We present a photoacoustic computed tomography investigation on a healthy human finger, to image blood vessels with a focus on vascularity across the interphalangeal joints. The cross-sectional images were acquired using an imager specifically developed for this purpose. The images show rich detail of the digital blood vessels with diameters between 100 μm and 1.5 mm in various orientations and at various depths. Different vascular layers in the skin including the subpapillary plexus could also be visualized. Acoustic reflections on the finger bone of photoacoustic signals from skin were visible in sequential slice images along the finger except at the location of the joint gaps. Not unexpectedly, the healthy synovial membrane at the joint gaps was not detected due to its small size and normal vascularization. Future research will concentrate on studying digits afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis to detect the inflamed synovium with its heightened vascularization, whose characteristics are potential markers for disease activity.

Laser speckle imaging with long exposure time has been applied noninvasively to visualize the immediate reaction of cutaneous vessels in mice in response to a known primary irritant and potential allergen—methyl salicylate. The compound has been used topically on the surface of the pinna and the reaction of the vascular network was examined. We demonstrate that irritant-induced acute vascular reaction can be effectively and accurately detected by laser speckle imaging technique. The current approach holds a great promise for application in routine screening of the cutaneous vascular response induced by contact agents, screenings of mouse ear swelling test, and testing the allergenic potential of new synthetic materials and healthcare pharmaceutical products.

Fluorescence holographic microscope (FINCHSCOPE) is a motionless fluorescence holographic imaging technique based on Fresnel incoherent correlation holography (FINCH) that shows promise in reconstructing three-dimensional fluorescence images of biological specimens with three holograms. We report a developing two-step phase-shifting method that reduces the required number of holograms from three to two. Using this method, we resolved microscopic fluorescent beads that were three-dimensionally distributed at different depths with two interferograms captured by a CCD camera. The method enables the FINCHSCOPE to work in conjunction with the frame-straddling technique and significantly enhance imaging speed.

We report an anisotropic tissue model containing well-ordered birefringent cylinders. Using simulations and experiments, we examined the different polarization features for nonbirefringent and birefringent cylinders and analyzed the influence of the birefringent cylinders on the retardance obtained from Mueller matrix polar decomposition. For the well-ordered birefringent cylinders, retardance increases linearly with the intrinsic birefringence and the scattering coefficient. Furthermore, the cylinders with a larger diameter generate more retardance. Compared with the cylinder-birefringence model, in which birefringent medium exists between the scatterers, the intrinsic birefringence on the cylinders usually contributes much less to the total retardance.

Raman microspectroscopy and quantitative backscattered electron imaging (qBEI) of bone are powerful tools to investigate bone material properties. Both methods provide information on the degree of bone matrix mineralization. However, a head-to-head comparison of these outcomes from identical bone areas has not been performed to date. In femoral midshaft cross sections of three women, 99 regions (20×20  μm 2 ) were selected inside osteons and interstitial bone covering a wide range of matrix mineralization. As the focus of this study was only on regions undergoing secondary mineralization, zones exhibiting a distinct gradient in mineral content close to the mineralization front were excluded. The same regions were measured by both methods. We found a linear correlation (R ² =0.75 ) between mineral/matrix as measured by Raman spectroscopy and the wt. %Mineral/(100-wt. %Mineral) as obtained by qBEI, in good agreement with theoretical estimations. The observed deviations of single values from the linear regression line were determined to reflect biological heterogeneities. The data of this study demonstrate the good correspondence between Raman and qBEI outcomes in describing tissue mineralization. The obtained correlation is likely sensitive to changes in bone tissue composition, providing an approach to detect potential deviations from normal bone.

We present a coupled forward-adjoint Monte Carlo (cFAMC) method to determine the spatially resolved sensitivity distributions produced by optical interrogation of three-dimensional (3-D) tissue volumes. We develop a general computational framework that computes the spatial and angular distributions of the forward-adjoint light fields to provide accurate computations in mesoscopic tissue volumes. We provide full computational details of the cFAMC method and provide results for low- and high-scattering tissues probed using a single pair of optical fibers. We examine the effects of source-detector separation and orientation on the sensitivity distributions and consider how the degree of angular discretization used in the 3-D tissue model impacts the accuracy of the resulting absorption sensitivity profiles. We discuss the value of such computations for optical imaging and the design of optical measurements.

