures, offering some insights into the biophotonics effects, but without the investigation of how to plan tissue exposures or how to estimate the EM field parameters in a particular case of application. We use the previously developed short dipole modeling of OAM EM fields to study the above problems by altering the OAM beam parameters and the distance from the target tissue. The results could guide the design of components and devices based on OAM EM waves.

Distinct fatty acid redistribution and textural changes in the brain tissue upon the static magnetic field exposure.

We observed different outcomes upon the subacute exposure to the 128 mT highly homogeneous static magnetic field (SMF) when its orientation was (i) aligned with the vertical component of the geomagnetic field; (ii) in the opposite direction. We employed the fatty acids (FA) composition and digital image analyses (DIA) to provide insights into the underlying processes and examine the possible weak SMF effects. Swiss-Webster male mice were whole-body exposed for 1 h/day over five days. Brain tissue's thin liquid chromatography resulted in brain FA composition, indicating a possible sequence of changes due to the SMF exposure. Quantitative DIA accurately assessed different image parameters. Delicate textural changes were revealed in the group where pathohistological or biochemical alterations have not been detected. DIA-based biological markers seem to be very promising for studying delicate tissue changes, which results from the high sensitivity and wide availability of DIA.

Morphological, fractal, and textural features for the blood cell classification: the case of acute myeloid leukemia.

Microscopic examination of stained peripheral blood smears is, nowadays, an indispensable tool in the evaluation of patients with hematological and non-hematological diseases. While a rapid automated quantification of the regular blood cells is available, recognition and counting of immature white blood cells (WBC) still relies mostly on the microscopic examination of blood smears by an experienced observer. Recently, there are efforts to improve the prediction by various machine learning approaches. An open dataset collection including the recently digitalized single-cell images for 200 patients, from peripheral blood smears at 100 × magnification, was used. We studied different morphological, fractal, and textural descriptors for WBC classification, with an aim to indicate the most reliable parameters for the recognition of certain cell types. Structural properties of both the mature and non-mature leukocytes obtained from (i) acute myeloid leukemia patients, or (ii) non-malignant controls, were studied in depth, with a sample size of about 25 WBC per group. We quantified structural and textural differences and, based on the statistical ranges of parameters for different WBC types, selected eight features for classification: Cell area, Nucleus-to-cell ratio, Nucleus solidity, Fractal dimension, Correlation, Contrast, Homogeneity, and Energy. Classification Precision of up to 100% (80% on average) was achieved.

The Fractal and GLCM Textural Parameters of Chromatin May Be Potential Biomarkers of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in Hashimoto's Thyroiditis Specimens.

Occasionally, Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) share similar nuclear features. The current study aims to quantify the differences between the investigated specimens of HT-associated PTC versus the HT alone, to reduce the subjective experience of an observer, by the use of fractal parameters as well as gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) textural parameters. We have analyzed 250 segmented nuclei per group (nn = 25 per patient and np = 10 patients per group) using the ImageJ software (NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA) as well as an in-house written code for the GLCM analysis. The mean values of parameters were calculated for each patient. The results demonstrated that the malignant cells from the HT-associated PTC specimens showed lower chromatin fractal dimension (p = 0.0321) and higher lacunarity (p = 0.0038) compared with the corresponding cells from the HT specimens. Also, there was a statistically significant difference between the investigated specimens, in the contrast, correlation, angular second moment, and homogeneity, of the GLCM corresponding to the visual texture of follicular cell chromatin. The differences in chromatin fractal and GLCM parameters could be integrated with other diagnostic methods for the improved evaluation of distinctive features of the HT-associated PTC versus the HT in cytology and surgical pathology specimens.

Subchronic exposure to static magnetic field differently affects zinc and copper content in murine organs.

PURPOSE: Static magnetic fields (SMF) have been widely used in research, medicine and industry. Since zinc and copper play an important role in biological systems, we studied the effects of the subchronic continuous SMF exposure on their distribution in murine tissues. MATERIALS AND METHODS: For 30 days, mice were exposed to inhomogeneous, vertical, downward or upward oriented SMF of 1 mT averaged intensity with spatial gradient in vertical direction. RESULTS: SMF decreased the amount of copper and zinc in liver. In brain, zinc levels were increased and copper levels were decreased. In spleen, zinc content was reduced, while copper amount remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Subchronic exposure to SMF differently affected copper and zinc content in examined organs, and the changes were more pronounced for the downward oriented field. The outcome could be attributed to the protective, rather than the harmful effect of SMF.

Homogeneous static magnetic field of different orientation induces biological changes in subacutely exposed mice.

It has been shown that static magnetic field (SMF) of moderate intensity produces considerable impact on biological systems. SMF can be homogeneous or inhomogeneous. In many studies, inhomogeneous SMF was employed. Aware that inhomogeneous SMF could result in experimental variability, we investigated the influence of a vertical homogeneous SMF of different orientation. Male Swiss-Webster 9- to 10-week-old mice were subacutely exposed to upward- and downward-oriented SMF of 128 mT generated by a cyclotron for 1 h/day during a 5-day period. We found that SMF affected various organs and that these effects were, to some degree, dependent on SMF orientation. Both upward- and downward-oriented SMF caused a reduction in the amount of total white blood cells (WBC) and lymphocytes in serum, a decrease of granulocytes in the spleen, kidney inflammation, and an increase in the amount of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). In addition, upward-oriented SMF caused brain edema and increased spleen cellularity. In contrast, downward-oriented SMF induced liver inflammation and a decrease in the amount of serum granulocytes. These effects might represent a specific redistribution of pro-inflammatory cells in blood and among various organs. It appears that homogeneous SMF of 128 mT affected specific organs in the body, rather than simultaneously and equally influencing the entire body system.

Hematological parameters' changes in mice subchronically exposed to static magnetic fields of different orientations.

Static magnetic fields (SMFs) are time independent fields whose intensity can be spatially dependent. This study investigates influence of subchronic continuous exposure to upward and downward directed SMF on hematological parameters and spleen cellularity in mice. The experiment is performed on the Northern hemisphere; consequently, the vertical component of geomagnetic field is directed downward. Male, Swiss-Webster, 6 weeks old mice were exposed to the vertically declining SMF. Mice were divided in three groups and continuously exposed or not exposed for 28 days to the SMF characterized by the averaged field of 16 mT and averaged field gradient of 10 mT/cm. Differently oriented SMF did not alter hemoglobin and hematocrit content among the groups. However, the groups exposed to the upward and downward fields had statistically significant higher levels of serum transferrin compared to the control. Moreover, spleen cellularity in animals in the downward group was significantly higher compared to the upward and control group. In addition, spleen lymphocytes in both of the exposed groups were significantly higher than in the control group. In contrast, spleen granulocytes in the exposed groups were significantly lower than in the control group. Significant decrease was also observed in brain and liver iron content with concomitant increase of iron in serum and spleen in exposed animals. Subchronic continuous exposure to 16 mT SMF caused lymphocyte and granulocyte redistribution between spleen and blood. This distribution is typical for stress induced hematological changes. These results suggest that observed changes were not due to an unspecific stress response, but that they were rather caused by specific adaptation to subchronic SMF exposure.