Search results for "Biomedical"
showing 10 items of 2328 documents
Bilateral photoplethysmography studies of the leg arterial stenosis.
2005
A newly developed portable multi-channel photoplethysmography (PPG) device has been used for comparative studies of 20 healthy control subjects and 45 patients with diagnosed arterial stenosis in a leg. The peripheral blood pulsations were detected simultaneously at four body sites-the same fingers and toes of both arms and legs. The PPG pulses recorded at the periphery of the stenotic leg, if compared with those of the healthy leg, were much weaker, with delayed arrival as a consequence of increased pulse wave transit time (PWTT) due to higher vascular resistance. The specific PWTT delays for the occluded legs were in the range of 20-80 ms, while in the case of healthy subjects the leg PPG…
Combined effect of elastic energy and myoelectrical potentiation during stretch-shortening cycle exercise.
1982
In addition to the utilization of muscle's elastic energy enhancement of performance in exercise involving stretch-shortening cycle might be also due to simultaneous increase of myoelectrical activity. This hypothesis was tested by examining three athletes during jumping exercise on force-platform. Vertical jumps were performed with and without preliminary counter-movement, and the jumps were called counter-movement jump (CMJ) and squatting jump (SJ), respectively. In both conditions several jumps were performed also with extra loads on the shoulders (15–220% of b. wt.). Additional droppingjumps (DJ) were executed from different heights (20–100 cm). During jumping exercise myoelectrical act…
Imaging of sarcopenia.
2016
Sarcopenia is currently considered a geriatric syndrome increasing in older people. The consequences of sarcopenia – in terms of impaired mobility, limited self-sufficiency and disability – have been amply demonstrated, increasing the need to develop methods to identify muscle mass loss as early as possible. Although sarcopenia involves a reduction in both muscle mass and function, loss of muscle mass remains the essential criterion for diagnosing this condition in daily practice. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging represent the gold standard for studying body composition, and can identify quantitative and qualitative changes in muscle mass. These techniques are costly, time…
Targeted Hybrid Nanocarriers as a System Enhancing the Skin Structure
2021
The skin is constantly exposed to external and internal factors that disturb its function. In this work, two nanosystems-levan nanoparticles and a surfactin-stabilized nanoemulsion were preserved (tested for microbial growth) and characterized (size, polydispersity, Zeta potential, and stability). The nanosystems were introduced in the model formulations-cream, tonic, and gel, and confirmed by TEM. The analysis showed that nanoemulsion has a spherical morphology and size 220–300 nm, while levan nanoparticles had irregular shapes independently of the use of matrix and with particle size (130–260 nm). Additionally, we examined the antiradical effect of levan nanoparticles and nanoemulsion in …
Reasons behind flu vaccine acceptance and suggested interventions to promote flu vaccination acceptance among healthcare workers.
2020
The flu vaccination rate is still too low, both among healthcare providers (HCPs) and among health sciences university students. This study aims to assess the reasons of past and future flu vaccination acceptance among health sciences university students, and second, to identify what interventions would be helpful to foster acceptance of the flu vaccination among HCPs. A multicentre cross-sectional study was performed, using a validated questionnaire administered to health sciences students enrolled in 14 Italian universities. A multivariable logistic regression model was used. A total of 3131 questionnaires were collected. The statement that mandatory vaccination is required to increase a…
RGD-mimic polyamidoamine-montmorillonite composites with tunable stiffness as scaffolds for bone tissue-engineering applications
2017
This paper reports on the development of montmorillonite (MMT)-reinforced hydrogels, based on a peptidomimetic polyamidoamine carrying guanidine pendants (AGMA1), as substrates for the osteo-induction of osteoblast precursor cells. AGMA1 hydrogels of various degrees of crosslinking responded favourably to MMT reinforcement, giving rise to composite hydrogels with shear storage modulus G', when fully swollen in water, up to 200 kPa, i.e. 20 times higher than the virgin hydrogels and of the same order or higher than other hydrogel-based composites proposed for orthopaedic applications. This significant improvement was ascribed to the effective interpenetration between the polymer matrix and t…
Mechanical impact of the antagonist muscles during maximal dorsiflexion is action mode dependent
2019
Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) has long been considered as the best measure of neuromuscular performance. However, when MVC is paired with electromyographic (EMG) activity recording it has bee...
A Survey on Nature-Inspired Medical Image Analysis: A Step Further in Biomedical Data Integration
2019
Natural phenomena and mechanisms have always intrigued humans, inspiring the design of effective solutions for real-world problems. Indeed, fascinating processes occur in nature, giving rise to an ever-increasing scientific interest. In everyday life, the amount of heterogeneous biomedical data is increasing more and more thanks to the advances in image acquisition modalities and high-throughput technologies. The automated analysis of these large-scale datasets creates new compelling challenges for data-driven and model-based computational methods. The application of intelligent algorithms, which mimic natural phenomena, is emerging as an effective paradigm for tackling complex problems, by…
Materials and methods of signal enhancement for spectroscopic whole blood analysis: Novel research overview
2017
Abstract The early diagnosis of diseases is crucial for reducing morbidity and mortality and also for improving the quality of treatment process. Among various biological samples used to follow up the concentrations of disease markers, whole blood sensing can efficiently decrease analysis time by means of introducing methods with no pretreatment. In addition, the direct detection of markers in whole blood facilitates testing procedure and minimize the possibility of the loss of analytes in the process. Therefore, the assay of unprocessed whole blood is becoming increasingly important in clinical diagnostics and biomedical research. Incorporation of new advanced materials plays a major role …
Noninvasive sampling of phenylalanine by reverse iontophoresis.
1999
While iontophoresis is typically associated with drug delivery across the skin, the symmetry of the technique permits its application to the essentially noninvasive withdrawal of biologically important analytes from the subcutaneous space to the body's surface. The identification of other substances which can be monitored by this procedure, and to its optimization and development as a more general clinical chemistry tool, is a long-term objective. In this paper, we describe a preliminary in vitro investigation into the feasibility of extracting and analyzing the amino acid, phenylalanine, with the ultimate aim to develop a diagnostic test for phenylketonuria, a potentially fatal metabolic d…