BACKGROUND Measurement of PCO2 is vital in determining effective alveolar ventilation. However, obtaining capillary PCO2 by a skin prick of the earlobe is painful, and nocturnal measurements disturb sleep. End-expiratory measurement of PCO2 is also well established, but there is a low precision in predicting arterial or capillary CO2. The purpose of the study was to evaluate nocturnal measureme...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Transcutaneous intense focused ultrasound has emerged as a novel technology for non-invasive skin tightening. The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety profile of a transcutaneous focused ultrasound device for the treatment of facial skin laxity in Asians. MATERIALS AND METHODS The patients received one to three full-face treatments with the transcutaneo...

BACKGROUND Transcutaneous bilirubinometry is widely used to predict hyperbilirubinemia by using several devices. The aim of this study was to compare the predictive ability of BiliCheck vs JM-103 in identifying neonates not at risk of significant hyperbilirubinemia, putting the data obtained with the two instruments on our transcutaneous bilirubin nomogram built with the BiliCheck. METHODS Tr...

Severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia can be prevented by screening for neonatal jaundice. Transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) measurement is a noninvasive method for screening neonates. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between TcB measurement (using the JM-103 bilirubinometer) and total serum bilirubin (TSB) measurement. To our knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the usef...

BACKGROUND Inspired CO2 is a potent ventilatory stimulant exhibiting a paradoxical inhibitory effect on breathing at high concentrations. Severe respiratory depression as a result of CO2 rebreathing during sleep has been implicated as a possible trigger factor in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). OBJECTIVE To investigate the ventilatory and heart rate (HR) responses to inhaled CO2 in infan...

This study models the use of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on skin with a disk electrode in order to simulate tissue damage. The current density distribution above a disk electrode is known to be a dynamic and non-uniform quantity that is intensified at the edges of the disk. The non-uniformity is subject to change through using various electrode geometries or stimulation methods....

Mitochondria play an essential role in cellular energy metabolism and apoptosis. Previous studies have demonstrated that decreased mitochondrial biogenesis is associated with cancer progression. In mitochondrial biogenesis, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1α) regulates the activities of multiple nuclear receptors and transcription factors involved in mi...

The skin of mammals is an excellent anatomical and biochemical barrier. Non-invasive transport across the skin is therefore only feasible for relatively small molecules (MW > 400 Da) [1]. Special tile-like cell organisation in the skin and the sealing of intercellular contacts by the lipids that are tightly packed and attached covalently to cutaneous cell membranes are both responsible for this...

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is common throughout the world and is a target for vaccine development. Transcutaneous immunisation is a novel technique that uses the application of vaccine antigens in solution on the skin in the presence of cholera toxin (CT) as an adjuvant. This study investigated the potential of transcutaneous immunisation in C3H mice, using CT co-administered with whole inactiv...

BACKGROUND High-Definition transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) allows for non-invasive neuromodulation using an array of compact (approximately 1 cm(2) contact area) "High-Definition" (HD) electrodes, as compared to conventional tDCS (which uses two large pads that are approximately 35 cm(2)). In a previous transcutaneous study, we developed and validated designs for HD electrodes...