7th International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam (BME7)

Hemodynamic parameters play a very important role in supporting physicians to diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases. This paper presents the results of the study on designing of noninvasive hemodynamic monitoring equipment using impedance cardiography (ICG). This is a measurement method that shows many advantages and is interested in the present. The equipment has ability of measurement and monitoring hemodynamic parameters include: heart rate HR; thoracic fluid content TFC; left ventricular ejection time LVET; stroke volume SV; cardiac output CO and ICG waveform. Results of measurement between the research equipment BK-NICO and the standard equipment of NICCOMO for 104 patients show that the hemodynamic parameters measured by the two equipments are quite small difference. Specifically, the average deviation of the parameters obtained, HR is 0.16 bpm, TFC is 0.73 1/kΩ, LVET is 5.95 ms, SV is 0.17 ml, CO is 0.01 lpm. With the results of the research, the device is fully capable of deploying the application into practice in the hospitals to replace the current invasive measurement method.

Our concept of “Less invasive treatment” is for both patient and medical staffs. We have invented three dimensional real-time MR image guided endoscopic surgical system using microwave devices which does not emit X-ray. This study aims to establish a less invasive operation system mentioned above. Developed Materials are as follows: (1) software for driving system, imaging of 3T MR scanner and integration of them. (2) MR compatible endoscope with position-direction sensor. (3) microwave energy devices for flexible endoscope. (4) new bending mechanism for catheter and guidewire. For (1) and (2), MR compatible flexible endoscope was invented which could be applied to the operation under 3T MR scanner. Its position and direction of tip is able to be timely reflected on the MR image. For (3), microwave energy was selected by the reason why this frequency band does not interfere with MR imaging. Microwave devices were developed not only MR compatible forceps for endoscope but also devices for open surgery. Open surgery microwave devices, “Acrosurg”, are already commercialized in Japan. For (4), new bending mechanism for catheter has been invented. The prototype catheter 0.58 mm in diameter could be bent with this mechanism. This mechanism is applied to endoscopic forceps, catheter for vessels and intestine. We evaluated the system integrated with developed technologies (1)–(3) using 5 mini pigs under general anesthesia. Laparoscopic liver ablation was performed with 3D real-time MR image guided. Now, we succeeded in a laparoscopic ablation of virtual liver cancer with microwave needle under this system.

The aim of this study was to develop steerable needle variations based on a simple loop shaped steering mechanism and assess steering performances using a tissue mimicking phantom. Two steerable needle types were developed based on the proposed loop shaped flexible mechanism, called Active Sheath. Each needle consisted of a loop shaped stylet with a conical tip made of superelastic metal alloy Beta-titanium inserted into a fluororesin flexible cannula of a percutaneous transhepatic cholangiodrainage (PTCD) tube with 1.3 mm outer diameter. Push and pull inputs applied to one of the proximal stylet ends can bend the needle right or left. Stylet (A) was homogeneous whereas stylet (B) was thinned around the tip. A robotic steerable system was developed to ensure accurate and precise inputs. The designs were implemented in agar phantom using two input patterns: (1) push and (2) push and pull sequentially. Needle paths with input pattern (1) could be curved depending on input magnitude from 0–0.5 mm at 0.1 mm intervals. Lateral distance for stylet (B) curved path with 0.4 mm input was 35.9 mm from the standard straight path and 16.9% longer than that for stylet (A). Compared with stainless steel and flexible bevel tip needles, stylet (B) distances were 3.1 times longer and 8.5% shorter, respectively. The proposed steerable needles could follow S shaped paths using input (2), and stylet (B) lateral distances were 1.9 times those for stylet (A). Thus, the proposed needles will enable physicians to plan curved paths and extend the target range depending on path shape flexibility.

This study aims to develop a magnetic resonance (MR)-compatible flexible endoscope for minimally invasive real-time MR image-guided microwave ablation as proposed by the author with a widely available 3-Tesla close-bore MR scanner and to assess the feasibility of including a position tracking sensor. A unique MR-compatible high-definition (HD) endoscope was developed to access a target organ from outside the scanner bore by obtaining endoscope optical camera and scan images simultaneously. The camera unit consists of a CMOS image sensor with 400 × 400 pixels. The camera head and the lens barrel are made of phosphor bronze and a Pebax elastomer sheath with a 2.1 mm diameter shielded by tin-plated copper wires. The image resolution was up-converted to 700 × 700 pixels using a high-resolution image processing technique. The endoscope had two working channels (2.0 mm in each outer diameter) and two sensor ports (2.5 mm in each outer diameter). One port had a gradient-magnetic-based tracking sensor to identify the tip position and orientation; the outer diameter and length of the endoscope were 11 and 1200 mm. A pig was scanned as a pre-procedural MR image and the result was used as navigation images to assess the endoscope’s feasibility. The camera image quality was sufficient to identify organs without critical noise during scanning, and its resolution was 295 times that of the conventional MR-compatible fiber endoscope we developed. The refresh rates of the sensor position and orientation were <0.5 s, which includes data transmission from the scanner to the navigation software. The verification study showed that the proposed MR-compatible endoscope has the potential to enable a surgeon to access target organs from the outside bore while simultaneously obtaining optical and scanned images.

There are many biological signal measurement systems such as BIOPAC and evaluation boards for specific signals. However, most of these boards and systems are manufactured for research, not for educational purpose. There are many limitations in adding or modifying circuits directly. Therefore, we developed a bio-signal acquisition and processing system (BMDAQ) that is highly utilized in educational purpose. The BMDAQ board consists of an analog board, a digital board and PC application programs, as well as teaching materials of educational lectures. We designed an analog board using three Op-Amps instrumentation amplifiers instead of a single chip for electrocardiogram (ECG). The digital board is designed to convert the signal coming from the analog board into digital and transmit the data to the PC through serial communication. The application program provides real-time filtering of biomedical signal and display of original and filtered signal. BMDAQ board and textbook were designed and produced for educational purpose and have been used as teaching materials.

Human body height and weight are the key factors for personal health monitoring and many works have been conducted to accurately and conveniently measure these two physiology parameters. However, in many conditions such as in the outer space, measuring human body weight becomes impossible for traditional approaches such as using weight scale. In this paper, we present a medical instrument, called the Ultrasonic Measurer to measure human body height and weight using a non-contact approach. This is a low-cost, efficient device to estimate human body sizes using an ultrasonic sensor, the SRF04. This sensor provides good measurements in close distance over a range up to 300 cm. Moreover, we present a convenient approach to estimate human body weight from the measured sizes using the close relationship between a human body’s weight and its sizes, despite the variation in shapes. The measurements and estimations were implemented on a set of 50 men and women with different body shapes. The proposed method proved to give good results as the sizes are estimated with the average error of less than 0.3% and weight is estimated with the average error of less than 2.8%. The module is currently designed to be used as a standalone device. In the future, the module is equipped with the Internet of Things (IoT) for various remote health monitoring applications.

Treatment planning plays an important role in improving the quality of life of patients, especially in brain tumor disease. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a widely used imaging technique to assess these tumors, but the large of data obtained by MRI makes manual segmentation in time-consuming, less precise quantitative measurements in the clinical practice. We present an automatic brain tumor segmentation method based on a deep neural network with U-Net architecture to classify tumorous tissues into four classes for necrosis, edema, non-enhancing and enhancing tumor. Our network was trained and validated on the Brain Tumor Segmentation Challenge 2013 (BRATS 2013) dataset. Our method obtained the high performance score with the metric values Dice = 0.83 and sensitivity = 0.85. These results were compared to the similar methods.

Our study aims to design the prototype system, which includes the non-contact temperature sensor, embedded system, and database. Using a specialized mechanical fixture and a simple calibration technique, preliminary results show desirable temperature measurement performance. To reduce the inconvenience caused during direct measurement to the users such as having the thermometer clamped to one part of the body (mouth, armpit, or rectum) and kept fixed for a certain period, our device provides a new measuring method without the need for contact and quickly displays results with high accuracy compare with other devices. Moreover, our purpose is to use this device for making the timely diagnosis of malaria through the human temperature in households, schools, and hospitals.

Dental diseases are ranked the third disaster after cancer and cardiovascular by World Health Organization. The early diagnosis of decay is important for children and adults to treat and prevent diseases. In this study, a fluorescence device was designed and manufactured for this purpose. Device used a 380-nm LED, which stimulates the luminescence of porphyrins—a product of Streptococcus Mutans bacteria in plaque or caries. This equipment was included camera which can record images in real time as well as the fluorescence image was processed by a designed software. The test results showed that the fluorescence camera can detect numerous types of the carious lesions including dental plaque, dental caries, hidden caries and the early stage of caries. In this research, a statistic software was applied for this research in order to show the device’s sensitivity and specificity.

NIR technique depends on scattering and absorption of sound enamel, dentin and damaged tissues in NIR wavelengths. Several researches have indicated that the optical properties of sound and demineralized enamel-dentin in NIR wavelengths are so different. In this study, two optical systems consisting of the transillumination and scattering methods were built to observe the approximal and occlusal of teeth in that order by 850 nm. The NIR images detected from these systems have high contrast. The areas suspected to be the demineralized enamel are distinctly distinguished from the stain and pigmentation because the demineralization areas are a lot darker than the surrounding areas in NIR images. In the clinical examination by using visible light, the early tooth lesions will be difficult to detect if they do not appear on the surface of the tooth. But under NIR illumination, the early tooth lesions are observed clearly in NIR images.

Electromyogram (EMG)—called myoelectric activity—representing the neuromuscular activity measuring electrical currents in the muscle. The current related studies show the potentials in applications of controlling peripheral devices, especially for handicapped people. This paper demonstrates a low-cost and non-invasive EMG acquisition system that collects and amplifies EMG signals from three surface EMG electrodes. The process of the acquired signal consists of 4 stages: amplification, filter, rectification, and low pass filter. The system also has an accelerometer sensor to detect hand movements, which improves the flexibility of control. Next, the processed signal is then analyzed and digitalized by a microcontroller (Arduino) to manipulate the external appliance, which can lead to further researches and studies to perform the application on other devices. For initial results, the system has been tested with 16 male and 15 female volunteers to validate the accuracy of the EMG sensor as well as compared it to EMG sensor in NI Toolkit. The results show both high accuracy and sensitivity of the designed system. The final product contains EMG acquisition system and code source for bio-signal processing and controlling the peripheral device.

The oxygen plays crucial role in our life. Especially, the brain and heart have a variety of sensitive with limited oxygen in the blood. If the limited oxygen which is called hypoxia in human body happens in several minutes, the human will be died immediately. Therefore, the pulse oximeter is compulsory for research and development. In this paper, we designed a new pulse oximetry which has a special function called telemedicine and a software program in the server for obtaining results of this device by using HL7 Standard. In this way, the patients can be supported and treated from far a distance. Indeed, it can be called a system of Internet of Thing (IoT) in health cares. By means of calibrating with SpO2 FLUKE simulator, the Tele-Pulse Oximeter works effectively as our expecting, and the result of patients on the server software is received accurately as well. In the near future, this device has a vast potential in Vietnam E-Health system.

Seismocardiogram (SCG) is a cardio-mechanical signal generated by the heart activities. The waveform is obtained by placing an accelerometer on the chest. This work proposes a low complex algorithm to identify the systolic and diastolic regions of the SCG in real time without referencing to the ECG as in the traditional methods. The technique uses the slope, an interpolation threshold, and systolic interval constraint to identify the regions. The method has an average detection error rate of 2.3% for systolic and 7.3% for diastolic on the eight testing subjects. The average processing time is 83.5 ms for one-minute of data which can be implemented in real-time wearable devices.

Computational anatomy refers to the study field of anatomical geometry and the visible scale of the form and structure of organisms. It greatly benefits cardiac experts by exposing the visual structure of the heart: by modelling internal organ in its three-dimension image, general conclusions can be drawn from observing its shape, taking its measurements, calculating its volume, and so on. This method has minimized the time taken as well as the cost needed to diagnose accurately. The goal of this paper is to create a software which allows to construct a 3D cardiac image from patient’s CT scan or MRI. Through this model, several data can be extracted and used to make the first-stage deduction whether the heart is in its healthy state. The state is determined by applying computer graphics and data analysis methods for modelling and computing.

In this project, we implemented a pilot cyber medical system which consists of 100 devices to measure blood pressures and heart rate, and a core software to collect and manage obtained data. We developed a special Manufacturing and Quality Test System to test and control the device’s quality during their manufacturing. The final products were tested for precision and reliability against a mercury device and a simulator. We developed a core software based on the Cloud Telemedicine Information System. It runs on personal computer and/or smartphone to provide considerable utilities for physicians to monitor patient’s blood pressures online. The healthcare providers will take care of patients from distance and intervene immediately, if necessary. Each patient has his/her own website. This allows patients to get access to their measurement history and exchange messages with the doctors when needed. The healthcare providers have also their own website to monitor their patients. To protect the confidentiality all data were coded using Advanced Encryption Standard 128 bit. This cyber medical system was implemented in Binh Duong province (in Vietnam) to test its efficacy. To this end, 100 patients will use the device and another 100 will not use it (control group). Both groups will be monitored by the same healthcare providers. The obtained results will be compared using paired t-test.

Nowadays, Researching in the electrospinning field has expanded significantly because electrospinning can create nanofiber scaffolds for the flourish of tissue engineering. The scaffold is essential a platform that supports the migration, proliferation of cells and formation of tissues for wound healing applications. Therefore, the developing of electrospinning is also mandatory for spreading of tissue engineering field at Vietnam. In electrospinning machines, the main components include a high voltage DC source, a syringe pump and a grounded collector. In this study, we designed a low-cost high voltage power for electrospinning process by using a Zero Cross Voltage Switching (ZVS) driver circuit and a flyback transformer. As a result, the power worked effectively and stably as well as we expected. To prove its advantage quality, we do an experiment and investigation to examining the high voltage in an electrospinning system; we found out a set of parameters in our conditions that give a good membrane of structure morphology at 15% (w/v) PCL, 1 ml/h, 17 KVDC, and 20 cm in distance between needle tip and collector.

