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BACKGROUND: One of the reported pathways of cancer spread is the transcoelomic pathway, which is understood as the spread of cancer cells in the abdominal and thoracic cavities through interstitial fluid. It has been proven that the shear stresses caused by microfluidic currents on cancer tumors in the abdominal and thoracic cavities cause the detachment of cancer cells triggering transcoelomic metastasis; however, the magnitude of shear stresses has not yet been measured experimentally. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to develop an experimental methodology using optical tweezers to approximate the shear stresses suffered by a nonporous, rigid artificial cancerous nodule model. METHODS: Artificial cancerous nodule model was made by the agglomeration of 2 µm diameter polystyrene particles in a microfluidic platform. Optical tweezers were used as a velocimetry tool and shear stresses on the surface of the nodule model were approximated with the viscous shear stress equation. The results were verified with a numerical simulation performed in Ansys Fluent. RESULTS: Shear stress originated by microflow over artificial cancerous nodule model were quantified both experimentally and numerically, showing good agreement between both methods. Such stress on the nodules' surface was much greater than that suffered by the wall on which the nodule model was located and dependent of the nodule model geometry. Although the experiment and simulation of this study were performed using a rigid and nonporous nodule model, the conclusion obtained about the increase of shear stresses applies to permeable, porous, and soft nodules as well, because the shear stresses are associated to the acceleration of the fluid originated by the reduction of the cross-sectional area. CONCLUSIONS: Shear stress over artificial nodule model were successfully quantified using optical tweezer-based velocimetry technique and verified through numerical calculation. Advantages of experimental technique are: (1) it allows to control the position in a three-dimensional plane, allowing measurements in the vicinity of the analyzed surfaces, and (2) it is applicable for very low Reynolds number (Re « 1). On the other hand, as disadvantages: (1) it tends to be complicated to perform velocity measurements over obstacles and (2) it is limited in trapping distance.

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Optical properties characterize light propagation in turbid media, such as tissue. Recovery of optical properties is of great importance in a wide variety of biomedical applications, including both therapeutic treatments and diagnosis. Most of the available methodologies are well established, however, these are not optimized for real-time measurements. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: Optical properties are recovered using the Inverse Adding Doubling program from reflectance measurements measured with an integrating sphere and light in the visible range. A user-friendly interface was programmed in Visual Studio and the libraries of a particular spectrophotometer were used. To achieve real-time measurements, a parallel computing routine was implemented, splitting the whole spectra in threads to be computed independently. Several tests using living tissue and inorganic materials were carried out to validate the proposed algorithm. RESULTS: Recovery of absorption/scattering coefficient spectrum in the visible range with high precision in a couple of seconds was achieved, demonstrating its capabilities for real-time monitoring in biomedical applications. The absorption coefficient spectrum shows the expected characteristics according to the different melanin and blood concentration of various volunteers, also showing the expected changes during a thermoregulation process. CONCLUSIONS: A real-time monitoring of optical properties algorithm was developed, including parallel computing and a user-friendly interface. The proposed algorithm would be of help in biomedical applications, where real-time monitoring optical properties is required. Lasers Surg. Med. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Obtaining trap stiffness and calibration of the position detection system is the basis of a force measurement using optical tweezers. Both calibration quantities can be calculated using several experimental methods available in the literature. In most cases, stiffness determination and detection system calibration are performed separately, often requiring procedures in very different conditions, and thus confidence of calibration methods is not assured due to possible changes in the environment. In this work, a new method to simultaneously obtain both the detection system calibration and trap stiffness is presented. The method is based on the calculation of the power spectral density of positions through digital filters to obtain the harmonic contributions of the position signal. This method has the advantage of calculating both trap stiffness and photodetector calibration factor from the same dataset in situ. It also provides a direct method to avoid unwanted frequencies that could greatly affect calibration procedure, such as electric noise, for example.

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In many dermatological applications, lowering the temperature of skin and maintaining specific temperatures for extended periods of time are fundamental requirements for treatment; for example, in targeting adipose tissue and managing cutaneous pain. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of using phase changing materials (PCMs) as an alternative passive, open-loop, heat extraction method for cooling cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues. We used a finite difference parametric approach to model the spatial and temporal progression of the heat transferred from the skin to a PCM in contact with the skin surface. We modelled the thermal performance of different PCMs, including different thicknesses. In addition, we used our model to propose application strategies. Numerical simulations demonstrate the feasibility of using PCMs for extracting heat from the skin and upper fat layers, inducing and maintaining similar temperatures as those induced by active closed-loop cooling with a cold plate. In terms of development, the critical design parameters are the temperature range of solidification of the material, the thickness of the material, and the rate of melting. Our study suggests that PCM-based devices may offer an alternative skin and adipose tissue cooling method that is simple to implement and use.