It has been speculated that the red fluorescence emitted by dental plaque could be related to its cariogenicity. To test this hypothesis, we designed this crossover in situ study, with two experimental phases of 14 days each. Seventeen volunteers, wearing a palatal appliance with bovine enamel blocks, were instructed to drip a 20% sucrose solution (experimental group) or purified water (control group) onto the enamel blocks eight times daily. The specimens were removed after 4, 7, 10, and 14 days, and the red fluorescence of dental plaque formed on the enamel blocks was assessed using a quantitative light-induced fluorescence device. After the plaque removal, surface and cross-sectional microhardness tests were performed to assess the mineral loss. The comparisons were made by a multilevel linear regression analysis. We observed a significant increase in the red fluorescence of the dental plaque after longer periods of formation, but this trend was verified in both groups. The mineral loss assessed by the microhardness techniques, contrariwise, showed a significant increase only in the experimental group. In conclusion, the red fluorescence emitted by the dental plaque indicates a mature biofilm, but this fact is not necessarily associated with its cariogenicity.

We report a flexible shaft-based mechanical scanning photoacoustic endoscopy (PAE) system that can be potentially used for imaging the human gastrointestinal tract via the instrument channel of a clinical video endoscope. The development of such a catheter endoscope has been an important challenge to realize the technique’s benefits in clinical settings. We successfully implemented a prototype PAE system that has a 3.2-mm diameter and 2.5-m long catheter section. As the instrument’s flexible shaft and scanning tip are fully encapsulated in a plastic catheter, it easily fits within the 3.7-mm diameter instrument channel of a clinical video endoscope. Here, we demonstrate the intra-instrument channel workability and in vivo animal imaging capability of the PAE system.

Knowledge of the local optical fluence in biological tissue is of fundamental importance for biomedical optical techniques to achieve quantification. We report a method to noninvasively measure the local optical fluence in optically inhomogeneous scattering media. The concept is based on two aspects: the local tagging of light using ultrasonic modulation and the photon path reversibility principle. Our method has advantages over known computational-based fluence mapping techniques, for its purely experimental nature and without the requirement of prior knowledge of the optical properties of the medium. We provide a theoretical formalism and validation of the method with experiments in tissue-like phantoms. Further, we combine our method with photoacoustic imaging and compensate the photoacoustic signals for fluence variations in optically inhomogeneous media.

Hyperspectral imaging combines high spectral and spatial resolution in one modality. This imaging technique is a promising tool for objective medical diagnostics. However, to be attractive in a clinical setting, the technique needs to be fast and accurate. Hyperspectral imaging can be used to analyze tissue properties using spectroscopic methods, and is thus useful as a general purpose diagnostic tool. We combine an analytic diffusion model for photon transport with real-time analysis of the hyperspectral images. This is achieved by parallelizing the inverse photon transport model on a graphics processing unit to yield optical parameters from diffuse reflectance spectra. The validity of this approach was verified by Monte Carlo simulations. Hyperspectral images of human skin in the wavelength range 400–1000 nm, with a spectral resolution of 3.6 nm and 1600 pixels across the field of view (Hyspex VNIR-1600), were used to develop the presented approach. The implemented algorithm was found to output optical properties at a speed of 3.5 ms per line of image data. The presented method is thus capable of meeting the defined real-time requirement, which was 30 ms per line of data.The algorithm is a proof of principle, which will be further developed.

We report the development and validation of a hybrid intravascular diagnostic system combining multispectral fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIm) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) for cardiovascular imaging applications. A prototype FLIm system based on fluorescence pulse sampling technique providing information on artery biochemical composition was integrated with a commercial IVUS system providing information on artery morphology. A customized 3-Fr bimodal catheter combining a rotational side-view fiberoptic and a 40-MHz IVUS transducer was constructed for sequential helical scanning (rotation and pullback) of tubular structures. Validation of this bimodal approach was conducted in pig heart coronary arteries. Spatial resolution, fluorescence detection efficiency, pulse broadening effect, and lifetime measurement variability of the FLIm system were systematically evaluated. Current results show that this system is capable of temporarily resolving the fluorescence emission simultaneously in multiple spectral channels in a single pullback sequence. Accurate measurements of fluorescence decay characteristics from arterial segments can be obtained rapidly (e.g., 20 mm in 5 s), and accurate co-registration of fluorescence and ultrasound features can be achieved. The current finding demonstrates the compatibility of FLIm instrumentation with in vivo clinical investigations and its potential to complement conventional IVUS during catheterization procedures.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) images are usually degraded by significant speckle noise, which will strongly hamper their quantitative analysis. However, speckle noise reduction in OCT images is particularly challenging because of the difficulty in differentiating between noise and the information components of the speckle pattern. To address this problem, the spiking cortical model (SCM)-based nonlocal means method is presented. The proposed method explores self-similarities of OCT images based on rotation-invariant features of image patches extracted by SCM and then restores the speckled images by averaging the similar patches. This method can provide sufficient speckle reduction while preserving image details very well due to its effectiveness in finding reliable similar patches under high speckle noise contamination. When applied to the retinal OCT image, this method provides signal-to-noise ratio improvements of <16  dB with a small 5.4% loss of similarity.