Falls are a major global health problem that may result in long-term health issues, disabilities, and even death (~650,000 fatalities each year). Each year approximately 37.3 million elderly worldwide experience a fall event that is severe enough to require medical attention. This research proposes a system for activity assessment and fall detection intended for in-home applications using the Internet of Things (IoT) for real-time detection of falls events and potentially fall prevention using a low-cost, wearable sensor system. While the proposed system uses an integrated MEMS sensor (i.e. accelerometer, gyroscope) for biomechanical monitoring and event detection, the developed algorithms can also be deployed onto other smart devices. The system communicates periodically with a cloud server system for uploading, archiving, and analyzing sensor data. Data is transferred to the cloud. Once data is received, the cloud server can provide alerts (i.e. automated calls, SMS, EMAIL) to formal and informal caregivers as well as emergency services when falls or other emergencies occur. Additionally, individuals and their caregivers can access and review personalized activity information to assess health, wellness and independence. Preliminary tests using healthy subjects performing Activity Daily Living (ADL) is quite promising, with specificity to detect fall of 100% in about 200 h normal activities in real-world setting. This research will also present practical challenges to deployment of the proposed system in real-world settings including usability, performance, and feedback from end-users.

Uroflowmetry is a simple test measuring the volume of voided urine in a period of time. Being the only non-invasive test among urodynamic methods, it is most commonly ordered by urologists to evaluate the urination of patients, especially in males over 50 years old with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). In Vietnam, however, the test is only available in urology department in large hospitals or medical diagnostic centers as it is relatively new in the field and the cost of a uroflowmeter device is still very high. Aiming to make the device more affordable to urologists and clinics and thus increase accessibility of Vietnamese patients to the test, the engineers from Biomedical Engineering Department, Ho Chi Minh International University have developed IUROF, an electronic uroflowmeter. This device allows patients to perform the uroflowmetry at home; the results and data are collected in a memory card and sent to physicians. The objective of this study is to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of IUROF by comparing it with the Andromeda Helix, a commercialized uroflowmeter device currently used in hospitals. The study was conducted at MEDIC Healthcare Center (Vietnam) in three months. A total of 40 males (57.6 ± 10.1 years of age) with LUTS were eligible and agreed to participate in the study. After signing the informed consent, the patients took turn to urinate into the IUROF and Andromeda Helix. The order of testing by the two devices altered across patients. As a result, the mean difference of Qmax was 0.05 ml/s, Qave was 0.6 ml/s, Vvoid was 0.9 ml, and tvoid was 0.2 s between the two devices. All of these differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) of Qmax was 0.891, showing the high level of reliability of the IUROF as compared to the Andromeda Helix. The results show that the IUROF is technically comparable to the Andromeda Helix. This has an important implication for a product developed in a university laboratory to be commercialized in the market.

Background The concept of a multitasking surgical device used microwave energy has been developed over a decade. Then, a microwave scissor-shaped surgical instrument (Acrosurg.®) has been invented and employed for pre-clinical experiments. Methods An animal study using specific pathogen-free pigs was conducted to compare surgical functions of newly developed microwave coagulation surgical instrument (Acrosurg.®) with current electrosurgical devices such as the electric current-based LigaSureTM Small Jaw Sealer (LS) and the ultrasound-based Harmonic Focus® Shears (HF). The Acrosurg.® was tested on 5 mm vessels with regard to seal time, burst pressure (BP), lateral thermal injury (LTI), cutting time for hepatectomy and mesenterectomy. Results In the Acrosurg.®’s group, the seal time for 5 mm vessels was shorter and LTI was narrower in comparison with the outcomes in the LigaSureTM’s group. Although BP in the Acrosurg.®’s group was lower than BP in the LigaSureTM’s group, it reached approximately 900 mmHg. Cutting time for hepatectomy was not different in both groups (Acrosurg.® and Harmonic Focus®) but time consumption for mesenterectomy in the Acrosurg.®’s group was significantly shorter. There were some bleedings existing in both groups but achieving complete hemostasis. Conclusion Novel microwave coagulation surgical instrument has the same effectiveness as compared to other commercialized energy devices. Moreover, it is more advantageous to some specific tissues and could be considered on clinical trial.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia, which substantially increases the risk of stroke and other heart-related complications. Hence, forecasting the onset of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) has become increasingly paramount and influential in AF managements and preventive treatments. Previous studies mainly focused on utilizing the morphological-temporal or time-frequency features from the surface electrocardiogram (ECG) to heighten the accuracy of PAF classification but not truely yielded onset predictions. To address this issue, this paper proposes a model that deploys the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and Unscented Kalman Filter to approximate the nonlinear-system state distribution for PAF onset prediction. The model is based on a combination of Kalman filter algorithm and a neural fuzzy network to predict PAF onset in 70 patients. Initially, we extracted the feature AWSUM to quantify the accumulation of extrasystolic beats within 30-min ECG recordings prior to the PAF onset of 24 patients. The extracted features then were utilized to reconstruct the dynamic-system state space, on which neural fuzzy based UKF algorithm were performed. The forecasting results highlighted low-level prediction errors averaged over 24 patients, by which RMSE = 0.42 ± 0.24 for the training data and RMSE = 0.34 ± 0.46 for the testing data; the testing-error had large variance due to the interpatient variabilities and abrupt changes in the system.

Acoustic waves can hover and manipulate particles by the trapping effect. Since this energy has good penetration through the human tissues, acoustic manipulation have potential prospects for in vivo environments. However, previous attempts are constrained to the common physical host fluids like air, water or oil. In this paper, we delineate the generation of acoustic traps to levitate a particle in a single and composite biological layer. Furthermore, we also provide a thorough analysis of the behavior of the acoustic traps subjecting to the increase of frequency for the single medium case. The formation of acoustic traps in human-imitating fluids plays a major role for non-invasive treatment, target-drug delivery, and in vivo translation.

Cancellous bovine bone represents an inexhaustible source of material for bone tissue engineering. However, its natural marrow-filled structure can greatly limit the efficacy and prolong the duration of the decellularization procedure. Here this research formulates an efficient, shorten decellularization protocol for cancellous bovine bone with an initial delipidation step to improve the effect of following methods. The samples were then treated with a series of physical and chemical treatments including thermal shock and detergent wash. The samples acquired from this protocol have shown effective removal of cellular materials and fat while maintaining the essential bone extracellular matrix, which was confirmed through scanning electron microscopy observation and histological staining results. The decellularized bone showed potential to be further investigated, developed and combined with other material to create biocompatible scaffold for bone tissue engineering application.

Dentin hypersensitivity, a common and painful dental condition, can be treated by the promotion of dentin tubule occlusion. The objective of this study is to evaluate tubule occlusion capacity of Biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) with the available hydroxyapatite/β-tricalcium phosphate (HA/β-TCP) content ratios comprising of 80/20, 40/60 and 20/80. The experimental BCP samples were daily brushed on the demineralized bovine dentin for 7 days. Then, the dentin surface was observed by SEM. These results show that a decrease in the number of exposed dentin tubules varied ac-cording to different HA/β-TCP ratios in BCP powders.

The regeneration of bone tissue via tissue engineering procedures is a challenging task that requires the selection of materials/scaffolds, with tailored biological and physical properties, and possibly the use of osteogenic additives that can stimulate cells to produce and mineralize collagen. Apart from growth factors, whose use is restricted by their high cost, inorganic compounds, such as calcium phosphates or silicates, have demonstrated intrinsic ability to facilitate the collagen mineralization and to address the differentiation of cells towards osteoblast lineage. Silicon, in particular, is considered to have a great relevance in the early stages of bone formation. In the past, we investigated the use of silk fibroin scaffolds, in form of sponges or gels, for bone tissue engineering. In this paper we have combined silk fibroin with diatoms, that are silica-based organisms, and we have evaluated the biological response of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) cultured on diatom loaded fibroin sponges. We found proofs of the improved osteogenic activity of the diatoms loaded scaffolds in the increase of alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) and in the early fibronectin and collagen type I formation.

Local recurrent cancer remains a challenge for breast cancer patients receiving implants after mastectomy or lumpectomy. The use of radiotherapy and/or systemic administration of chemotherapeutic agents post-surgery can be beneficial yet they also kill healthy cells and introduce systemic side effects. In this study, a new method was introduced to utilize 3D printed microporous polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds as a multifunctional device—an implant and a drug delivery vehicle for targeted local delivery. Their microporous structure was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The dependence of release profiles of Doxorubicin (DOX) loaded scaffolds on pH and ionic strength of the environment was demonstrated. Lastly, their chemotherapeutic effect was characterized by in vitro. Overall, the results demonstrated the utility of the microporosity and surface charge of PCL scaffolds to immobilize DOX for local, targeted drug delivery.

Pericardial tissues have been studied and applied in biomedicine, especially in the cardiovascular field as vascular grafts for their advantages of availability, excellent biocompatibility, and low rate of infection. Porcine pericardial tissues with similar adequate biological and mechanical properties have also recently been in great interest for cardiovascular transplantation. Our study focused on the fabrication of vascular patch from acellular porcine pericardium. Porcine pericardium was collected and decellularized, which were then undergone the treatment in glutaraldehyde for sterilization and cross-linking. The results demonstrated that glutaraldehyde presented a great effectiveness in sterilization and increase the tensile strength of pericardium, which was also confirmed by the degradation resistance in plasma and collagenase solution. MTT assay confirmed liquid extracts from the glutaraldehyde treated pericardium caused no cytotoxicity towards human fibroblasts. Additionally, SEM image indicated that the treated pericardium can support an appropriate attachment of human endothelial progenitor cells. Taken together, our results demonstrated the glutaraldehyde treated pericardium to be a suitable patch material for further application in cardiovascular field as vascular grafts.

Zinc based alloys possess a number of attractive characteristics that make alloys potential candidates to use as implants for load bearing applications in the medical industry due to its good biocompatibility and biodegradability. In this current work, a number of binary Zn–Mg alloys were investigated in term of phase constitutions, microstructure, and mechanical properties. Magnesium was selected to tune mechanical properties of pure Zn. The microstructures of alloys were inspected by an optical metallographic microscope and SEM equipped with EDS analyser. Mechanical properties were tested using standard tensile testing instruments. While the Zn alloys with different wt% Mg are shown here, the influence of different content of Mg elements on mechanical properties also will present here.

Although autologous and artificial grafts are commonly used to solve cardiovascular disease or trauma, decellularized vessels scaffolds are recent promising materials for vascular transplantation. The purpose of this study was to introduce a simple and effective protocol to prepare decellularized porcine vessels. Porcine carotid arteries (pCA) were decellularized by 4 methods including 3 commonly protocols: SDS 0.5% for 24 h or distilled water for 24 h or Triton X100 0.1% for 24 h and our protocol, combination of SDS 0.5% 24 h and distilled water for 24 h. After removing the cells, structure and collagen were determined by Heamatoxylin/Eosin (HE) and Trichrome staining. In vitro cytotoxicity test on fibroblasts was performed according to ISO 10993-5. Additionally, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were seeded on the acellular porcine carotid arteries (aCA) pieces to examine their attachment and growth for 11 days. To investigate in vivo behaviors, aCA were implanted subcutaneously into mouse dorsal skin (Dacron grafts were used as control) and grafts were then isolated and stained with HE after 7, 14, 28 days. The results showed that our protocol removed all cells and maximally preserve extracellular matrix (ECM) comparing to other basis methods. aCA are non-toxic to fibroblast (level 0) and evoked weak inflammation in vivo which was absent in week 4 (similar to Dacron grafts). MSCs attached and grow successfully on the lumen of aCA. Conclusion: Our research may provide a promising protocol to prepare a potential vascular graft with its quality is suitable for cardiovascular surgery.

Hydroxyapatite (HA), a mineral component of bones and teeth, has been widely studied for various medical applications. The purpose of this research is to compare the HA from diverse bovine sources and chemical synthetic in the respectively physical and chemical powder properties such as grain size, morphology, crystallinity, phase stability and chemical functional groups. Bovine HA (B-HA) were extracted from the fresh femur bones of adult bovine, calf and bovine bone bio-waste. Synthesized HA (S-HA) were prepared by chemical precipitation method with the pH 6.0 and 12.0 of mother liquor. All of HA samples then were calcined at 800 °C. The TEM observation illustrated that particle shapes and sizes of HA differed depending on their bovine sources. In addition, XRD and FT-IR results implied that pure HA have been successfully obtained in B-HA group while S-HA with high pH value of 12.0 occurred the phrase transformation after thermal treatment.

The enormous potential of a hydrogel from Aldehyde Hyaluronic Acid (AHA)—a modification of Hyaluronan, and N,O-Carboxymethyl Chitosan (NOCC)—a polymer derived from Chitosan, has been discussed in our previous study. This research presents two approaches to combine silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with the hydrogel in order to yield a bioglue with higher antimicrobial property. The first one utilized the reaction between reactive aldehyde groups in D-glucuronic acid units of the AHA molecular chain and Tollens’ reagent, which is known as silver mirror reaction, while the latter attempted to synthesize NOCC–AHA hydrogel loading AgNPs through thermal decomposition of silver nitrate (AgNO3) with NOCC and AHA respectively. From primary results, heating a mixture of AgNO3–NOCC appeared to attain the best hydrogel in terms of gelation time and elasticity, broadening the application of the hydrogels in the medical field.

Excess generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in colonic mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), a type of inflammatory bowel disease, causes the inflammation, risk of colitis-associated colon cancer (CAC), and drug resistance. Oral administration is more convenient for patients; however, current medications for UC are not effective due to instability in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, non-specific distribution, and adverse effects. To address these issues, we have developed novel oral redox nanoparticles (RNP), which was prepared by self-assembly of an amphiphilic block copolymer with stable nitroxide radicals, ROS scavengers, in a hydrophobic segment as a side chain via an ether linkage. After oral administration, RNP highly accumulated in colon region, and specifically diffused into colonic mucosa of inflamed sites. Orally administered RNP effectively scavenged overproduced ROS in the inflamed colon, resulting in suppression of inflammation in mice model of colitis. Interestingly, when anticancer drug irinotecan (Iri) was administered in combination with RNP, a remarkable suppression of tumor growth was observed in CAC model mice treated with combination compared to mice treated with Iri alone. Iri-induced adverse effects, such as diarrhea and GI inflammation, were remarkably reduced by RNP treatment. Toxicity evaluation on zebrafish embryos showed that TEMPOL induces severe mitochondrial dysfunction, leading to the dead of all zebrafish embryos while RNP did not cause mitochondrial dysfunction in zebrafish embryos, and no zebrafish dead was observed, indicating that RNP did not disturb intracelluar redox balance. RNP is a promising nanotherapeutics for treatment of UC and other ROS-related diseases.