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When a nanosecond laser pulse is transmitted through a highly scattering material, its irradiance decreases as it propagates; this is because of the spatial and temporal pulse profile stretching owing to multiple scattering events. Although the effect of temporal distortion is much less significant than that of the spatial distortion for applications where the laser beam is focused on a subsurface target (writing of waveguides, for example), it becomes significant for applications where the laser pulse must attain certain temporal width after the beam propagated is collimated through a turbid medium (photoacoustic tomography, for example). The objective of this work is to determine the transfer function associated to an integrating sphere measurement of the temporal intensity profile involving turbid media samples. The transfer function is found to be related to the geometrical characteristics of the integrating sphere and the optical properties of the turbid media. This procedure opens a new possibility for optical property characterization and enables the use of an integrating sphere for time-dependent intensity measurements.

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A single laser-induced cavitation bubble in transparent liquids has been studied through a variety of experimental techniques. High-speed video with varying frame rate up to 20×10(7) fps is the most suitable to study nonsymmetric bubbles. However, it is still expensive for most researchers and more affordable (lower) frame rates are not enough to completely reproduce bubble dynamics. This paper focuses on combining the spatial transmittance modulation (STM) technique, a single shot cavitation bubble and a very simple and inexpensive experimental technique, based on Fresnel approximation propagation theory, to reproduce a laser-induced cavitation spatial dynamics. Our results show that the proposed methodology reproduces a laser-induced cavitation event much more accurately than 75,000 fps video recording. In conclusion, we propose a novel methodology to reproduce laser-induced cavitation events that combine the STM technique with Fresnel propagation approximation theory that properly reproduces a laser-induced cavitation event including a very precise identification of the first, second, and third collapses of the cavitation bubble.

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We present a time-resolved study of the interaction of nanosecond laser pulses with tissue phantoms. When a laser pulse interacts with a material, optical energy is absorbed by a combination of linear (heat generation and thermoelastic expansion) and nonlinear absorption (expanding plasma), according to both the laser light irradiance and material properties. The objective is to elucidate the contribution of linear and nonlinear optical absorption to bubble formation. Depending on the local temperatures and pressures reached, both interactions may lead to the formation of bubbles. We discuss three experimental approaches: piezoelectric sensors, time-resolved shadowgraphy, and time-resolved interferometry, to follow the formation of bubbles and measure the pressure originated by 6 ns laser pulses interacting with tissue phantoms. We studied the bubble formation and pressure transients for varying linear optical absorption and for radiant exposures above and below threshold for bubble formation. We report a rapid decay (of 2 orders of magnitude) of the laser-induced mechanical pressure measured (by time-resolved shadowgraphy) very close to the irradiation spot and beyond 1 mm from the irradiation site (by the piezoelectric sensor). Through time-resolved interferometry measurements, we determined that bubble formation can occur at marginal temperature increments as low as 3°C.

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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) photoacoustic detection systems can aid clinical decision-making in the treatment of cancer. Interaction of melanin within melanoma cells with nanosecond laser pulses generates photoacoustic waves that make its detection possible. This study aims at: (1) determining melanoma cell survival after laser pulses of 6 ns at λ = 355 and 532 nm; (2) comparing the potential enhancement in the photoacoustic signal using λ = 355 nm in contrast with λ = 532 nm; (3) determining the critical laser fluence at which melanin begins to leak out from melanoma cells; and (4) developing a time-resolved imaging (TRI) system to study the intracellular interactions and their effect on the plasma membrane integrity. Monolayers of melanoma cells were grown on tissue culture-treated clusters and irradiated with up to 1.0 J/cm². Surviving cells were stained with trypan blue and counted using a hemacytometer. The phosphate buffered saline absorbance was measured with a nanodrop spectrophotometer to detect melanin leakage from the melanoma cells post-laser irradiation. Photoacoustic signal magnitude was studied at both wavelengths using piezoelectric sensors. TRI with 6 ns resolution was used to image plasma membrane damage. Cell survival decreased proportionally with increasing laser fluence for both wavelengths, although the decrease is more pronounced for 355 nm radiation than for 532 nm. It was found that melanin leaks from cells equally for both wavelengths. No significant difference in photoacoustic signal was found between wavelengths. TRI showed clear damage to plasma membrane due to laser-induced bubble formation.

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