Molecular-targeted probes are emerging with applications for optical biopsy of cancer. An underexplored potential clinical use of these probes is to monitor residual cancer micrometastases that escape cytoreductive surgery and chemotherapy. Here, we show that leukocytes, or white blood cells, residing in nontumor tissues—as well as those infiltrating micrometastatic lesions—uptake cancer cell-targeted, activatable immunoconjugates nonspecifically, which limits the accuracy and resolution of micrometastasis recognition using these probes. Receiver operating characteristic analysis of freshly excised tissues from a mouse model of peritoneal carcinomatosis suggests that dual-color imaging, adding an immunostain for leukocytes, offers promise for enabling accurate recognition of single cancer cells. Our results indicate that leukocyte identification improves micrometastasis recognition sensitivity and specificity from 92 to 93%—for multicellular metastases <20 to 30 μm in size—to 98 to 99.9% for resolving metastases as small as a single cell.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are recognized as a candidate biomarker with strong prognostic and predictive potential in metastatic disease. Filtration-based enrichment technologies have been used for CTC characterization, and our group has previously developed a membrane microfilter device that demonstrates efficacy in model systems and clinical blood samples. However, uneven filtration surfaces make the use of standard microscopic techniques a difficult task, limiting the performance of automated imaging using commercially available technologies. Here, we report the use of Fourier ptychographic microscopy (FPM) to tackle this challenge. Employing this method, we were able to obtain high-resolution color images, including amplitude and phase, of the microfilter samples over large areas. FPM’s ability to perform digital refocusing on complex images is particularly useful in this setting as, in contrast to other imaging platforms, we can focus samples on multiple focal planes within the same frame despite surface unevenness. In model systems, FPM demonstrates high image quality, efficiency, and consistency in detection of tumor cells when comparing corresponding microfilter samples to standard microscopy with high correlation (R²=0.99932). Based on these results, we believe that FPM will have important implications for improved, high throughput, filtration-based CTC analysis, and, more generally, image analysis of uneven surfaces.

Dirty necrosis within glandular lumina is often considered as a characteristic of colorectal carcinomas (CRCs) that is a diagnostically useful feature of CRCs with DNA microsatellite instability (MSI). Multiphoton microscopy (MPM), which is based on the second-harmonic generation and two-photon excited fluorescence signals, was used to identify dirty necrosis. Our results demonstrated that MPM has the ability to exhibit the microstructure of dirty necrosis and the signal intensity as well as an emission spectrum that can help to differentiate dirty necrosis from cancer cells. These findings indicate that MPM may be helpful in distinguishing MSI colorectal carcinoma via the identification of dirty necrosis.

Two-photon (2P) excitation of the second singlet (S₂) state was studied to achieve deep optical microscopic imaging in brain tissue when both the excitation (800 nm) and emission (685 nm) wavelengths lie in the “tissue optical window” (650 to 950 nm). S₂ state technique was used to investigate chlorophyll α (Chl α) fluorescence inside a spinach leaf under a thick layer of freshly sliced rat brain tissue in combination with 2P microscopic imaging. Strong emission at the peak wavelength of 685 nm under the 2P S₂ state of Chl α enabled the imaging depth up to 450 μm through rat brain tissue.

A nonresonant, fiber-optic raster scanning endomicroscope was developed using a quarter-tubular piezoelectric (PZT) actuator. A fiber lever mechanism was utilized to enhance the small actuation range of the tubular PZT actuator and to increase its field-of-view. Finite element method simulation of the endoscopic probe was conducted for various conditions to maximize its scanning range. After fabricating the probe using a double clad fiber, we obtained two-photon fluorescence images using raster beam scanning of the fiber. The outer diameter of the probe was 3.5 mm and its rigid distal length was 30 mm including a high numerical aperture gradient index lens. These features are sufficient for input into the instrumental channel of a commercial colonoscope or gastroscope to obtain high resolution images in vivo.