An emerging approach in development of nanocarriers for the delivery of hydrophobic anticancer drugs has recently been paid much attention. In this study, a redox-sensitive Heparin-ss-Pluronic F127 (Hep-ss-Plu127) nanogel was fabricated for paclitaxel (PTX) delivery. In the synthetic process, Plu127 was mono-activated by 4-Nitrophenyl chloroformate (NPC) and conjugated with Hep via redox-sensitive disulfide bond of cystamine. The chemical structure of the resulting product was characterized by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy. The PTX-loaded Hep-ss-Plu127 nanogels were formed by solvent dialysis method and showed the hydrodynamic diameter of 91.4 ± 0.3 nm, determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS) instrument. Size and morphology of PTX-loaded Hep-ss-Plu127 nanogels were shown to be 104 nm and spherical in shape by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In addition, PTX was effectively encapsulated into Hep-ss-Plu127 nanogels, which was around 66.2 ± 4.7% for drug loading efficiency and 13.2 ± 0.9% for drug loading content, determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Overall, the redox-sensitive Pluronic F127-based nanogel was successfully synthesized and could be an effective nanocarrier that holds a great potential to enhance the redox responsiveness and efficacy for the delivery of PTX in cancer treatment.

Paclitaxel (PTX), a compound extracted from the Pacific yew tree (Taxus brevifolia), is widely used as a natural-source cancer drug in the treatment of ovarian, breast and lung cancers. Previous studies showed that PTX had obvious effects on cancer cells, it blocks the cell cycle in its G1 or M phases by stabilizing the microtubules and preventing depolymerization. However, the use of PTX is inconvenient and associated with significant and poorly predictable side effects, due to its low bioavailability and poor water solubility. The aim of this study was to develop PTX-loaded soy lecithin nanoliposomes (PTX-LP) to improve its bioavailability. In this study, PTX-LP was prepared by thin film hydration method. The average size, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential and encapsulation efficiency (EE) of the PTX-LP were characterized. Results indicated that PTX-LP was able to loaded with suitable encapsulation efficiency values, nanometric particle size (100–200 nm), low polydispersity (less than 0.5), negative zeta potential, and slowly released up to 96 h. Therefore, the study expected that PTX-LP developed herein would serve as a potent drug carrier system for PTX in cancer therapy.

Hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticle (HMSN) has been rec-ognized as an outstanding candidate for improving the drug loading capacity of silica nanoplatforms. This study reports the synthesis of hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSN) as a potential bioactive to improve the drug loading capacity of the nanoparticles delivery systems. Herein, HMSN was success-fully synthesized by using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). The prepared HMSN nanocarriers were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen absorption-desorption isotherms, dynamic light scattering (DLS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and fourier trans-form infrared (FTIR). In aqueous solution, HMSN existed as nanoparticles with morphology, spherical shape and the diam-eter range of 180–200 nm. Especially, RhB was effectively en-capsulated into HMSN nanoparticles to form RhB-loaded nanocarriers (RhB/HMSN) with high loading efficiency. These results demonstrated that this prepared HMSN nanocarrier may serve as a promising nanocarrier with high drug loading capacity for its potential applications in drug delivery.

In this study, a scaffold comprising of curcumin (Cur) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with gelatin (Gel) as carrier matrix was fabricated to develop a novel system potential of antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties to aid in wound healing process. UV irradiation was employed in the synthesis of GelAg matrix, followed by the utilization of sonoprecipitation method to encapsulate Cur into GelAg matrix. Since Gel is a polyelectrolyte which possesses different charge when varying pH of solution, the interaction of Gel and AgNPs strongly affects to characteristics of fabricated scaffold. This study aims to investigate the effect of this interaction on morphology of GelAgCur scaffold by varying the amount of AgNPs. The results suggested that at AgNPs equaled to 75 ppm, the system obtained the most potential topography with highly porous structure and even distribution of pores and interconnected pores.

Nanoneedles are a materials platform that facilitates intimate tissue- and cell-interfacing, and drug and nanoparticle delivery. Engineering silicon needles, with <100 nm sharpened tips, allows the response of cells to be studied when the cell membrane and nucleus is placed under extreme curvature. Different cell types respond differently, and are influenced by the geometry of the nanostructures. Topography, material mechanical properties, and surface chemistry all play important roles—with the challenge understanding the impact of each. Here, we briefly review the use of nanoneedles in multiple applications within the Stevens Group, and present the fabrication method used to create biologically relevant nanostructured surfaces. We also discuss the current challenges and future opportunities for nanoneedles.

Tribology is an important factor (among other factors) during biological interactions of devices and tissues. The paper discusses how new computational and experimental methods can be used to understand and improve the design and development of medical devices at macro and micro scales to sustain life beyond 50 years. We have used pre-clinical experiments and computational methods to understand interactions between orthopaedic implants at the macro scale. The computational model has been validated with experiments. Now this computational model can predict damage in implants for different patients. One such application was successfully tried and tested in collaboration with University National Autonomous Mexico. This methodology can be used in future to design patient specific, affordable (using 3D printing) and robust implants which will be useful for developing countries like Vietnam, India and Mexico. Improvement of catheter designs is important to reduce damage to the internal tissues while being used for cardiovascular problems. We are developing new experimental techniques (in micro scale) that can be used to understand the interaction of cells with the catheter material. These will help reduce the hospital costs incurred during longer stay of the patients admitted for cardiovascular related problems.

In recent years, there has been a wide range of studies about demonstration of micro-plasma safety on cells. This study emphasizes micro-plasma effects on cells, especially proliferation and migration, by using Western Blot technique and Image J analysis software determines the relative density of protein γ-H2AX (the protein marks a deoxyribonucleic acid—DNA breaks) in groups of muscle cell of mice (L929) treated by N2/Ar micro-plasma in different exposure time (0, 5, 10 and 15 s) with capacity 17 W. Analysis of results aims to evaluate and compare micro-plasma safety in various exposure time. In conclusion, by those results lead to confirm the safety of micro-plasma at the molecular level in terms of cell viability, proliferation and migration. Thanks to micro-plasma effects on cell, micro-plasma is used in wound healing, sterilization, and can even be used to kill cancer cells.

The prosthetic hand is used to replace a missing part of a hand, which may be lost through trauma, disease, or congenital conditions in order to restore the normal functions of the hand. The state of the art design and development of prosthetic hands has been well studied and documented. The modern prosthetic hands which are computer-controlled via the means of electromyogram (EMG) signals are very helpful for amputees; however, they are expensive, not always available for low-income populations. This study presents a cost-effective solution for innovative design and development of a prosthetic hand for a patient who lost both hands due to the work accident. Design concepts of the prosthetic hand were successfully developed and tested. Different strategies for cost-effective design and development of the high-value added prosthetic hand are also discussed, including mass-customization and design for additive manufacturing.

In this study, we propose a method to control the wheelchair by eye movement using Electroencephalography (EEG). Firstly, we collect EEG signal by five types of eye movement: Blink, Double blink, look at Right, look at Left and Relax. These movements correspond to five directions of wheelchair motion: Go forward, Go backward, Turn right, Turn left and Stop. After that, the offline EEG signal is analyzed using MATLAB to find out the classified threshold of the signal amplitude in Alpha band and Delta band. Finally, an effective algorithm is built allowing us to identify the type of eye movement and control the external device—the powered wheelchair. As the result, the average accuracy for five motion directions (Go forward, Go backward, Turn right, Turn left and Stop) are 92.333, 93, 81.667, 86.667 and 83% respectively. With this study, we expect it can give people the help they need and be applied to many fields in the near future.

Background Connector gap, a gap between connector and tube, is where very easily to occur thrombus formation in extracorporeal blood circulating system. Objective The aim of this study is to develop a system to detect thrombus formed at the connector gap in an extracorporeal blood circulating system and evaluate it. Method The bio-mate flow path incorporating the connector electrode is filled with fresh porcine blood and circulated by a centrifugal pump. Calcium chloride and sodium citrate are added to the circulating system to adjust ACT (Activated clotting time) to be around 160 s. In the case that the thrombus formation detected by permittivity measurement, heparin is added to stop the coagulation reaction, and the measurement is terminated. Results Thrombus parameter is not affected by ACT change or drug addition and it increased to 20% at the end of the experiment, which confirms the feasibility of the proposed thrombus detecting sensor. As thrombus is not confirmed in extracorporeal blood circulating system besides the connector gap, it is considered to be the early stage of thrombus formation. Since thrombus formation is made on the end face b and large regardless of the position of the electrode, the promotion of thrombus formation by electrical measurement is not observed.

This paper presents a study toward the investigation of electrical properties of static bovine blood samples during hemolysis by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). RBC hemolysis was induced by adding different volume fractions of distilled water into static bovine blood samples that causes cell membrane breakage and release of cytoplasm into blood plasma. EIS measurements were conducted with frequency range between f = 100 kHz and f = 300 MHz. Our data show that changes in electrical properties indicating hemolysis are observed under high frequency conditions. Moreover, the impedance increase related to the release of cytoplasm into plasma and increment of hemoglobin’s amount. The highest resistance of second semi-circle (Z′) shows a linear relationship with the hemoglobin concentration (Hb). This relationship is described by the equation Z′ = 0.7932Hb + 15.788, with correlation coefficient of 0.9978.

Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) has been proposed to assess the adipose tissue distribution in the upper arm of patients with different arm diameters. The aim of this study is to develop an adjustable EIT sensor, whose diameter can be adjusted within a certain range by changing the electrode-to-gap ratio (EGR) of the EIT sensor. In order to improve the reconstructed image quality and stability, investigation of the effect of changing the diameter of EIT sensor is needed. A prototype EIT sensor with an adjustable diameter and consisting of 32 electrodes was manufactured and evaluated through experimental studies. The experimental results show that the EIT sensor with the adjustable diameter can provide similar reconstructed images just as the traditional EIT sensor which has a fixed sensor diameter. The adjustable EIT sensor can therefore adapt the EIT to the changing diameters of the upper arm of different patients during the adipose tissue assessment.

The study aims to examine the effect of surface roughness as well as lubricant and normal load on frictional response of CoCrMo-on-UHMWPE bearing using a custom friction-measuring device. A cylindrical CoCrMo pin with surface roughness of 0.25 µm was prepared. Ten UHMWPE discs with different surface roughness of 2.5 and 0.25 µm were machined. BSA at concentration of 25 mg/ml was prepared by dissolving in PBS. A custom pin-on-disc friction-measuring device was designed to measure the coefficient of friction (µ). The normal loads were varied in two values of 4 and 16 N at sliding velocity of 28 mm/s. The mean µ values were taken in 3600 s. Results demonstrated that BSA 25 mg/ml improved the frictional properties between CoCrMo-on-UHMWPE bearing (p < 0.0001) and the µ values were increase with the increase of the surface roughness as well as with the increase of the normal loads (p < 0.0001). These results suggest that BSA plays an important role in improving the lubricating ability of CoCrMo-on-UHMWPE bearing and the frictional response between CoCrMo-on-UHMWPE depend on the surface roughness as well as the normal load.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases are fatal neurodegenerative disorders caused by a change in conformation of the prion protein from the normal cellular form (PrPC) to a misfolded form (PrPSc). Prion diseases have been widely studied, but despite many great leaps in our knowledge many gaps in our knowledge are still unknown, especially in prion conformational conversion mechanism. In this work, we perform an amino acid scan at histidine (H)95, a key regulator residue within proposed prion conversion of the fifth copper-binding site. We created a series of mutant PrP by replacing H95 with every other common amino acid and compared the prion conversion propensity by ScN2a assay. The results are remarkable with the residues with electrically-charged side chains (H95D, H95E, H95K and H95R) decreasing prion conversion by about 50–75%, compared to wild-type (wt) PrP. We next analyze the localization, trafficking and biochemical features of PrP H95E, the most promising mutant for reducing conversion, in N2aPrP−/− cells stably transfected with the mutant PrP. The only difference observed was relative to the endosomal recycling compartments, with mutant PrP H95E showing less co-localization compared to WT PrP. This is in agreement with other work that links the endosomal recycling compartments with prion conversion. We conclude that the replacement of PrP H95 with electrically charged side chains decreases the prion conversion propensity, and this is likely due to reduced co-localization with the endosomal recycling compartments.

Computer simulations provide crucial insights and rationales for the design of molecular approaches in medicine. Several case studies illustrate how molecular model building and molecular dynamics simulations of complex molecular assemblies such as membrane proteins help in that process. Important aspects relate to build relevant molecular models with and without a crystal structure, to model membrane aggregates, then to link (dynamic) models to function, and finally to understand key disease-triggering phenomena such as aggregation. Through selected examples—including key signaling pathways in neurotransmission—the links between a molecular-level understanding of biological mechanisms and original approaches to treat disease conditions will be illuminated. Such treatments may be symptomatic, e.g. by better understanding the function and pharmacology of macromolecular key players, or curative, e.g. through molecular inhibition of disease-inducing molecular processes.

Breast cancer is one of the most common and dangerous disease among women throughout the world whose incidence continues to increase rapidly, particularly in several Asian countries. Among well—known causative breast cancer genes like: BRCA1/2, PTEN, p53…, microRNAs (miRNAs), recently, have been proven to play a critical role in breast cancer development and can serve as a new potential biomarker for breast cancer detection. SNP rs4284505 located on miRNA 17–92 cluster host gene exhibits the strong association with breast cancer in Caucasian Australian. In this study, SNP rs4284505 is investigated to determine whether it can relate to breast cancer in Vietnamese patients. High Resolution Melting (HRM) method has been optimized to screen selected SNP, aiming at predicting the correlation of the chosen SNP and breast cancer in Vietnam. 100 breast cancer samples were examined. The optimal HRM protocol was constructed with high sensitivity (95%), specificity and stability. The polymorphism of SNP rs4284505 does occur in Vietnamese population with the MAF (G) = 44.27%. The G allele seems likely to have the protective effect to breast cancer [OR (95%CI) = 0.80 (0.54–1.18)]. Nevertheless, this SNP is predicted not to be associated with breast cancer risk (p-value >0.05) due to small size and the computed control. Because of high polymorphism in patients, a further research should be conducted in a larger scale and in a suitable control group to validate the relationship between SNP rs4284505 and breast cancer in Vietnam.

