Leg ulcers are a common condition. There have been very few studies of combined therapy involving VAC (vacuum-assisted closure) and skin graft.
We performed a randomized controlled trial of VAC ...therapy vs. hydrocolloid dressings over 5 days following autologous grafting on chronic leg ulcers. The primary objective was to assess the difference in success (defined as a reduction in wound area of at least 50% at 1 month) between the two dressing methods. Forty-six patients with ulcers present for over one month were included. Following a 7-day hospitalization period, follow-up was performed for 3 months on an outpatient basis.
Our study does not demonstrate a statistically significant difference, with a 45.8% success rate in the VAC group vs. 40.9% in the conventional dressing group (P=0.73). In the venous ulcer group, the success rate was 57.9% for VAC vs. 40% for conventional dressings (P=0.3). The difference in favor of VAC in this group was not statistically significant, most likely due to an insufficient number of patients studied.
Our study does not demonstrate superiority of VAC associated with skin graft over conventional dressings. We observed more complications with VAC (40%) than with conventional dressings (23%) (P=0.06).
Energy resolution and linearity of the LHCf calorimeters for electromagnetic showers were measured at the SPS H4 beam line in 2007 using electron beams of 50–200GeV and muon beams of 150GeV. The ...absolute energy scale was determined in these data. The results that were obtained (<5% energy resolution) are well understood by using Monte Carlo simulations and are good enough for the requirements of the LHCf experiment.
Background
Line‐field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC‐OCT) is a non‐invasive optical technique recently developed for skin examination in vivo. It provides real‐time, high‐resolution ...vertical images with an isotropic resolution of ~1 µm and a penetration depth of ~500 µm.
Objectives
Study goals were to qualitatively/quantitatively characterize healthy skin at different body sites using LC‐OCT.
Methods
The skin of young healthy volunteers was imaged with a handheld LC‐OCT imaging device. Seven body sites (back of the hand, forehead, cheek, nose, chest, forearm and back) were investigated. An independent qualitative cutaneous structures' description; visibility of keratinocytes' nuclei and dermal–epidermal junction (DEJ) and quantitative stratum corneum (SC)/epidermal thicknesses; height of dermal papillae assessment of the LC‐OCT images was performed.
Results
A total of 88 LC‐OCT images were collected from 29 participants (20 females; nine males; mean age 25.9 years). Keratinocytes' nuclei and DEJ were visible in the totality of images. The different layers of the epidermis and the remaining cutaneous structures/findings were visualized. Body sites‐related variability was detected for SC/epidermal thicknesses and height of dermal papillae. Inter‐observer agreement was excellent (SC thickness), good‐to‐excellent (epidermal thickness) and moderate‐to‐good (papillae).
Conclusions
Line‐field confocal‐OCT provides non‐invasive, real‐time imaging of the skin in vivo with deep penetration and high resolution, enabling the visualization of single cells. The histology‐like vertical view provides an easy way to recognize/measure different cutaneous structures/findings. LC‐OCT appears as a promising technique for the examination of physiological/pathological skin.
The Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment has been designed to use the LHC to benchmark the hadronic interaction models used in cosmic-ray physics. It measures neutral particles emitted in ...the very forward region of the LHC p-p or p-N collisions. In this paper, the performances of the LHCf detectors for hadronic showers was studied with MC simulations and beam tests. The detection efficiency for neutrons varies from 70% to 80% above 500 GeV. The energy resolutions are about 40% and the position resolution is 0.1 to 1.3mm depending on the incident energy for neutrons. The energy scale determined by the MC simulations and the validity of the MC simulations were examined using 350GeV proton beams at the CERN-SPS.
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