Spectral diagnosis and analysis of a superior vesical artery calcification

Raman Spectroscopy of Carotenoid Compounds for Clinical Applications-A Review

Carotenoid compounds are ubiquitous in nature, providing the characteristic colouring of many algae, bacteria, fruits and vegetables. They are a critical component of the human diet and play a key role in human nutrition, health and disease. Therefore, the clinical importance of qualitative and quantitative carotene content analysis is increasingly recognised. In this review, the structural and optical properties of carotenoid compounds are reviewed, differentiating between those of carotenes and xanthophylls. The strong non-resonant and resonant Raman spectroscopic signatures of carotenoids are described, and advances in the use of Raman spectroscopy to identify carotenoids in biological environments are reviewed. Focus is drawn to applications in nutritional analysis, optometry and serology, based on in vitro and ex vivo measurements in skin, retina and blood, and progress towards establishing the technique in a clinical environment, as well as challenges and future perspectives, are explored.

Preliminary feasibility study of FTIR microscopic mapping system for the rapid detection of the composited components of prostatic calculi

Awareness of the chemical composition of prostatic calculi is of great importance for pathogenesis of prostatic lithiasis, the feasibility of FTIR microspectroscopic mapping system used for rapidly screening and detecting the real composited components of prostatic calculi in a short time was initially evaluated. Prostatic calculi were retrieved during transurethral resection of the prostate from nine patients diagnosed having benign prostatic hyperplasia with lower urinary tract symptoms. The level of serum prostatic-specific antigen was within 0-12.63 ng/ml. The calculi samples were examined and compared using FTIR microspectroscopic mapping system, or the traditional FTIR and Raman microspectroscopies. The traditional FTIR microspectroscopic results indicate that nine calculi samples mainly consisted of carbonated HA (hydroxyapatite), but calcium oxalate (undifferentiated) might be also detected in some samples. However, Raman spectral results could detect three components, HA, COM (calcium oxalate monohydrate) or COD (calcium oxalate dihydrate) separated in nine samples. Different compositions in the prostatic calculi were obtained by both spectroscopic detections with manual single-point random analysis implying that both manually traditional methods were failed to provide the real chemical composition of the prostatic calculi in a short time. The FTIR microscopic mapping system via point-by-point mapping analysis evidenced that it could rapidly detect all the complicated components distributed within the prostatic calculi rather than uncertain components detected by traditional FTIR or Raman microspectroscopy. More studies should be carried out in future. This preliminary result suggests that the FTIR mapping better characterizes the stone composition over single-point FTIR and Raman microscopic analysis in prostatic calculi.