Aim This report intends to illustrate the different outcomes between a dental implant and transplant. Materials and methods Our literature review showed 812 papers related to the use of concentrated growth factors (CGF) in implantology, but none of them report on the study of the application of CGF on dental implant and transplant. Therefore, this paper will be a two-case report instead of systematic review. The first case is the application of CGF on dental implant therapy on a thirty-year-old male. Case two is the application of CGF on a tooth transplant in a fifteen-year-old male patient. Results and discussion Case one—CGF has facilitated the osseointegration process effectively with no complications. Case two—Healing was uneventful, however, there was some evidence of root resorption. Conclusion CGF application in dental implant treatment appears to be more predictable compared to its application in transplants within the limits of this two-case report.

N,O carboxymethyl chitosan—aldehyde hyaluronic acid (NOCC-AHA) hydrogel has been proved for successfully cutaneous wound healing due to its porosity, water uptake and biocompatibility. Modification of poly (vinyl phosphonic acid) (PVPA) and biphasis calcium phosphate (BCP) nanoparticles into NOCC-AHA matrix is expected to fabricate a hydrogel for bone regeneration. BCP is main factor of osteogenesis, which shows excellent osteoconductivity, osteoinductivity, biodegradability. Besides, PVPA containing P-C groups in structure support bonding between bone and hydrogel matrix, and increase of bone formation by eliminating osteoclast apoptosis. This research investigates an optimal NOCC: AHA ratio loaded PVPA and BCP in order to optimize the formulation of injectable bone hydrogel. The optimal NOCC-AHA-PVPA-BCP was biocompatible, and showed the porosity, pore size were favorable for bone regeneration, which was confirmed through scanning electron microscope. However, degradation rate of this hydrogel needs improving in further research.

Introduction Overcoming a dental implant failure/osseo-disintegration is still a dilemma for implantologists. Using two implants to support for one crown is a novel approach to resolve this issue. Aim The aim of this study is to carry out a five-year retrospective study on how to overcome shortfalls in single implant failures by using two small implants to support one crown. Materials and methods An audit of a group of 23 patients who had issues with single implant failures underwent two implant fixture placements for future restoration of a single crown. The patient demographic variables collected were medical history, systemic and genetic conditions (Type 1 & 2 Diabetes Miletus), and social habits (smoking and alcohol). Digital x-rays, implant survival assessment, and clinical evaluation were used to analyze the data. Results and discussion There was a 100% implant survival rate over five years. Patients reported to be very happy and satisfied with the outcome. Conclusion With respect to this retrospective paper, the study found that the use of two implants to support one crown is a favorable and advantageous method to overcome a single implant failure.

Aim The purpose of this study is to carry out a three-year retrospective study on the use of autologous Concentrated Growth Factor (CGF) on dental patients undergoing oral regenerative treatment. Materials and methods Data was gathered from 46 patients who received oral regenerative therapy using CGF within the last three years in a private dental clinic. CGF mixture of demineralized freeze-dried bone (DFDB sticky bone) and fibrin membrane was obtained from the patient’s centrifuged blood. Patient medical history, demographic details, social habits, vital signs, oral hygiene status, digital radiographs, clinical observation and photos, survival rate as well as numeric pain intensity scale and visual analogue satisfaction scale were used to evaluate the clinical outcomes. Results and discussion All patients had uneventful outcomes in terms of wound healing complications and satisfaction. No patients reported of failure. Though factors like smoking, poor oral hygiene status, periodontitis, and medical conditions such as diabetes have been recognized in the literature, they had no statistical significance in this study. However, gender and age showed statistical significance with the following variables: more males with SDB than females; more older patients (>50 years old) with SDB and high blood than those under 50. Conclusion Using the limited patient data available in the last three years in this study, it was found that CGF is a novel approach for regeneration of defective oral tissues, especially in males and older patients with SDB and high blood pressure. Furthermore, CGF renders good outcomes in terms of uneventful wound healing, biocompatibility, minimal pain, and high satisfaction rate.

Electrospun blends of biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) loaded polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-gelatin (GE) were created with the aim of fabricating biodegradable scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. The process parameters including the electrical field and tip-to-collector distance (TCD) were investigated. The morphology of these hybrid scaffolds were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to determine the crystallinity of the membrane. Adhesion of osteoblastic cells (MG-63) onto the BCP loaded PVA/GE composite nano-fiber mat was performed to assess potential of the product as a bone scaffold. This result suggests that the BCP loaded PVA/GE composite nano-fiber mat has a high potential for use in the field of bone regeneration and tissue engineering.

Moisturizing ability makes hydrogel wound dressing the optimal treatment for dry wound, but this feature also creates a convenient environment for proliferation of microorganisms. The loading of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which exhibit wide-spectrum antimicrobial activity, into the wound dressing helps counter this problem. However, a hydrogel matrix with suitable properties is required to maintain the size and activity of AgNPs as well as control their release kinetic. Here this research formulated hydrogel composites from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and chitosan (Cs) loading with AgNPs and initially examined their qualities. Microwave irradiation was used to synthesize AgNPs by reducing silver nitrate and crosslink PVA with Cs. Based on its sensitive crosslinking behavior, the concentration of PVA was varied in the composition to investigate its effect on the characteristics of the hydrogels. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were performed to observe the interaction between the components of the hydrogels and the change in thermal property of the hydrogels caused by this variation.

The drugs such as Insulin and Paclitaxel were encapsulated in Polycaprolactone (PCL) by electrospraying method. Some fabricated factors which influenced the morphology of PCL microparticles were investigated. Electrospraying is an effective and approachable method to produce considerable solid drug-loaded microparticles for drug delivery system. Using the Scanning electron microscopy to observe the morphology and size of particles and Thermal Analysis evaluated the compatibility of drug and polymer matrix. The toxicity of products was determined by checking the existence of solvent inside the electrosprayed particles. The results showed that the drug-loaded microspheres were fabricated at 15–20% drug (w/w), 4.5% PCL in Dichloromethane. Besides, the hydrophobic drug (Paclitaxel) had a good compatibility with PCL matrix, therefore, the surface of particles was smoother. In case of Insulin, it and PCL created a suspension and consequently generated the undesirable morphology with holes and wrinkled surfaces. The drug-loaded microparticles didn’t contain toxic solvent so that it can be applied in pharmacy.

For dental implant, Titanium abutments were statically reported failure of long-term implantation related to soft tissue defects, unpredictable esthetic outcome and bacterial leakage by positioning failure. Recently, a dominant influence of the surface modification for the soft tissue integration at the Titanium implant tissue interface has found in a lot of experimental studies. The purpose of present study is evaluation of fibroblast cell behaviors on different modified Titanium surface including Titanium (Ti) alloys, Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and Ti modified with Collagen type I (TiCol-1) at various time intervals of cell culturing. Titanium plates were treated with NaOH and Collagen type I (Col-1) deposition in 2 different patterns. Polished and sand-blasted titanium plates were used as control group. Specimen surface properties were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Fibroblast cell behavior on modified surfaces was analyzed by SEM images for cell adhesion, viability, proliferation. The results suggested that modified Ti surfaces had significant affect the viability of fibroblast cells and improved adhesion was measured in Col-1 modification groups after 1 h and 1 day. Proliferation study showed that the density of fibroblast cells after 3 days cultured on TiCol-1 was higher and comparable with that of other groups. As for cell membrane adhesion, cells grew after 5 days on Collagen modified surfaces also had higher expression as compared with titanium treated by NaOH. In conclusion, TiCol-1 surface seems to favor fibroblast adhesion.

There are variety methods and materials for fabrication of the master mold for microfluidic system. In this report, two simple low-cost methods for fabrication of master molds for microfluidic chips are described and compared in quality of molds, thickness and resolution of micro-channels, design complexity, error tolerance and executive time. The first approach can create a master mold just in 5 min by using cutting plotter to cut the design out from vinyl adhesive paper based on the previous design; after that, the assembly attached into the petri dish to fabricate the complete mold. The second one is using nail polish meth(acrylates) (MA) gel as photoresist material to alter expensive SU-8 photoresist in soft photolithography technique and LED-UV light. These processes are simple, short time prototyping, inexpensive materials and no requirement for sophisticated equipment. Both methods can achieve the channels with the depth up to 80 μm. However, the channels of UV gel method are less affected by changes in temperature which enables more complex design as narrow as 200 μm in width compared to 500 μm of craft cutter method. The comparison of two proposed methods shows that UV gel satisfies the important demand for microfluidic master mold fabrication: low cost, possibility of more complex pattern in short time (15 min).

Early detection right at epidemic areas can prevent infectious diseases from propagation. Currently, the most common nucleic acid test—polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is time-consuming, complex, expensive and thermocycler required, thus limiting its utility in poor laboratory conditions or even non-laboratory condition of epidemic areas. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is quick, cheap, sensitive and isothermal assay could be combined with a simple DNA extraction method to integrate into Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) device. Here, we attempted to improve LAMP method for malaria diagnosis on portable microfluidics chip platform by optimizing DNA extraction using boil and spin method and altering Tris-containing amplification buffer for ascertaining changing in pH of reaction solution. Basically, blood sample was mixed with extraction buffer containing Sodium Dedocyl Sulfate (SDS) concentration and treated under high temperature condition. Four concentrations of SDS (0, 0.4, 0.8 and 1%) were tested along with different temperature (65 and 95 °C) to adapt into LOC platform and avoid denaturation of LAMP reagent. All samples treated at 65 °C showed the presence of DNA after extraction. Furthermore, DNA amplification buffer was minimized Tris concentration to facilitate result read-out step. The releasing of hydrogen ion from amplification reaction causes increasing in pH which could be recognized by color of pH indicator paper or dye, for example, phenolphthalein. Throughout a series of experiments, LAMP is demonstrated that it can also occur in low-Tris buffer with pH indicator dye, efficiently. The positive sample will have a change from pink to transparent in solution color, otherwise, the negative sample will maintain pink. These improvements allowed us to adapt LAMP technique into Point-of-care (POC) devices in which the whole process run under isothermal condition (65 °C) and non-instrument required visual detection. The LAMP microfluidics chip will be potential tool for early detection infectious diseases and several other diseases in non-laboratory condition.

Compared with therapeutics, diagnostic devices account for a relatively small proportion of healthcare expenditure (less than 10%) and yet timely diagnosis as well as continuous monitoring of molecular markers can have a major impact on disease outcomes. In particular point of care (or near patient) tests can empower individuals to become active participants in the management of their conditions, giving them and their medical support greater insight into both their conditions and their response to treatment. In an extension of the point of care paradigm, continuous monitors of biomarkers and/or therapeutics allow high frequency data to be gathered and patterns of variation to be analyzed in ways that are not possible with infrequent and sporadic testing. The advent of novel materials, fabrication methods and data analysis have opened the way to new devices, assay formats and molecular targets. In this paper we will discuss some aspects of our work in this area with a particular focus on microneedles for continuous, minimally invasive sensing and the use of nucleic acid aptamers in both electrochemical and lateral flow assays.

The application of biocad, digital manufacturing and virtual visualization techniques for healthcare purposes is on a steady growth, with different medical units such as anesthetics, genetic medicine, dentistry and medical physics gradually adopting them on a normal basis. Whilst University-Hospitals have the advantage of having support from mechanical, bioengineering and design departments, some common questions arising from other independent healthcare systems wanting to apply digital technologies are: who can perform the design? What software is available and what is need it to operate it? How can manufacturing be adopted at point of care? This work describes the experience of different units across the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on how digital design and manufacturing technologies are permeating the conventional Healthcare structure, including an insight into how the in-clinic fabrication possibilities afforded by digital technologies can change the medical devices supply chain for a variety of purposes including: medical devices development, design of teaching aids, advanced visualization and bio fabrication.

Recently, applications of nanotechnology in trace analyses of substances have increased very significantly. With improvements in properties of nanomaterials, such as larger surface area and surface effect, and quantum size and quantum tunnel effects, nanomaterials have been integrated to improve the sensing capabilities of microfluidic chemical sensors. This has resulted in an increase in the range of applications of microfluidics in nanotechnology and biotechnology. With the increasing miniaturization into lab-on-a-chip, chemical sensors are widely employed in various applications for the direct correlation of physical signal with incidences of chemical phenomena in health and environment. These have resulted in faster processing of samples of analytes for biotechnology and clinical diagnosis. Current applications could be extended to analyze ultra-trace analytes, and easily incorporate the information into a wireless network for real-time analyses. Therefore, this paper will explore technologies for coupling nanomaterials and microfluidic chemical sensors for interactive data transmission to a remote central server, along with analyses, retrieval and visualization over the wireless sensor network.

In this paper, a DNA aptamer was detected by electrochemical DNA sensors. To enhance the sensitivity and selectivity, the working electrode surface of the electrochemical sensor was modified by a synthesis of poly-pyrrole nanowires. Characterization of poly-pyrrole nanowire was verified by SEM images. The evaluation of DNA sensors was implemented using EC301 Potentiostat from SRS. The sensor can detect the DNA concentration as low as 10−12 mol/l. A series of measurement were conducted, which showed the relationship between DNA concentrations and peak current.

Microfluidic droplets are a unique tool for performing biological and chemical experiments. The compartmentalization of single entities, such as plasmids or cells, into microdroplets separated by an immiscible carrier fluid allows for (i) experimentation in the nL- and pL-range which reduces reagent consumption (ii) the generation of highly monodisperse droplets resulting in homogeneous reaction conditions and (iii) microdroplets can be generated with frequencies up to 10 kHz allowing high-throughput screens of up to 100 million reaction conditions per day. If ultrahigh throughput is not necessary, devices interfacing with multiple handling and optical analysis systems provide additional capabilities with more control over the content of each droplet. Microfluidic droplets are used for a variety of biochemical and biomedical assays. They can be used to encapsulate single cells in 3D hydrogel matrices to monitor the effect of specific soluble factors or drugs on differentiation, or follow clonal spheroid formation and drug response. And finally, microfluidic devices enable the high-throughput screening of millions of metagenomic genes to discover new enzymes for improved catalytic efficiency or new therapeutic activities.

