Tracing the Inside of Pigs Non-Invasively: Recent Developments

Regional markets require a large variety of pig breeds and pork products. Noninvasive techniques like computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, computer vision, or, very often, ultrasound helps to provide the information required for breeding, quality control, payment, and processing. Meanwhile, computed tomography is being used as phenotyping tool by leading pig breeding organizations around the world, while ultrasound B- or A-mode techniques belong to the standard tools, especially to measure subcutaneous fat and muscle traits. Magnetic resonance imaging and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, however, are still mainly used as research tools to develop and characterize new phenotypic traits, which usually could not be measured without slaughtering the breeding pigs. A further noninvasive method—already used on a commercial basis, not only in abattoirs—is video 2D or 3D imaging. This chapter will review the latest developments for these noninvasive techniques.

Advances regarding Neuroinflammation Biomarkers with Noninvasive Techniques in Epilepsy

A rapidly growing body of evidence supports that neuroinflammation plays a major role in epileptogenesis and disease progression. The capacity to identify pathological neuroinflammation in individuals with epilepsy is a crucial step on the timing of anti-inflammatory intervention and patient selection, which will be challenging aspects in future clinical studies. The discovery of noninvasive biomarkers that are accessible in the blood or molecular neuroimaging would facilitate clinical translation of experimental findings into humans. These innovative and noninvasive approaches have the advantage of monitoring the dynamic changes of neuroinflammation in epilepsy. Here, we will review the available evidence for the measurement of neuroinflammation in patients with epilepsy using noninvasive techniques and critically analyze the major scientific challenges of noninvasive methods. Finally, we propose the potential for use in clinical applications.

Performance of Self-Collected Saliva Testing Compared with Nasopharyngeal Swab Testing for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2

The aim of this study was to determine whether self-collected pure saliva (SCPS) is comparable to nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs in the quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR in asymptomatic, mild patients with confirmed COVID-19. Thirty-one patients aged from 18 to 85 years were included between 9 June and 11 December 2020. A SCPS sample and a NP sample were taken for each patient. Quantitative PCR was performed to detect SARS-CoV-2 viral load. Results of SCPS vs NP samples testing were compared. Statistical analyses were performed. Viral load was significantly correlated (r = 0.72). The concordance probability was estimated at 73.3%. In symptomatic adults, SCPS performance was similar to that of NP swabs (Percent Agreement = 74.1%; p = 0.11). Thus, the salivary test based on pure oral saliva samples easily obtained by noninvasive techniques has a fair agreement with the nasopharyngeal one in asymptomatic, mild patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19.