Biomedical subjects

C-M Wu

Publications and source records attributed to C-M Wu.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

An insidious preauricular sinus presenting as an infected postauricular cyst.

Preauricular sinuses are common congenital malformations that usually occur at the anterior margin of the ascending limb of the helix. We present three paediatric patients with postauricular infected cysts and coincidentally discovered auricular pits. Single-stage operations were performed to remove the cysts, pits and involved cartilage. Histopathology revealed a preauricular sinus with inflammation. Although uncommon, a postauricular infected cyst may indicate the presence of a preauricular sinus. Detailed physical examination of preauricular pits should be performed, and the operating microscope may aid during surgery to remove remnants and prevent recurrence. An infected preauricular sinus can be effectively treated with single-stage excision.

Abscess↗

PubMed2004

Regulated, electroporation-mediated delivery of pro-opiomelanocortin gene suppresses chronic constriction injury-induced neuropathic pain in rats.

We previously reported that intrathecal pro-opiomelanocortin gene electroporation could reduce pain sensitivity induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve. For optimal use of antinociceptive gene therapy, it might be important to control the expression of the transfected gene extrinsically. For this purpose, a doxycycline-controlled transrepressor system composed of two plasmids coding, respectively, for pro-opiomelanocortin gene (pTRE2-POMC) and the silencer (pTel-off) was employed. The regulation of beta-endorphin expression was first assessed in spinal neuronal culture, then we electrotranfected this plasmid into the spinal cord of mononeuropathic rats and evaluated the analgesic potential of this therapy in vivo by thermal and mechanical withdrawal latency. Intraperitoneal injections of various doses of doxycycline were made to elucidate the possible exogenous downregulation of transfected beta-endorphin gene expression in vivo. The levels of beta-endorphin were analyzed by intrathecal microdialysis and radioimmunoassay. Intrathecal pTRE2-POMC/pTel-off electroporation elevated spinal beta-endorphin levels, as manifested in a significantly elevated pain threshold for chronic constriction injury limbs. Intraperitoneal doxycycline decreased the antinociceptive effect and spinal beta-endorphin levels in a dose-dependent manner. We concluded that intrathecal pTRE2-POMC/pTel-off electroporation alleviates CCI-induced limb pain, and can be controlled by intraperitoneal doxycycline administration.

Analgesia↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Morse code recognition system with fuzzy algorithm for disabled persons.

It is generally known that Morse code is an efficient input method for one or two switches and it is made from long and short sounds separated by silence between the sounds. The long-to-short ratio in the definition is always 3 to 1, but the long-to-short ratio variation for a disabled person is so large that it is difficult to recognize. In the last few years, several Morse code recognition methods have been successfully built on the LMS adaptive algorithms and neural network algorithm. But LMS-related adaptive algorithms need mass computation to infer the characteristic of the controller; also the neural network must learn first, by inputting some data before it is used to recognize the Morse code sequence. In this study, two fuzzy algorithms are used to recognize the unstable Morse code sequences and the result demonstrates a significant improvement of recognition for real time signal processing in a single-chip microprocessor.

Adolescent↗