Rapid diagnosis of bacterial infections enables earlier implementation of appropriate and effective treatment regimens, therefore improving patient outcomes. We have previously demonstrated a microfluidic device for nucleic acid-based analysis of Helicobacter pylori, which can cause peptic ulcers and increase the risk of stomach cancer. One of the major challenges to overcome has been the use of challenging real-world samples, e.g. stool, and urine allowing use at the point-of-care. Here we present results for bacterial identification as well as initial studies on the use of screen-printed electrodes (SPE) for miniaturised electrochemical detection for determining antibiotic susceptibility of pathogenic Escherichia coli. Resazurin was used as an indicator of bacterial viability, with reduction of resazurin demonstrating continued cell growth. Differential pulse voltammetry was used to measure potential reduction and showed measurement at −0.58 V or −0.38 V to be the most discriminatory. A fixed voltage of −0.58 V was then used to monitor current changes as a function of increasing gentamycin (antibiotic) concentration, with the results showing a significant reduction in current with increasing amounts of gentamycin (ANOVA, p < 0.001), within 90 min. The ability to integrate diagnosis with antibiotic susceptibility testing would allow administration of timely and specific treatment to patients with serious infections in low-resource settings.

Coherent Hemodynamics Spectroscopy (CHS) is a novel technique for quantitative assessment of cerebral hemodynamics based on dynamic near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurements. Here, we present a new approach for dynamic measurements of absolute cerebral blood flow (CBF) with NIRS and CHS in one healthy subject during transient changes of mean arterial pressure (MAP) in normal breathing and in hyperventilation conditions. Hyperventilation is known to reduce blood flow and enhance cerebral autoregulation. During hyperventilation, with respect to normal breathing at baseline, we found a lower absolute CBF (hyperventilation: 32 ± 3 ml/100 g/min; normal breathing: 35 ± 3 ml/100 g/min) and a faster CBF recovery to baseline (time of half recovery: 6 s for hyperventilation; 11 s for normal breathing). These results demonstrate the application of NIRS and CHS for quantitative, noninvasive, dynamic measurements of cerebral perfusion and cerebral autoregulation in the local cerebral microcirculation.

In this study, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure the brain hemodynamic responses during a verbal fluency task in both healthy controls (HC) and mild cognitive impairment patients (MCI). We found a greater amplitude of oxy-hemoglobin and deoxy-hemoglobin changes, and a significantly higher value of maximum slope calculated from oxy-hemoglobin change in MCI compared to HC during the task. Our experimental results suggest the potential of using the cerebral hemodynamic responses, especially the maximum slope of oxy-hemoglobin change, as a biomarker for MCI.

The process of venipuncture is a necessity for obtaining intravenous access for intravenous therapy or blood sampling of venous blood. Therefore, a vein finder system is an effective solution not only to make venipuncture safe and accurate but also to reduce anxiety and stress of patients and to improve donation comfort and efficiency. Vein visualization technology utilizes noninvasive infrared technology in capturing the real-time venous image on the patient’s skin and making it observable. In the procedure executed by this system, the sample’s skin is exposed to the near-infrared (NIR) light transmitted from an 850 nm 12 W 6-LED array. Following this, Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, connected with NoIR Camera Board, is utilized as an image acquisition equipment to capture the NIR illuminated skin area. Next, the raw data will be transferred to the computer to perform the filtering and processing technique before being displayed on the monitor. The system is examined on 24 volunteers with various age and gender groups. The output venous image is also imported to a pico-projector (Texas Instrument Inc.) for the attempt of back-projection onto the patient’s hand. In overall, the experimental results are capable of distinguishing the differences in the contrast and brightness between the veins and the surrounding tissues on the wrists of the samples. It is anticipated that, with further investigation and experiments, a verification method for accurate and real-time projection of the enhanced imaged onto the human skin can be developed.

Defining the true of skin pathologies non-invasively is still an unsolved problem for the dermatology community. In this study, a new noninvasive method to visualize skin pathologies using polarized light imaging is discussed. This technology will assist doctors as well as dermatologists in making a quick assessment of skin pathologies. Researching on the propagation of polarized light in randomly scattering media have been investigated as a new and a huge potential methodology for disease early detection. Accordingly, a fundamental understanding of how polarized light propagates through tissue is essential for the development clinically useful optical diagnostic systems because of its practical application, especially in non-invasive diagnosis. The purpose of this research concentrated on the interaction of polarized light and biological tissues utilizing Mueller matrix and Stokes parameter description for extracting nine optical parameters such as linear birefringence (LB), linear dichroism (LD), circular birefringence (CB), circular dichroism (CD), linear depolarization (L-Dep), and circular depolarization (C-Dep) properties. The samples of the healthy skin and the non-melanoma skin cancer extracted from mouse were analyzed and compared their effective optical characterization. The experimental results illustrated that the LB and LD of the disease samples tend to be larger than the standard samples, creating an innovating solid foundation for the diagnosis of skin cancer in the future.

Recent advances in wound healing treatment and management using Low- level Laser Therapy (LLLT) has been emphasized in many types of research for wound healing stimulation. Many studies have indicated the effects of this method; and thus, there is a concern that which wavelength and dosages would take more benefits, in term of wound closure and collagen synthesis. This research is conducted to re-emphasize and improve the efficiency of this therapy in chronic wounds and standard rat model to study and analyze the best conditions and protocol for these kinds of wound healing treatment. By utilizing red laser beams from an optical system to treat excisions on mice’s dorsal regions, we aim to determine the irradiation parameters (i.e., wavelength, light intensity, time irradiation) that provide the optimal conditions to promote the healing process. Two round excision wounds are created on the back of each mouse: one for a control group and one for treated group. The treated group wound were irradiated with the red (635 nm wavelength), following these intensities: 2; 3; 5 J/cm2. After every one week, the wound skins were taken and stained for results comparison. The experimental results showed that the wound closures were significantly different between treated and control group. At day 5th, 10th the follow-up tests indicated that the laser group had smaller wound areas compared to control group (non-diabetes and untreated). The improvement of impairment (>20%) and the faster time to wound closure indicated that this phototherapy could be used to heal chronic wounds in diabetic subjects. The healing progress analysis shows that the positive result and promising application of this therapy in future aid of wound control and healing.

Regular monitoring of glucose concentration is essential and urgency, especially diabetics. However, those methods which involve finger puncturing are invasive, expensive as well as painful. Also, there are risks of infectious diseases using these techniques due to the contact of the needle on human skin. This paper proposed a non-invasive glucose monitoring system utilizing the near-infrared (NIR) light to measure the glucose concentration in the human blood. The designed system uses a 980 nm-wavelength NIR LED transmitting through d-glucose phantom samples, a photo-sensor for analyzing the transmitting optical parameters, a filter & an amplifier circuit, and a Nano Arduino microcontroller. For calculating the values of glucose concentration, the R programming with the methodology of the artificial neural network (ANN) was applied. This type of methodology is considered as one of the most useful technique in the world of data analysis and because it is adaptive, learns from the provided information and optimizes for better prediction outcomes. The ANN is used to predict the correlation equation between collected voltage and glucose concentration. The obtained glucose level is demonstrated directly on the system’s screen or further sent to the user’s mobile phone. The result obtained shows a correlation between the transmittance and the concentration of d-glucose solution. The correlation parameter of the technique is R2 = 0.9957. Despite having the acceptable results, there are still some improvements that could be carried out for more accurate measurement (angle of the LED, a procedure of filtering and amplifying, usage of an optical instrument…). For further investigation and development, it is predicted that the result can be more accurate, precise and sensitivity as much as possible.

According to GLOBOCAN, in 2012, liver cancer with 782,000 cases was diagnosed, and 746,000 patients died from this disease in the world. The rate of liver cancer was ranked 5th in the types of cancer in men and ranked 9th in women, but the death rate accounted for 2nd in both sexes. In Vietnam, the liver cancer rate was ranked 2nd in men and ranked 3rd in women on morbidity, while the highest death rate occurred in both sexes. Meanwhile, the prognosis for liver cancer is quite sad, which depends on many factors. Currently, there are many methods to monitor the treatment of liver cancer depends on the stage of the disease, in which the noninvasive process is considered a new study on cancer diagnosis without pain or injury to patients, and one of them is the use of optical measurement systems. Study on the interaction between bio-samples and polarized light received significant attention because of its potential for developing non-invasive detection methods. In this work, an analytical technique based on Stokes polarimetry and the Mueller matrix decomposition method was applied to extract the effective linear birefringence (LB), linear dichroism (LD), circular birefringence (CB), circular dichroism (CD), linear depolarization (L-Dep), and circular depolarization (C-Dep) properties. The experimental results showed that the LB properties of normal and liver cancer tissues have a great difference, with 15°–20° and 150°–160° in that order. In addition, CB properties and depolarization properties of two kinds of samples are also described in a significant disparity. Thus, it has promising potential for detecting liver cancer by an optical polarized light system.

Ultraviolet B (UVB) light is effective in eliminating symptoms of psoriasis and the overall dosage of the narrow-band radiation can be closely controlled, which makes UVB lamps suitable for home therapy. Utilizing phototherapy, this study proposes a psoriasis treatment method which applies 311 nm narrow-band UVB (NB-UVB) to improve efficacy and reduce long-term toxicity comparing to other recent treatments. One device was designed and built—from a Philips UVB Narrow-band medical lamp and a controlling digital circuit comprising of an 89S52 microcontroller, a LCD screen, and a DS1307 real-time clock—to illuminate the psoriasis lesions in a controllable exposing time. An in vitro study was established on mouse skin fibroblasts to investigate the effect of NB-UVB on cell proliferation and morphology. The efficacy and safety of the lamp were also examined on two patients of psoriasis. The obtained results showed no significant abnormal change in morphology and growth of the irradiated fibroblasts. Furthermore, in patients undergoing the therapy, improvement was observed after 6 weeks of treatment. The psoriasis scales were fewer and the skin was softer and less flushed. The skin lesions also did not itch and spread out. The mechanism of action of the proposed treatment, however, remains not fully understood and would be further studied by investigating the effect of NB-UVB on key cell types involved in the pathogenesis of the disease including the keratinocytes and the T lymphocytes. The system will also be upgraded with various components, such as UV light sensor, for safe uses.

To read 2D slices from medical scanners on a flat screen and analyze them into full 3D structure in one’s own mind requires long-time training and experiences. Therefore, aside from doctors and experts, it is very difficult for patients to follow their own state of illness only by mere explanation from their physicians and a series of 2D slices displayed on flat screens. Up until now, pyramid holograms have only been used for advertising and entertainment, but not in medical field since it was not able to interact. Hence, the research of our team is to enhance this system with the interactive ability. The first step for this is to compute a hologram from multi-layer images captured by CT or MRI scanners in the form of DICOM via pyramid hologram, with the use of MATLAB programming language and a lot of it’s available functions for image processing. The whole procedure of the team research contains six main steps. The first four steps include: reconstructing 3D images from a folder of CT or MRI multi-layer images, capturing four orthogonal projections of the 3D image, arranging these four side views into one appropriate png image, saving the final image. Step five is to reduce a layer from the original folder of CT or MRI multi-layer images and repeating the first four steps until running out of layers inside the folder, gradually. All the saved images for each layer reduction will be computed into a video which can show the outside through the inside of the images from CT or MRI scanner via a pyramid hologram. Users can pause the video at any time to show the structure of the images they desire. This paper traces the design concept but can only confirms the first four steps for coding function of creating a hologram image from the original medical devices by a prototype demonstration. Future work for this research will include full six steps and designing for a hardware system that can be combined with the pyramid hologram for interaction between users and the model.

Many researches have shown the potential of polarized light in inspection and diagnostic. Such as the ability to determine sugar concentration in the cornea which could be developed to non-invasive polarimetric glucose detector for diabetic’s detection; or diagnose vascular disease and brain function by detecting the concentration of the deoxygenated hemoglobin in vein. Additionally, the Polarization properties of scattered light from turbid media such as biological tissues and certain plastics have also received considerable attention. From the scattered light of a sample, fundamental optical properties of the sample could be revealed. From this information, some diseases could be detected, including diabetes, cancer. In this research, an automatic Stoke parameters measurement system is introduced to determine the fundamental optical properties i.e., the effective linear birefringence (LB), linear dichroism (LD), circular birefringence (CB), circular dichroism (CD), linear depolarization (LDep), and circular depolarization (CDep) of a biological sample. By measuring Stokes parameters of 6 kinds of polarized lights (right-hand circular, left-hand circular, 0°, 45°, 90°, 135° of linear polarized lights) which are projected through the biological sample. The results showed that the system can automate measure Stokes parameters of a biological sample with the accuracy ±5% to compare with the commercial device, Stokes polarimeter. From this raw system, the developing of the system is improved for diagnosing cancer.

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) is an international data standard used worldwide to store and transmit various medical images. In addition to the image pixel data, DICOM files also consist of private information and other important information for diagnosis. However, they are easily modified, and alterations are not detectable with current DICOM file format. Consequently, the security of this kind of data over the Internet arises more challenges. This paper presents an efficient solution to secure embedded information in DICOM images by exploiting different techniques of data encoding, encryption and watermarking. Firstly, the proposed method encodes personal information, encrypts it and then embeds it into the DICOM images by two secret keys to increase the security. After that, personal information is removed from the DICOM images. As a result, medical images are still handled in both normal mode and secure mode without leakage of personal information. Finally, the experimental results on different medical images demonstrate the imperceptibility, capacity and efficiency of the proposed design to discuss its use in telemedicine.

During the hemodialysis treatment, two needles, for drawing to dialyzer and for returning filtered blood to the body, respectively, will be inserted into an AV shunt. Occasionally, the blood leaking is occurred on the interface of needle and artificial fistula. This incident not only increased the risk of infection, it also caused many conflicts between patients and nurses. This paper presents a wireless alarm system that can detect the blood leaking and send the alarm signal to nurse station. The system is consisting of two optical blood detectors, an adjustable threshold comparator, a Wi-Fi embedded MCU, and an user-friendly management APP. The system continuously send green light on the gauze. When certain amount of blood pass though the gauze, the decreasing of reflection light would activate alarm event. A MS-Windows APP is installed on the nurse station. It monitors the front-end sensing devices and, upon receiving alarm signal, it pop-up a warning dialog to remind medical staffs to take care of the event. The primary test shows the system can effectively provide early blood leaking detection and reduce the rate of aforementioned problems.