A technique for creating maps of the direction and strength of fiber alignment in collagenous soft tissues is presented. The method uses a division of focal plane polarimeter to measure circularly polarized light transmitted through the tissue. The architecture of the sensor allows measurement of the retardance and fiber alignment at the full frame rate of the sensor without any moving optics. The technique compares favorably to the standard method of using a rotating polarizer. How the new technique enables real-time capture of the full angular spread of fiber alignment and retardance under various cyclic loading conditions is illustrated.

In part I of the study, two attachment systems [O-ring; bar-clip (BC)] were used, and the system with three individualized O-rings provided the lowest stress on the implants and the support tissues. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the stress distribution, through the photoelastic method, on implant-retained palatal obturator prostheses associated with different attachment systems: BOC—splinted implants with a bar connected to two centrally placed O-rings, and BOD—splinted implants with a BC connected to two distally placed O-rings (cantilever). One photoelastic model of the maxilla with oral-sinus-nasal communication with three parallel implants was fabricated. Afterward, two implant-retained palatal obturator prostheses with the two attachment systems described above were constructed. Each assembly was positioned in a circular polariscope and a 100-N axial load was applied in three different regions with implants by using a universal testing machine. The results were obtained through photograph record analysis of stress. The BOD system exhibited the highest stress concentration, followed by the BOC system. The O-ring, centrally placed on the bar, allows higher mobility of the prostheses and homogeneously distributes the stress to the region of the alveolar ridge and implants. It can be concluded that the use of implants with O-rings, isolated or connected with a bar, to rehabilitate maxillectomized patients allows higher prosthesis mobility and homogeneously distributes the stress to the alveolar ridge region, which may result in greater chewing stress distribution to implants and bone tissue. The clinical implication of the augmented bone support loss after maxillectomy is the increase of stress in the attachment systems and, consequently, a higher tendency for displacement of the prosthesis.

We present a noninvasive method to study fruit ripening. The method is based on the combination of reflectance and fluorescence spectroscopies, as well as gas in scattering media absorption spectroscopy (GASMAS). Chlorophyll and oxygen are two of the most important constituents in the fruit ripening process. Reflectance and fluorescence spectroscopies were used to quantify the changes of chlorophyll and other chromophores. GASMAS, based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy, was used to measure free molecular oxygen in the fruit tissue at 760 nm, based on the fact that the free gases have much narrower spectral imprints than those of solid materials. The fruit maturation and ripening processes can be followed by studying the changes of chlorophyll and oxygen contents with these three techniques.

A side-viewing, 2.3-mm diameter oblique incidence reflectometry endoscope has been designed to obtain optical property measurements of turbid samples. Light from a single-mode fiber is relayed obliquely onto the tissue with a gradient index lens-based distal optics assembly and the resulting diffuse reflectance profile is imaged and collected with a 30,000 element, 0.72 mm clear aperture fiber bundle. Sampling the diffuse reflectance in two-dimensions allows for fitting of the reflected intensity profile to a well-known theoretical model, permitting the extraction of both absorption and reduced scattering coefficients of the tissue sample. Models and measurements of the endoscopic imaging system are presented in tissue phantoms and in vivo mouse colon, verifying the endoscope’s capabilities to accurately measure effective attenuation coefficient and differentiate diseased from normal colon.

The present study demonstrates that Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool for the detection of virus-infected cells. Adenovirus infection of human embryonic kidney 293 cells was successfully detected at 12, 24, and 48 h after initiating the infection. The score plot of principal component analysis discriminated the spectra of the infected cells from those of the control cells. The viral infection was confirmed by the conventional immunostaining method performed 24 h after the infection. The newly developed method provides a fast and label-free means for the detection of virus-infected cells.

