Tomography, Optical Coherence

29.3% of bacteremias in intensive care units (ICU) are linked to vascular devices, including 7.7% to arterial catheters, with an influence on both morbility and mortality. It is now accepted that biofilm as a role on bacterial development on inner surface of vascular devices but there is yet a lack of clinical relevant data documenting a causal relation between biofilm formation and bacteremias. The investigators assume that a better structural and microbiological characterization of arterial catheter biofilm in ICU patients could help preventing bacteremias or have a more specific treatment when it appears.

Kidney biopsy play a key role for the investigation of either acute kidney injury or chronic kidney disease. Despite possible complications due to the invasive nature of the biopsy, such procedure is still essential in a number of clinical situations to improve the diagnosis specificity of kidney disease, better inform about its prognosis and guide the management of a future treatment. Pursuing the idea to improve both performance and rapidity associated with the histopathological analysis of kidney biopsy, with a possible recourse to artificial intelligence-based renal pathology, the present study intends to assess the impact of direct histopathological examination of kidney biopsy with dynamic full-field optical coherence tomography in routine practices for the diagnosis of either acute kidney injury or chronic kidney disease.

This observational study sets out to compare choriocapillaris flow deficits between healthy control subjects and patients with pseudoxanthoma elasticum. Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) is a rare, incurable hereditary disease caused by genetic mutations. The condition is characterised by excessive tissue mineralisation, which can result in a range of dermatological, vascular, and ophthalmological complications. Among these complications is the potential for visual impairment. The management of this condition is focused on the treatment of its complications. Degeneration of the retina and the choroid (the layer responsible for ensuring its vascularisation) occurs in the eye, resulting in premature degeneration. We would like to study the premature alteration of these structures, which could subsequently be used as an objective marker of the evolution of pseudoxanthoma elasticum.

The aim of this prospective, investigator-initiated study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and correlations between mopphometric indices: luminal and qualitative parameters assessed by optical coherence tomography (OCT) including minimal lumen area, plaque type, presence of thin cap fibroatheroma and a functional index - angiography based vessel fractional flow reserve (vFFR) among patients with chronic coronary syndrome identified with intermediate grade coronary stenosis.

Primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) is a systemic autoimmune disease that mainly affects the exocrine glands leading to severe dryness of mucosal surfaces, principally in the mouth and eyes. The other clinical manifestations are fatigue and musculoskeletal pain. Diagnosis of pSS associates clinical abnormalities with specific antibodies (Ro/SSA and La/SSB antibodies) or histopathological criteria of a minor salivary gland biopsy (the presence and number of lymphocytic focus, as well as chronicity findings like acinar atrophy, ductal dilatation or fibrosis). Apart from its variable sensitivity, one of the weaknesses of minor salivary gland biopsy is the delay in obtaining the result due to the time required to prepare the sample for histological analysis. Our group recently demonstrated the use of full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) to visualize structural changes associated with the inflammatory processes in Giant Cell Arteritis (temporal artery biopsy examination). It may suggests a further use of dynamic FF-OCT of minor salivary gland biopsy to visualize structural changes associated with the lymhocytic focus to ensure rapid on-site diagnosis of pSS.