This paper presents the design of the program, called Eye Blinking Detection Program, to define eye state as well as eye blinking by using Haar Cascades. Based on the result of the opened-eye detection process, eye state is determined and the eye blinking can be counted. All the results are displayed on a friendly user interface. By checking eyes state, the program determines if the object is asleep or awake and activate the alert. In addition, the program also has dry-eyes disease diagnostic feature and an eye health-training program. This program is very useful for drivers by helping them stay awake or apply to patients who has eye-related disease.

Medical images are very important for the treatment process of specialists because of containing a lot of important information in patient’s body. The edge detection is a prepared process for object boundaries. Therefore, the edge detection in medical images is very important and necessary with low-quality medical images. Other previous methods must sacrifice time to have the accurate results. In this paper, we proposed a new method to detect edges in low-quality medical images which have impurities by using augmented Lagrangian method and B-spline. Our method improves the ability for smoothing and detecting faster.

The brain always responds to any stimulations. Analyzing the correlation between imaginary and reality of stimulus signals set up a standard of the process in collecting targeted response signal. The major of this study is focused on the portable electroencephalography (EEG) device in acquisition signals. The methodology estimates the relation by using correlation coefficient and eigenvector. The results show that the correlation of signals in stimulus and imaginary is high (above 70%) and the power of imaginary signals is higher than the power of signals in stimulus.

3D human hand pose estimation (HPE) is an essential methodology for smart human computer interfaces. Especially, 3D hand pose estimation without attached or hand-held sensors provides a more natural and convenient way. In this work, we present a HPE system with a single RGB-Depth camera and deep learning methodologies which recognizes 3D hand poses of both hands in real-time. Our HPE system consists of four steps: hands detection and segmentation, right and left hand classification using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier, hand pose estimation using a deep CNN regressor, and 3D hand pose reconstruction. First, both hands are detected and segmented from each RGB and depth images using skin detection and depth cutting algorithms. Second, a CNN classifier is used to distinguish right and left hands. Our CNN classifier consists of three convolutional layers and two fully connected layers, and uses the segmented depth images as input. Third, a trained deep CNN regressor estimates the key sixteen joints of hands in 3D from the segmented left and right depth hands separately. The regressor is hierarchically composed of multiple convolutional layers, pooling layers and dense fully connected layers to estimate the hand joints from the segmented hand depth images. Finally, 3D hand pose of each hand gets reconstructed from the estimated hand joints. The results show that our CNN classifier distinguishes the right and left hands with an accuracy of 96.9%. The 3D human hand poses are estimated with an average distance error of 8.48 mm. The presented HPE system can be used in various application fields including medical VR, AR, and MR applications. Our presented HPE system should allow natural hand gesture interfaces to interact with various medical contents.

Facial expression recognition (FER) has attracted the interest of many scholars because it plays an important role in human-computer interaction, image analysis, and artificial intelligent. The main purpose of FER is to classify a given facial image into one of the seven basic emotions: angry, disgust, fear, happy, sad, surprise, and neutral. In recent years, convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been studied and applied in the fields of image processing and computer vision a with great success. One of the main properties of CNN is the training stage that needs a large-scale data set for having a good performance. In this paper, we present a FER system using CNN in which the training and testing images are extracted from the AffectNet facial expression database. Compared to the traditional facial expression databases, AffectNet provides over one million images which are annotated by manual and automatic methods. The performance of the proposed model is analyzed via evaluations of the correct recognition rates, in comparison with the published ones, with the use of the same database.

The Electrocardiography classifier is an essential tool for helping doctors in diagnosing early heart problems. This paper proposes with an electrocardiography classifier for analyzing accuracy in case of non-long-tail effect. Data are obtained from MIT-BIH arrhythmia database. Therefore, a discrete wavelet transform decomposition algorithm is employed for feature extraction and a principal component analysis is used for dimension reduction of data. In addition, the heart beat can be classified using a neural network method. In order to evaluate the classifier accuracy, the confusion matrix and Receiver Operating Characteristic curve are applied.

This paper proposes with a Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) method to extract features for iris recognition. In particular, Daugman’s Integro—differential operator is applied to extract iris image from human eye image and the iris image is analyzed to extract features using the DWT for iris recognition of one person. From the iris features, a threshold method is proposed to estimate similarity between irises of people for recognition of one corresponding person. Results show that contribution of this research illustrates the effectiveness of the human recognition method.

The biometric technologies have long been used for identification and authentication purposes; and fingerprint is one of the most widely used biometric technologies. In medicine and healthcare applications, biometric systems are used to identify patients and retrieve crucial medical records. In this paper, we propose a fingerprint singularity detection algorithm based on a very well-known pattern recognition technique. The successfully developed algorithm was tested for different fingerprint image resolutions, noise levels, and it was directly compared to the traditional technique, Poincare index which is the scalar values representing the geometrical behavior of basic patterns. The test of the proposed algorithm shows the outperformed results in both the high noise and low resolution images. Especially, the descriptors can be extracted directly from the suspect original and sample fingerprint images. The proposed method is therefore robust and can be adopted to any special descriptors rather than the pure core and delta points. With the recent advancement in data science, the successfully developed algorithm is potential for development of innovative biometric and medical applications, especially for telehealth and e-health systems.

The pancreas is one of important organs in human body. The pancreas segmentation from medical images is a difficult task. Because adjacent organs have the similar intensity values. In this paper, we proposed a new method for pancreas segmentation in bandelet domain. Our method includes two stages. Firstly, applying the Gaussian mixture model for foreground and background is estimated using marked pixels by the user in bandelet domain. Finally, that is pancreas segmentation in medical images in the first stage by objcut. Our dataset is pancreas images that have been collected in many hospitals. We undervested the proposed method by calculating the Jaccard index values. The results of the proposed method are better than the other recent methods.

Indoor positioning is widespread applications in health monitoring, navigation and other indoor position services. There are a variety of researches focusing on solving indoor position problems, but most of them are using the accelerometer to solve horizontal positions. Nevertheless, there are a lot of buildings and houses where people are using the elevator to move among the floors. Hence, it is difficult to estimate the positions vertically when the users use the elevator in motion. This paper aims to integrate a barometer in indoor positioning system (IPS) for elevator motion recognition and proposes a new feature name “pressure standard deviation” from barometer recording data to distinguish among elevator up, elevator down, still, stairs up, stairs down to track the position of user in vertical axis. Our experimental results achieve 100% accuracy in distinguishing the state of elevator up, elevator down, still, stairs up, stairs down and estimate exactly and real-time in vertical axis.

The study develops a prognostic model for the mortality prediction of patients with cardiovascular diseases in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). Using clinical data, physiological measurements and vital signs during the first 48-hour after their admissions, the model specified the patients’ death correlations therefrom identified high-risk patients and their survival probability. Cox Proportional Hazards model is used to classify the patients as dead or survival with the accuracy measured by Score 1—the minimum of sensitivity and positive predictivity-of 0.45, which is 1.5 times better than that of the baseline ICU scoring system. Meanwhile, Lasso (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) removes redundant variables and Regression analysis estimates the patients’ death time. The model excels in clinical prediction in terms of good classification, hybrid usage of data analysis, machine learning and signal processing for more insightful extraction of clinical features. Furthermore, the fast response time and heterogeneous multivariate diagnosis in multidimensional dataspace, including temporal changes of time-variant physiological measurements proposed a effective solution for real-time ICU monitoring system. Ultimately, this work serves as a predictive indicator of patient status, helping physicians and clinicians get insight into each individual for the most optimal treatment and resources allocation.

With a huge development of neuroscience, the abilities for remote control of devices without manual direct interaction by brain wave have become a convinced reality. In this paper, five volunteers carrying Emotiv Epoc headsets were performed Brain-computer interface (BCI) experiments due to visual stimulus. The Electroencenphalogram (EEG) signals were collected and analyzed in real time to extract features. P300 signals with largest amplitude occurs remarkably at the occipital and frontal channels. There were two methods to be used to classify P300 BCI for comparisons. The Artificial Neural Network (ANN) combined EEGLAB for offline analyzing and the Linear Linear Discriminate Analysis (LDA) of OpenVibe were employed for online detection. The accuracy percentage of ANN is 80% and test results of online detection is above of 85%. These good results promised real assistance application for disabled.

Sleeplessness and driver’s drowsiness is one of the reasons leading to accidents. Many studies as well as applied products have been recently developed and integrated into car. However, almost research concentrated on eyes-movement and pupillary stretch. Especially, mobile Electroencephalography (EEG) measurement device becomes new trend thanks to its convenience and affordable price. This research focused on using portable EEG device—EPOC Emotiv for detecting sleep-onset by analyzing power spectrum after filtering frequency band of brain waves. The processed features become the input of Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification and the prerequisite for real-time drowsiness detection. The changes of vigilance state classified by SVM in analysis show the result with over 70% data samples, reliably used in driving safety system in the future.

Freeze-drying has been frequently used to preserve food at room temperature for extended periods of time; however, its application to mammalian spermatozoa is difficult because it is impossible to preserve spermatozoa at room temperature for long periods. It is known that trehalose is one of the best cryoprotectant agents, but not yet clear whether trehalose is effective for the protection of freeze-dried spermatozoa. In this study, we examined DNA damage of mouse freeze-dried spermatozoa preserved for one week at room temperature with or without trehalose. When freeze-dried spermatozoa were preserved for one week, the DNA damage of spermatozoa and in vitro developmental potential after fertilization had no difference between any concentrations of trehalose. However, when those embryos were transferred into recipient females, the highest birth rate was obtained from embryos fertilized with trehalose treated spermatozoa. These results suggest that the trehalose can protect freeze-dried spermatozoa and increased the quality of embryo for full term development.

Breast cancer is a significant health concern prevailing in both developing and advanced countries where early and precise diagnosis of the disease receives significant attention from the scientific community. In this work, we proposed a deep learning approach using Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to address the problem of classifying breast cancer using the public histopathological image dataset BreakHis. We propose a CNN model that takes input as preprocessed and augmented images from the available dataset and finally evaluate the classification performance of the model based on accuracy. The result shows that data preprocessing and augmentation significantly improve the performance of the model and help avoid overfitting due to class imbalance from the raw image set. The performance of our model also indicates the high capability of CNN in learning the representation that substantially improves the overall classifying accuracy of cancerous breast tissue.

Understanding of eye movement is crucial for viewers’ behavior recognition. The movement of eyeballs in space can be described by a nonlinear differential equation that should be processed with a special identification approach due to its nonlinearities. Electrooculography (EOG) is a technique for measuring the cornea—retinal standing potential that exists between the front and the back of the human eye. The EOG signal can be processed separately through the horizontal and vertical channel from the surface muscle around the eye. In this paper, we propose a method to describe the characteristic of EOG signals that can be used to detect eye movements. The method consists of two (2) main parts: recurrence quantification analysis to estimate the behavior of EOG signal and state space analysis to identify different types of eye movement. The assessment of the data suggests the potential parameters in characterizing EOG signal. The preliminary results indicate that state space analysis is promising in classifying different types of eye movement for activity recognition.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death globally. For an effective treatment of CVDs, automatic CVDs detection based on Electrocardiograph (ECG) monitoring is highly desirable. One major challenge in ECG classification is feature learning. This paper reviews developed techniques for feature extraction and compared their performances in Atrial Fibrillation (AF), Myocardial Infarction (MI) and Pericarditis detection. Feature extraction methods in the literature reviews can be divided into mainly four categories: linear feature, nonlinear feature, wavelet transform, deep learning. Three studies were implemented using database from PhysioNet to evaluate the effectiveness of different feature extraction techniques. The AF detection algorithm use morphology features, statistic features, spectral feature, and wavelet entropy, presented a sensitivity of 96%, specificity of 93% and accuracy of 94.1%. In the case of Pericarditis and MI classification, information thoery-based features including subband energy, permutation entropy, and approximate entropy are the most noteworthy features. The study of detecting MI using machine learning based model of Convolutional Neural Network showed a sensitivity of 92.04% which yield the most promising results.

The knowledge attained from deep brain structure allows for the establishment of novel computational-based methods for yielding insights into pathophysiology and electrophysiology of neurological and degenerative brain disorders for aiding medical treatment and diagnosis, namely Epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. To support those purposes, Electroencephalography is a readily accessible, noninvasive and relatively inexpensive monitoring method to serve diagnostic purposes, analytical tools for brain investigation, and inherently features an excellent temporal resolution for recording behaviors of brain’s spontaneous electrical activities over a period of time which follow a non-stationary dynamic process. In fact, the representation of the system also differs across individuals due to the identification of person-specific parameters. This paper proposes a scheme that extracts features characterizing the personalized spatial-temporal structure contained in EEG associated with Parkinson’s disease and Epilepsy, then build an electrophysiological model using only EEG signal for the individual to enhance accuracy for detection of these diseases. The primary result of classifying some non-linear features (Approximate entropy, Sample entropy, Fractal Dimension, and Hurst exponent) between normal and epilepsy segments showed high performance in classifiers (Decision tree: 80.5 ± 1.24%, K-nearest neighbor: 81.6 ± 1.52%, Support vector machine: 82.6 ± 0.34%).

In the Hospital of Vietnam, Medical equipment is being managed quite simple without using information technology. So, the health care is increasingly developed, the management, investment as well as effective using are more difficult. For that reason, this paper proposes a model of information technology application in management of medical equipment. The model was built after survey and evaluation of some hospitals in the North of Vietnam. Later, it will be tested in the E-Hospital in Hanoi.

There is both a demand and need for delivering patient centered care in health systems. This is especially challenging in developing countries in which resources are limited, population health burdens are extensive, and coordination between facilities is fractured. The development of a low cost, centralized, real time data collection platform would be a powerful tool in understanding patient centered healthcare needs and issues. We report a pilot project that seeks to establish such a healthcare research network in Vietnam. This pilot used a web-based database collection tool called REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture). We programmed a validated general health quality of life questionnaire in both English and Vietnamese that was used to collect patient responses. A total of four hospitals located in Hanoi, Vietnam participated in the pilot project of patients presenting with otolaryngology-head and neck complaints and concerns between January 23 and January 26, 2018. We report outpatient responses and their associated quality of life in ten specific domains. This pilot demonstrates the successful international collaboration among academic, non-profit, clinical entities in establishing this low-cost research network. This will be a platform that could easily be expanded to include other healthcare facilities in conducting quality improvement and research projects. We envision this approach as an important tool in improving health care quality in developing countries throughout the world.