Amblyopia (“lazy eye”) is a major public health problem, caused by misalignment of the eyes (strabismus) or defocus. If detected early in childhood, there is an excellent response to therapy, yet most children are detected too late to be treated effectively. Commercially available vision screening devices that test for amblyopia’s primary causes can detect strabismus only indirectly and inaccurately via assessment of the positions of external light reflections from the cornea, but they cannot detect the anatomical feature of the eyes where fixation actually occurs (the fovea). Our laboratory has been developing technology to detect true foveal fixation, by exploiting the birefringence of the uniquely arranged Henle fibers delineating the fovea using retinal birefringence scanning (RBS), and we recently described a polarization-modulated approach to RBS that enables entirely direct and reliable detection of true foveal fixation, with greatly enhanced signal-to-noise ratio and essentially independent of corneal birefringence (a confounding variable with all polarization-sensitive ophthalmic technology). Here, we describe the design and operation of a new pediatric vision screener that employs polarization-modulated, RBS-based strabismus detection and bull’s eye focus detection with an improved target system, and demonstrate the feasibility of this new approach.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used for noninvasive assessment of oxygenation in living tissue. For muscle measurements by NIRS, the measurement sensitivity to muscle (S_M ) is strongly influenced by fat thickness (FT). In this study, we investigated the influence of FT and developed a correction curve for S_M with an optode distance (3 cm) sufficiently large to probe the muscle. First, we measured the hemoglobin concentration in the forearm (n=36 ) and thigh (n=6 ) during arterial occlusion using a time-resolved spectroscopy (TRS) system, and then FT was measured by ultrasound. The correction curve was derived from the ratio of partial mean optical path length of the muscle layer ⟨L_M ⟩ to observed mean optical path length ⟨L⟩ . There was good correlation between FT and ⟨L) at rest, and ⟨L⟩ could be used to estimate FT. The estimated FT was used to validate the correction curve by measuring the forearm blood flow (FBF) by strain-gauge plethysmography (SGP_FBF) and TRS (TRS_FBF) simultaneously during a reactive hyperemia test with 16 volunteers. The corrected TRS_FBF results were similar to the SGP_FBF results. This is a simple method for sensitivity correction that does not require use of ultrasound.

By “listening to photons,” photoacoustics allows the probing of chromosomes in depth beyond the optical diffusion limit. Here we report the photoacoustic resonance effect induced by multiburst modulated laser illumination, which is theoretically modeled as a damped mass-string oscillator and a resistor-inductor-capacitor (RLC) circuit. Through sweeping the frequency of multiburst modulated laser, the photoacoustic resonance effect is observed experimentally on phantoms and porcine tissues. Experimental results demonstrate different spectra for each phantom and tissue sample to show significant potential for spectroscopic analysis, fusing optical absorption and mechanical vibration properties. Unique RLC circuit parameters are extracted to quantitatively characterize phantom and biological tissues.

Biomedical issues in vasculogenesis and cardiogenesis require methods to follow hemodynamics with high spatial (micrometers) and time (milliseconds) resolution. At the same time, we need to follow relevant morphogenetic processes on large fields of view. Fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy coupled to scanning or wide-field microscopy meets these needs but has limited flexibility in the excitation pattern. To overcome this limitation, we develop here a two-photon two-spots setup coupled to an all-reflective near-infrared (NIR) optimized scanning system and to an electron multiplying charge-coupled device. Two NIR laser spots are spaced at adjustable micron-size distances (1 to 50 μm) by means of a Twyman-Green interferometer and repeatedly scanned on the sample, allowing acquisition of information on flows at 4 ms–3 μm time-space resolution in parallel on an extended field of view. We analyze the effect of nonhomogeneous and variable flow on the cross-correlation function by numerical simulations and show exemplary application of this setup in studies of blood flow in zebrafish embryos in vivo. By coupling the interferometer with the scanning mirrors and by computing the cross-correlation function of fluorescent red blood cells, we are able to map speed patterns in embryos’ vessels.

The best way to assess fetal condition is to observe the oxygen status of the fetus (as well as to assess the condition of infants, children, and adults). Previously, several fetal oximeters have been developed; however, no instrument has been utilized in clinical practice because of the low-capturing rate of the fetal oxygen saturation. To overcome the problem, we developed a doctor’s finger-mounted fetal tissue oximeter, whose sensor volume is one hundredth of the conventional one. Additionally, we prepared transparent gloves. The calculation algorithm of the hemoglobin concentration was derived from the light propagation analysis based on the transport theory. We measured neonatal and fetal oxygen saturation (StO₂) with the new tissue oximeter. Neonatal StO₂ was measured at any position of the head regardless of amount of hair. Neonatal StO₂ was found to be around 77%. Fetal StO₂ was detected in every position of the fetal head during labor regardless of the presence of labor pain. Fetal StO₂ without labor pain was around 70% in the first stage of labor and around 60% in the second stage of labor. We concluded that our new concept of fetal tissue oximetry would be useful for detecting fetal StO₂ in any condition of the fetus.

