Poikilocytosis in the acne vulgaris comorbidity with demodicosis and functional gallbladder disorder

The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of poikilocytosis in the acne vulgaris comorbidity with demodicosis and functional gallbladder disorder. Materials and methods: The study included 140 people with a diagnosis of moderate acne: group 1 – patients with AV, group 2 – patients with AV + Demodicosis, group 3- AV + Demodicosis + functional gallbladder disorder (FGD). Biochemical analysis of lipid profile and liver enzymes, bilirubin was performed with semi-automatic analyzer HUMALYZER 3000. Scanning electron microscopy was performed using scanning electron microscope PEI-106I “SELMI”. Ultrasound investigation was carried out by the SonoScape S6Pro US-diagnostic system with 3 – 5 MHz Ultrasound Probe Transducer С354. Results: The most significant changes in blood erythrocytes morphology were observed in patients with comorbidity of acne, demodicosis and FGD with highest increasing of deformed erythrocytes up to 21%, mainly due to echinocytes І, ІІ order. Correlation analysis has revealed a strong direct association r = +0.75 (p < 0.05) between the poikilocytosis and comorbidity of acne vulgaris with demodicosis and FGD. Conclusions: A strong direct association between acne vulgaris comorbid pathology and the increased number of deformation shapes of erythrocytes confirms the impact of FGD on morphological characteristics of erythrocytes and developing of poikilocytosis.

Feasibility of Transient Elastography with M and XL probes in real life

Aim: Reliable liver stiffness measurement (RLSM) using Transient Elastography (TE) with the standard M probe are difficult to obtain in overweight (BMI≥25kg/m2) and obese (BMI>30kg/m2) patients. The aim of our paper was to assess the feasibility of TE in daily practice using both M and XL probes. Material and method: We studied retrospectively 3235 patients with chronic liver disease assessed by TE first by the M probe (standard probe – transducer frequency 3.5 MHz), and if the measurements were unreliable, with the XL probe (transducer frequency 2.5 MHz). Reliable measurements were defined as the median of 10 valid measurements with a success rate ≥ 60% and an interquartile range < 30%. Results of liver elasticity were expressed in kiloPascals (kPa). Results: RLSM by M probe were obtained in 62.2% (2015/3235) patients, and by XL probe in 1011/1220 (80%) of patients with unreliable measurements by M probe; thus we obtained RLSM in 93.5% of 3235 cases.In overweight patients we obtained RLSM in 89.9% (1039/1156) cases: in 63.1% (729) by M probe and in 26.8% (310) by XL probe. In obese patients we obtained RLSM in 83.8% (746/890): in 18.4% (164) by M probe and in 65.4% (582) by XL probe. Thus, by using both probes, RLSM were obtained in 1785 (87.2%) of overweight and obese patients. Conclusion: The feasibility of the M probe was 62.2% in our Department. Reliable measurements using M or XL probe allowed the evaluation of liver stiffness in 93.5% of cases. By using both M and XL probes, reliable LSM by TE can be obtained in the majority of obese and overweight patients (87.2%).

Atomically Layered Structures for Perpendicular Magnetic Information Storage

ABSTRACTLayered structures can possess a high volumetric density of interfaces, which can result in novel magnetic properties. We report magnetic characteristics of two types of atomically layered structures, (001) oriented intermetallics with the CuAu(I) crystal structure and (111) oriented artificial multilayers. C-axis oriented superlattices of PtFe, PtCo, PdFe and PdCo with the layered CuAu(I) structure, possess large magnetic anisotropies and novel magneto-optic properties relative to the corresponding random alloys. These films are produced by annealing, with tetragonality and magnetic anisotropy developing in a fashion which depends on the initial bilayer period and annealing parameters. (111) oriented artificially grown Pd/CoCr multilayers are reported for perpendicular magnetic recording applications. Using a perpendicular contact probe transducer, the multilayers exhibit two times the readback signal of CoCr media. The multilayers can be made with low roughness suitable for contact recording, and can generate narrow readback pulses with large amplitude. Many aspects of Pd/Co performance, such as overwrite, can be predictably optimized for a given set of transducer properties. The reported results show that compositionally modulated structures can be made which have a wide variety of useful properties for perpendicular hard disk and magneto-optic recording.