Medical technology (MedTech) is traditionally seen as enabling the delivery of health in a better, innovative fashion. For example, the Da Vinci robot enables robotic surgeries, and Ardian enables surgical treatment of refractory hypertension. More recently, there has been a profound shift in emphasis on technologies that can provide cost-saving values to the payers. To this end, value signposts are fundamental in identifying and addressing clinical needs on a global scale. These value signposts include the potential to keep patients out of the hospital, change location of care to less expensive venues, and diagnose a condition earlier to reduce complications and/or slow disease progression. These presentations will review the key value signposts for translating health science technology and apply them to two case studies. Case 1: Even with readily available Emergency Medical Service and well equipped tertiary medical centres dotted across Singapore, the rate of patients with ischemic stroke receiving thrombolysis is low at 6.3%. Patients missing the window for thrombolysis have worse clinical outcome and require expensive rehabilitation. Our Singapore Stanford Biodesign team developed an app to identify the three most common symptoms of stroke and automatically activate medical response. Case 2: Our team of physicians from Singapore and the United States identified a scarcity of nasoendoscope in Vietnam. Only 45% of central and regional hospitals have nasoendoscopes whereas no community or district hospitals have such capacity. The team developed an affordable, LED-based, cord-free, AAA-battery-powered nasoendoscope system with data acquisition and transmission circuitry. This device can potentially add significant value to the delivery of ENT care in Vietnam and beyond. The objective is to demonstrate how innovations with strong focus on reducing the costs to healthcare systems have global appeal.

Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease. Vietnam is one of the 20 countries with the highest TB incidence, and the mortality rate due to tuberculosis each year in Vietnam is nearly double than that due to traffic accidents. To assist physicians in Vietnam rural areas dealing with tuberculosis and reducing pressure on central hospitals, a medical expert system has been developed based on fuzzy logic rules to give advice for diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis.

The oral discomforts are still popular and impact on daily activities, reduce quality of life of the patients. Aim The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence, intensity, and extent of the impacts, caused by oral problems on 12- and 15-year-old children in Can Tho city. Materials and methods 407 children at 12 and 402 children at 15 from 10 out of 62 secondary schools in 9 urban and suburban districts in Can Tho city were selected into the study by probability proportional to size sample selection method. Vietnamese child version of the Oral Impact of Daily Performances (Child-OIDP) was employed to evaluate oral impacts on 8 daily activities. Results and discussion The prevalence of oral impacts was 87% of children at 12 and 78.6% of those at 15. The most frequently impacted among daily performances was eating (64.6% 12-year-old pupils, 53% those at 15), then next was cleaning mouth, emotion, and smiling. Among children with impacts, 36.4 and 15.2% children (at 12 and 15 respectively) reported impacts on more than five daily activities and with severe to very severe intensity relatively high (16.7 and 11% sequentially). Conclusion Oral impacts on daily performances were very common, rather wide but not severe among children at 12 and 15 years old in Can Tho province. Affects on the former were more than on latter, in urban districts were higher than suburban ones significantly. The common reasons were tooth decay, toothache, oral ulcer, swollen gums and sensitive tooth.

Background Speckle tracking echocardiography 2D (STE 2D), a new technology, allows rapid and accurate analysis of regional and global left ventricular systolic function. Aim The aim of this study was to assess subclinical left ventricular systolic dysfunction in the patients with systemic hypertension with preserved ejection fraction by using STE 2D. Methods 2D echocardiography images of left ventricular were acquired in six sections-apical 4-chamber, 2-chamber, 3-chamber, parasternal short axis at the basal, mid, and apical levels in 194 subjects (151 hypertensive patients and 43 healthy controls). The images were analysed by QLAB software version 9.0. Long, circumferential and radial strain were quantified in 18-segments. Result Peak systolic long strain, circumferential strain, radial strain and longitudinal-circumferential systolic index were markedly decreased in patients with systemic hypertension comparing with control group (−11.57 ± 2.37% vs. −16.52 ± 1.19%; −13.52 ± 4.97% vs. −17.92 ± 2.39%; 10.24 ± 3.4% vs. 12.33 ± 1.94%; −12.55 ± 2.83% vs. −17.22 ± 1.44%, p < 0.001). Besides, the average of systolic blood pressure in normal longitudinal-circumferential systolic index group is lower than abnormal that group (127.93 ± 9.02 mmHg vs. 139.92 ± 12.51 mmHg, p < 0.001) and the average of systolic blood pressure in normal systolic index group is lower than abnormal that group (128.57 ± 8.1 mmHg vs. 141.96 ± 12.39 mmHg, p < 0.001). Conclusion although left ventricular ejection fraction is normal by conventional echocardiography, there is an early decline in systolic function by STE method and mean systolic blood pressure in the groups with normal systolic strain parameters are lower than that with abnormal strain parameters.

Tumorigenesis of the lung cancer is a multistep transformation involving genetic and epigenetic alterations. Aims To evaluate the general genetic pathways, their involvement, determining how they relate to the biological behavior of lung cancer, and their utility as diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Materials and method Online literature search through Google scholars, Pubmed, and hard copies, using keywords “biological alterations and lung carcinoma” yielded 9,380,000 publications. The 16 selected papers were used as a basis to formulate this report, and to evaluate the general pathways and involved genes, determining how they relate to the biological behaviour of lung cancer and their utility as diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Results and discussion Growth signals and lung cancer: In tumours cell, the activated oncogenes encode the molecules relating to the signalling growth factors either by direct initiation of the cell growths as an imitation of other growth factors or neutralization of the growth factor inhibitor. Conclusion Significant advances in molecular biologic research during recent decades have resulted in a substantial insight into critical signalling pathways and mediators contributing to lung cancer pathogenesis.

HBV infection is a leading cause of chronic hepatitis. The new advances in diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B have significantly contributed in limiting several complications of hepatitis including the usage of molecular biotechnological method such as real-time PCR, typically, which become a helpful method in diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of disease. The study aimed at developing a real-time PCR assay in order to quantify viral load in blood, genotype and characteristic antiviral drug (Lamivudine—LAM, Adefovir—ADV) resistance mutation in hepatitis B in patients of Tayninh Hospital, Tayninh province, Vietnam. According to results, in Tay Ninh, we certainly recorded several clinical parameters of HBV infections. The patient’s age at HBV infection was 37.5 ± 13.7. Impact of HBV infection in female was counted for 58.5%, the proportion of persons without consideration they are infected with HBV was up to 55.5%, the main of HBV infection through the spread of blood was 94.5%. The ALT value with normal range, HBeAg negative and without any recommendation for hepatitis treatment were counted for 74.5, 71, 68.5% in turn. In HBsAg positive group, 73.5% HBV DNA positive for predominant genotype B was counted for 78.2%. The group with high viral load with ≥20,000 UI/mL was counted for 27.5%. The proportion of antiviral drug resistance mutation in LAM, both LAM and ADV were counted for 67.3, 43.3% in turn. In the group of LAM resistance, double mutations at 204I, 204 V was 52.6%. In cases of ADV resistance, double mutations at 181 V, 181T was reached to the highest proportion with 48.2%. Antiviral drug resistance mutation frequently occurred in the younger group, associated with the high ratio of HBeAg positive, increasing of ALT and high viral load, whereas there is no difference in genotype effected on clinical and subclinical factors.

Apolipoprotein (Apo) B gene consists of 28 introns, 29 exons and encodes the protein component of LDL particles, which plays a central role in human lipoprotein metabolism. Mutations in the ApoB-100 will drastically alter its functional activity leading to a decrease in its binding to LDLR, resulting in high blood cholesterol levels. However, previous publications related to the mutations of ApoB-100 were not always unification. In current study, therefore, a meta-analysis was performed. A systematic literature analysis was conducted based on previous studies published in Pubmed, Pubmed Central (NCBI), Google by using following keywords: Apolipoprotein B gene, hypercholesterolemia, Familial Defective Apolipoprotein B-100 by the end of March, 2018. The prevalence of ApoB mutation was calculated and accessed by MedCalc®. Additionally, the meta-regression analysis and subgroup analysis were conducted. As the results, the total of 22 cohort studies, that includes 17,303 hypercholesterolemic blood samples, were enrolled into current study. The analysis results indicated that the prevalence of ApoB mutation was 31.774% (95%CI = 8.288 − 61.912, p  < 0.0001). Additionally, R3500Q was identified as the common mutation occurred in ApoB. The association between ApoB mutations and hypercholesterolemia was effected by different methods analysis (PCR-sequencing: prevalence = 30.731%; 95% CI = 4.561 − 67.104, p  < 0.001; Other methods: prevalence = 32.265%; 95%CI = 10.739 − 58.846, p  < 0.0001, Random model) and ethnic groups (European: prevalence = 35.929%; 95%CI = 6.956 − 72.486, p  < 0.0001, Random model; Asian: prevalence = 33.806%; 95%CI = 3.681 − 75.061, p  < 0.0001). In conclusion, the prevalence of mutations of ApoB-100 is high in hypercholesterolemia. R3500Q mutation is the frequent type of ApoB-100 mutations. The identification of prevalence of mutations of ApoB-100 was depended on ethnic group, methods.

Immune checkpoints are molecules in the immune system that either turn-on a signal (co-stimulatory molecules) or turn-off a signal for maintaining self-tolerance and modulating the duration and amplitude of physiological immune responses. Many cancers protect themselves from the immune system by inhibiting the T cell signal Inhibitory receptors such as anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed death 1 (PD-1), expressed on tumor-specific T cells, lead to compromised activation and suppressed effector functions such as proliferation, cytokine secretion, and tumour cell lysis. Modulating these receptors using monoclonal antibodies, an approach termed “immune checkpoint blockade,” has gained momentum as a new approach in cancer immunotherapy. This treatment concept was first introduced in patients with advanced melanoma: In this patient population, the anti-CTLA-4 antibody Ipilimumab was the first drug ever to show improved overall survival in phase III trials. Antibodies directed against PD-1 and its ligand, PD-L1, have shown much promise in the treatment of melanoma, renal cell cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and other tumours, as evident by encouraging rates and durability of tumour responses. Because of the successes with immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer immunotherapy, many new agents and strategies, including combination approaches, are being developed at a fast pace.

Aim To determine the characteristics of KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, PIK3CA gene mutation and loss of PTEN expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma in Can Tho Oncology Hospital. Materials and methods A cross-sectional study included 50 cases of colorectal adenocarcinoma were diagnosed and treated at Can Tho Oncology Hospital. KRAS, NRAS, BRAF, PIK3CA mutations identified by Sanger DNA sequencing as well as evaluating the loss of PTEN protein expressed by MHC. Results and discussion Among the 50 colorectal cancer patients, we detected 17 (34%) mutations in the KRAS, NRAS (0%), BRAF 1(2%) and PIK3CA 3(6%), all of which were point mutations. Mutation frequencies at codon 12 and codon 13 were 26%. Only one patient harboured a point mutation at codon 10. The KRAS mutation frequency was significantly higher in the rectum than in the colon (26% versus 8%, p = 0.022). Other clinic-pathological features, such as gender, histological type, and grade, TNM stage, showed no positive relationship with KRAS gene mutations. The PIK3CA mutation frequency was significantly higher in the <50 years patients or female than in the group ≥50 years (6% versus 0%) with p = 0.042; p = 0.036 respectively. The incidence of PTEN loss was 14%. Loss of PTEN expression, relative to regional lymph nodes metastatic and distant metastasis was statistically significant. Conclusion The KRAS mutation rates of colorectal adenocarcinoma patients in Can Tho Oncology Hospital were 34%. KRAS mutation associated with tumor location. PIK3CA mutation associated with age and gender. In 50 cases, none of NRAS mutations detected. K601E BRAF mutation is also one of several situations that cause over-activation of the BRAF protein. The rate of PTEN loss was 14% and about regional and distant metastasis.

Aims This study aims to evaluate the diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of early stages cervical cancers. Materials and methods: a Randomized descriptive survey of 146 cases/786 cervical cancer patients hospitalized, classified into early stages (IA–IIA) and primarily treated in surgery at Can Tho Oncology Hospital from 06/2000 to 6/2008. Result Predominant age of patients was from 40 to 59 year old (85%); mean age were 49 yo; the youngest were 23 yo; the oldest was 75 yo. Postmenopausal patients occupied 18.7%. Proportion of early stages/total cervical cancers is 18.5% among which: stage IA: 5.1%; IB: 8.8% and IIA: 5.5%. The first diagnostic clinical manifestation: intermenstrual bleeding: 73%, postcoital bleeding: 9.5% combined with other favorizing factors: age of first coitus, number of sexual partners, number of children, lifestyle (socioeconomy status, cigarette smoking). Cytology or/and histopathology diagnosis and staging based on Pap-smear with cytological exam: HSIL: 13.3%, Microinvasive: 40%, Invasive: 46.7%; Colposcopy: inflammation: 14.3%, budding: 63.5%, ulcerative: 9.5%. And biopsy of the cervix: epitheliocarcinoma: 85.7%, adenocarcinoma: 14.3%; Post-operatory pelvic nodal metastasis: 18.4%; unsafety of cutting field: 3.5%. Essential surgical treatment is Wertheim-Meigs’ Operation in conjunction with adjuvant therapy, chemotherapy, Radiotherapy. DFS of 3 years: 77.9%, of 5 years: 62.3%; OS of 3 years: 81.5%, of 5 years: 74.2%. Conclusion This study illustrated a low proportion of early-stage cervical cancers in Can Tho, in comparing with others authors. In the highly populated area of Mekong Delta region, cervical cancer screening programme was vital. The primary surgical treatment was the essential management for the early stages, as early diagnosis implies sooner radically treatment with a high proportion of DFS and OS of 3 or/and five years.