We improved the performance of a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based brain–computer interface based on relatively short task duration and multiclass classification. A custom-built eight-channel fNIRS system was used over the motor cortex areas in both hemispheres to measure the hemodynamic responses evoked by four different motor tasks (overt execution of arm lifting and knee extension for both sides) instead of finger tapping. The hemodynamic responses were classified using the naive Bayes classifier. Among the mean, max, slope, variance, and median of the signal amplitude and the time lag of the signal, several signal features are chosen to obtain highest classification accuracy. Ten runs of threefold cross-validation were conducted, which yielded classification acWe improved the performance of a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based brain–computer interface based on relatively short task duration and multiclass classification. A custom-built eight-channel fNIRS system was used over the motor cortex areas in both hemispheres to measure the hemodynamic responses evoked by four different motor tasks (overt execution of arm lifting and knee extension for both sides) instead of finger tapping. The hemodynamic responses were classified using the naive Bayes classifier. Among the mean, max, slope, variance, and median of the signal amplitude and the time lag of the signal, several signal features are chosen to obtain highest classification accuracy. Ten runs of threefold cross-validation were conducted, which yielded classification accuracies of 87.1%±2.4% to 95.5%±2.4%, 77.5%±1.9% to 92.4%±3.2%, and 73.8%±3.5% to 91.5%±1.4% for the binary, ternary, and quaternary classifications, respectively. Eight seconds of task duration for obtaining sufficient quaternary classification accuracy was suggested. The bit transfer rate per minute (BPM) based on the quaternary classification accuracy was investigated. A BPM can be achieved from 2.81 to 5.40  bits/min.

Changes in heart rate are a useful physiological measure in infant studies. We present an algorithm for calculating the heart rate (HR) from oxyhemoglobin pulsation in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals. The algorithm is applied to data collected from 10 infants, and the HR derived from the fNIRS signals is compared against the HR as calculated by electrocardiography. We show high agreement between the two HR signals for all infants (r<0.90), and also compare stimulus-related HR responses as measured by the two methods and find good agreement despite high levels of movement in the infants. This algorithm can be used to measure changes in HR in infants participating in fNIRS studies without the need for additional HR sensors.

In this work, we designed and realized a new phantom able to mimic the principal mechanical, rheological, and physical cues of the human eye and that can be used as a common benchmark to validate new surgical procedures, innovative vitrectomes, and as a training system for surgeons. This phantom, in particular its synthetic humor vitreous, had the aim of reproducing diffusion properties of the natural eye and can be used as a system to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of drugs and optimization of their dose, limiting animal experiments. The eye phantom was built layer-by-layer starting from the sclera up to the retina, using low cost and easy to process polymers. The validation of the phantom was carried out by mechanical characterization of each layer, by diffusion test with commercial drugs into a purposely developed apparatus, and finally by a team of ophthalmic surgeons. Experiments demonstrated that polycaprolactone, polydimethylsiloxane, and gelatin, properly prepared, are the best materials to mimic the mechanical properties of sclera, choroid, and retina, respectively. A polyvinyl alcohol-gelatin polymeric system is the best for mimicking the viscosity of the human humor vitreous, even if the bevacizumab half-life is lower than in the human eye.

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a relatively common chronic mucocutaneous inflammatory disease and a search for novel therapeutic options has been performed. We sought to compare the efficacy of laser phototherapy (LPT) to topical clobetasol propionate 0.05% for the treatment of atrophic and erosive OLP. Forty-two patients with atrophic/erosive OLP were randomly allocated to two groups: clobetasol group (n=21 ): application of topical clobetasol propionate gel (0.05%) three times a day; LPT group (n=21 ): application of laser irradiation using InGaAlP diode laser three times a week. Evaluations were performed once a week during treatment (Days 7, 14, 21, and 30) and in four weeks (Day 60) and eight weeks (Day 90) after treatment. At the end of treatment (Day 30), significant reductions in all variables were found in both groups. The LPT group had a higher percentage of complete lesion resolution. At follow-up periods (Days 60 and 90), the LPT group maintained the clinical pattern seen at Day 30, with no recurrence of the lesions, whereas the clobetasol group exhibited worsening for all variables analyzed. These findings suggest that the LPT proved more effective than topical clobetasol 0.05% for the treatment of OLP.

This article [J. Biomed. Opt.. 19, (6 ), 066002 (2014)] was originally published online on 2 June 2014 with a typo in the author list. The authors are correct as listed above. This article was corrected online on 6 June 2014. It appears correctly in print.