Aim To evaluate the feasibility, safety, and properties of dissected lymph nodes from the specimen of laparoscopic right hemicolectomy for colon carcinoma. Materials and method To perform a cross-sectional study of 80 right colon carcinoma patients who underwent laparoscopic right hemicolectomy at K Hospital of Hanoi Medical University and Can Tho Oncology Hospital from June 2012 to June 2016. Results and discussion There were 36 male and 44 female patients. Age ranges from 20-87-year-old, the average age was 54.8 ± 1.7. 15 patients had a history of previous operations. The mean size of tumors was 4.9 ± 0.2 cm (1.5–6 cm). A total of 992 lymph nodes were harvested, the mean number of nodes dissection for each patient was 12.4 mm ± 2.8 (6–43 mm). The number of nodes dissection whose size from 0.5 to 1 cm were 589 (59.4%). Majority of lymph node’s location was closed to the tumor edge and along arteries: ileocolic, right and middle colic arteries (80.1%). Metastatic rate of lymph nodes was moderate (40%). Conclusion Within the limit of this study, lymphadenectomy in Laparoscopic surgery for right colon carcinoma was the feasible and safe procedure. It conforms to the oncological principles. Characteristic properties of dissected lymph nodes from the specimen revealed mean of nodes dissection for each patient were 12.4 mm; a majority of node’s locations were closed to the tumor edge and along the ileocolic, right colic and middle colic arteries. Metastatic rate of lymph nodes was moderate (40%).

Background Obstructive Sleep Apnea syndrome (OSA) is the syndrome of stopping the breath when sleeping. It is estimated that more than one quarter of the population is at risk for OSA, with increased prevalence noted in populations with hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke, and atrial fibrillation. In Viet Nam, there are still a few studies of OSA. Objective To evaluate the prevalence of cardiovascular risk in OSA patients. Also, the correlation between AHI and BMI, SBP, DBP, blood glucose, Cholesterol, Triglyceride, LDL-C, HDL-C. Methods Clinical data of 30 OSA patients admitted to hospital were analyzed and compared to 30 healthy persons, without cardiovascular risk. We evaluated the incidence of cardiovascular risk in the OSA patients. We also find the correlations between AHI and age, BMI, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, Cholesterol, Triglyceride, LDL-C, HDL-C. Results 1. The prevalence of cardiovascular risk in the OSA patients: hyperlipidemia was 27.59%, hypertension was 18.97%, obesity was 20.69%, smoking was 13.79%, sedentary lifestyle was 8.62%, diabetes mellitus was 10.34%. 2. AHI correlated with SBS (r = 0.37, p < 0.05), Cholesterol (r = 0.32, p <  0.05) and BMI (r = 0.41, p <  0.05). Conclusions Basing on the correlation, cardiovascular risk should be concerned in OSA.

Introduction Application of pure oxygen is an easy method to overcome gagging. Aim The objective of this paper is to carry out a ten-year retrospective case series on the application of oxygen on gagging patients diagnosed with sleep disordered breathing (SDB). Materials and methods A cohort of 62 private dental patient data was collected for the study over the course of ten years (2007–2017). Patient information used included medical history, vital signs (blood pressure, height, and weight), neck circumference, BMI measurements, lateral cephalometric radiograph, capnograph and a full clinical examination. Results and discussion Patients with SDB and gagging issues have associated clinical findings such as scalloped tongue, mandibular and maxillary tori, skeletal class 2 division 1, narrow arch, deep palatal vault and worn-down dentition. Only one patient out of 62 gagging patients did not respond to oxygen therapy. This patient was identified as having SDB with a psychological component. Conclusion Oxygen is an excellent method to overcome gagging issues in dental patients with history of SDB.

Classification of sleep stages is an important criterion for all sleep studies. Determining the time of transition between stages allows for accurate assessment of sleep quality and development of early alert applications. The major of this study is focused on using the portable electroencephalography (EEG) device for sleep staging. The study used two devices Nicolet One V32 and Emotiv EPOC to analyze the different characteristics of the brain signal in Sleep onset. Analysis results show that the similarity of the two devices reached over 80%, indicating the possibility of using the low-cost device Emotiv EPOC neuroheadset replacing clinical EEG system in sleep studies.

Humans need more protection since environmental pollution becomes more serious problem. In many recent years, the appearance of many infectious diseases has generated the life-threatening and the tremendous challenges have given for medical scientists in diagnosis and treatment methods. Multifunctional protective costumes may be a good solution to protect efficiently human body from such risks. Among initiatives, dual antibacterial and water repellent fabric was able to be a great choice in designing the surgical gown in order to efficiently protect. This work provides usefully interesting information about the synergies among finishing agents on cotton fabric. Accordingly, the experimental results clarified the biocidal and hydrophobic mechanism at the same time under various conditions. In addition, the wearing comforts associated with heat tranfer and air exchange between body skin and fabric layers were concerned to increase the product performances.

Serum levels of ST2 are associated with prognosis in non-ischemic heart failure, but the predictive value of ST2 in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction is unknown. Methods The study included 38 STEMI patients at Interventional Cardiology department of Cho Ray hospital. Correlation analysis was used to identify the relationship between the cardiac outcomes within 30 days from the onset of chest pain and sST2 value. Results ST2 levels were measured in serum from 38 patients with STEMI. Baseline levels of ST2 were significantly higher in those patients who died (<35 ng/mL vs. >35 ng/mL, P = 0.01) or developed new congestive heart failure (<35 ng/mL vs. >35 ng/mL, P = 0.002) by 30 days. In an analysis of outcomes at 30 days by ST2 quartiles, both death (P = 0.01) and the combined death/heart failure end point (p = 0.001) showed a significant graded association with levels of ST2. Furthermore, when sST2 > 35 ng/mL and BNP > 500 pg/mL showed a tightly relationship with cardiac outcomes within 30 days (P < 0.0001). Conclusions Serum levels of the interleukin-1 receptor family member ST2 predict mortality and heart failure in patients with STEMI. These data suggest that ST2 and BNP are the useful biomarker in short-term prognosis of cardiac events in STEMI.

The aim of the present study was to find out the optimal culture conditions for Streptomyces spp. LTB08 which previously showed strong antimicrobial activity to exert high antimicrobial activity. The effect of each parameter viz., incubation time, pH, sodium chloride concentration, and added carbon on antimicrobial activity was studied by varying single parameter of standard culture condition at a time. The result showed that antimicrobial activity reached the peak after 4 days of culture and remained relatively constant until day 7. Among different tested pHs and salinities, highest antimicrobial activity was obtained at pH 7.0 in comparison to pH 6 and 8 and at the salinity of 0.5% in comparison to 1 and 2%. In contrast, when different carbon sources (glucose, fructose, sucrose, and starch) were supplemented to the culture medium (MHB), there was a marked decrease in the antimicrobial activity of Streptomyces spp. LTB08 in comparison to non-supplemented condition which indicated that the production of antimicrobial compounds seemed to be more preferable in restricted media. In summary, 4 days of incubation at pH 7.0; 0.5% NaCl and non-supplemented MHB are optimal conditions to achieve maximum yield of antimicrobial activity of Streptomyces in general and of isolate LTB08 in particular.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a Gram-negative bacterium of research importance nowadays due to its ability to cause diseases in both human and marine organisms. However, the bacterium expresses diminishing potential to grow under in vitro conditions particularly after conventional preservation and serial subculture. In this research, the conditions for V. parahaemolyticus culture and preservation were optimized to improve its growth and survival. In brief, V. parahaemolyticus XN9 was cultured in different conditions via varying culture medium (TSB, BHI, LB and MB), NaCl concentration (2.5, 3.0 and 3.5%), and pH (7.5, 8.0 and 8.5). The optimal culture condition was then used for optimizing preservation condition with different added glycerol concentrations (20, 30, and 40%). Survival rate was measured after 1, 2 and 3 months using plate counting method. Results showed that, the optimal culture condition for V. parahaemolyticus is 2.5% NaCl and pH 8.5 for TSB and BHI medium; 3.0% NaCl and pH 8.0 for LB; 2.5% NaCl and pH 8.0 for MB. For preservation, TSB with 20% glycerol, 2.5% NaCl and pH 8.0 provided best result. In conclusion, media such as TSB, BHI and MB can be applied to culture and preserve V. parahaemolyticus. However, to obtain optimal bacterial growth and survival, pH and salt concentration should be of concern for each one.

Neuroblastoma is a fatal childhood disease that only 30% are long-term survival for high-risk cases. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play a crucial role in cancer development. TAMs are classified into classical activated M1 phenotype and alternative activated M2 phenotype under specific stimuli in tumor microenvironment. While M1 macrophages induce pro-inflammation and tumoricidal activity, M2 macrophages promote tumor progression. The poor survival of several cancers (including neuroblastoma) has been assigned to high M2 macrophages presentation. Meanwhile, studies on some cancers reported high M1 infiltration was associated with improved survival. However, the contribution of M1 macrophages has not been well studied in neuroblastoma. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the ratio of M1/M2 macrophages in association with patients ‘survival expectation. To evaluate activation status of M1 and M2 macrophages, we isolated TAMs from neuroblastoma tumors and quantified their biomarker gene expression using RT-qPCR. A remarkably high infiltration of M1 macrophages in tumor was observed with high event-free survival (EFS) and very low risk. Meanwhile, an M2-populated polarization was the status in poor outcome cases. Collectively, these data suggested that a higher ratio of M1/M2 polarized macrophages resulted in better survival from Very-Low risk (VL) to Intermediate- risk (IR). This study supports promising treatment targeting TAMs polarization for survival improvement in neuroblastoma patients.

Human microbiota is a microbial community that lives on and in the human body. It has received considerable attention and research efforts over the past decade because it exerts a major impact on human health, from metabolism to immunity. In a recent study, we identified novel anticancer Azurin-like peptides from the human gut microbiome using combined molecular biology and bioinformatics based approaches. Herein, we present the cloning, expression and partial purification of one of these peptides as a case study towards the design and development of novel anticancer peptide drugs by the use of recombinant protein engineering. Firstly, the vector pET42a(+) is used for the cloning of a peptide Cnazu8 encoded by p2seq12 (cnazu8) from Clostridium nexile DSM 1718 in E. coli OmniMAX. Secondly, this vector is further used for expression in E. coli BL21 (DE3). Finally, protein purification is performed in a HisPur Ni-NTA column (Thermo). The results show that the plasmid pDT008 allows Cnazu8 to express in fusion with GST-6xHis-TEV in E. coli. The optimal conditions for expression of the fusion peptide GST-6xHis-TEV-Cnazu8 (36.7 kDa) include IPTG at 0.05 mM and the temperature at 37 °C. However, most of the expected proteins are expressed in the insoluble forms. Thus, a sonication method for cell disruption is developed to increase the solubility of the desired proteins. The purification results in a relatively low amount of desired fusion proteins. Thus, the purification optimization and anticancer bioassays of Cnazu8 are required to further consider as a novel anticancer drug candidate.

In this study, a label-free electrochemical immunosensor system was designed and fabricated with focus on a detection of Newcastle disease virus (NDV). The chicken egg yolk antibodies (IgY) against NDV was used as the biological recognition element to replace IgG antibody, which offers some advantages with respect to animal care, high productivity and special suitability in the source of antibodies. The IgY against NDV was immobilized on sensor surface using the chemical approach. The immunosensor showed high sensitivity with NDV concentration range from 106 to 102 EID50/mL. This relatively simple fabrication is potential for applications in infection studies.

Tick-borne diseases are an emerging medical and veterinary problem. Ticks are implicated in the transmission of different pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa and filarial nematodes. However, up to now researches on these pathogens in Vietnam which has been limited, especially in the Mekong Delta region (Southwestern of Vietnam). We have collected 4763 tick individuals of 7 species, 5 genus, 2 families (Argas sp., Aponomma crassipes, Aponomma gervaisi, Rhipicephalus (Rhipicephalus) haemaphysaloides, Rhipicephalus (Rh.) sanguineus, Boophilus microplus, Ixodes (Ixodes) granulatus) at 8 sites in the Mekong delta region on the rainy season and dry season from 2015 to 2016 which determine the presence of pathogens (Rickettsia spp. and Orientia tsutsugamushi) on ticks. A total of 1457 tick individuals which were subdivided into 299 samples, that determine the presence of Rickettsia spp. and Oriental tsutsugamushi. Initial results, we have determined the presence of pathogen on ticks.

Professional communication skills have a substantial effect on dental patient satisfaction and health outcomes and are one of the core competencies expected of newly graduated dentists in Australia. Acquisition of effective, goal-oriented communication skills has been shown to improve the dentist-patient relationship and requires both practicing skills and reflective thinking. The use of technologies such as video-recording to communicate directly and individually with students can be used to enhance students’ engagement and communication skills. This paper aims to present the results of the implementation of the video recording of role-plays and self-reflection in the training of communication skills of first-year dental students at Griffith University, Australia. The year 2015 was used as a control, and in 2016 we introduced video recording, and in 2017 self-reflection. The tools used to measure the impact of these teaching instruments were: (1) student evaluation of courses (SEC) data, and (2) results of the final practical exam grades in the Communication Skills for Oral Health Course. The skills assessed and reflected on include: verbal and non-verbal communication, metacommunication, self-confidence, rapport, active listening, and mindfulness. Recordings and facilitator’s feedback can be accessed by each student for their self-reflection on their overall performance, communication skills, patient-centered approach and strategies on how to improve their skills. Results of the SEC data show enhancements in engagement (68–83% +ve answers), assessment (66–78% +ve answers) and feedback (81–89% +ve answers). Results of their average final practical marks increased from 57.82% (control) to 63.34% (with video), and finally 79.64% (with video and self-reflection). These results strongly suggest that the inclusion of the digital recording of role play interactions and self-reflection increases the quality of communication skills training for dental students by enhancing their dentist-patient relationship skills, engagement, confidence, satisfaction with assessment and the quality of the feedback that can be provided.

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) has been widely used in chemotherapy treatments of cancer for several decades. Ongoing research investigation is devoted to have a better understanding of its anti-cancer activities and to overcome side effects and drug resistance. In this work, electronic structure of 5-FU molecule in various solvents is investigated from first principles. Our results exhibit that exact exchange contribution to the electron-electron interaction is important to optimize bond angles while correlation term is important for bond lengths. B3LYP/cc-pDVZ is the best basis set for calculation of IR-active vibration. It is found that diffusion functions included into Gaussian wave-function basis sets over-estimate dipole moment of the molecule. At low dielectric constant region, the dipole moment of the 5-FU molecule increases quickly but then reaches saturated value around 5.10 D at dielectric constant higher than 30. There is a correlation between the change of HOMO-LUMO gap and the change of C–C bond length induced by the electrostatic interaction between the molecule and solvents.