Maria Beatrice Alora's research while affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital and other places
Publications (15)
Sunlight has long been known to be beneficial for a variety of skin diseases. Patients with psoriasis and eczema frequently employ ambient heliotherapy to control their conditions. However, social norms do not permit a person to expose the entire body in public, thus placing severe restrictions on the utility of this modality for the treatment of g...
The erbium:YAG laser is a relatively new instrument for skin rejuvenation. We present a case of a "Q-switched laser-resistant" café-au-lait macule that was successfully treated with the erbium:YAG laser.
The World Wide Web has provided the public with easy and affordable access to a vast range of information. However, claims may be unsubstantiated and misleading. The purpose of this study was to use cutaneous laser surgery as a model to assess the availability and reliability of Web sites and to evaluate this resource for the quality of patient and...
We report 2 cases of facial bullae occurring subsequent to full-face carbon dioxide laser skin resurfacing. Although the cause is unknown, both responded to potent topical corticosteroid treatment. Laser resurfacing is a relatively new procedure, and physicians should be aware of this complication.
Although several lasers and light sources are now available for vascular lesions, treatment of leg veins has not been very satisfactory. Lengthening the pulse width should theoretically result in improved response rates.
This study compared the efficacy and safety of 595 nm pulsed lasers at 1.5 msec and 4 msec in treating leg veins.
For group A, 27...
The tremendous demand for removal of unwanted hair has led to the development of a wide range of noninvasive, user-friendly laser and light source systems; however, despite considerable advances in this field, these devices still have the potential to cause injury when used improperly. It is important to follow precise treatment guidelines in order...
Theory predicts that picosecond lasers should be more effective than the currently available nanosecond lasers in removing tattoo ink. In addition to thermal confinement, such pulse widths cause optimal photomechanical disruption of the target.
This study compared the efficacy of the picosecond titanium:sapphire (795 nm, 500 psec) laser and the Q-s...
Recent developments in laser technology have revolutionized the treatment of various cutaneous disorders. Lasers provide effective and safe treatment of many conditions for which previous therapy was either unavailable, ineffective, or unacceptable. Basic laser principles, laser safety, available laser systems for treatment vascular lesions, clinic...
More than 30 years of experience have resulted in advances of the technology, technique, and therapeutic efficacy of dermatologic lasers. The original lasers have been modified and improved, and new lasers with a more sophisticated technology have been introduced. Laser therapy has provided novel ways of treating difficult conditions and, for sever...
Solar urticaria (SU) is a rare photosensitivity disease characterized by itching, erythema, and whealing immediately after exposure to sunlight or artificial radiation. A 28-year-old female whose history was strongly suggestive of SU, but who failed to demonstrate any photosensitivity on standard light testing with a slide projector as well as UVA...
Laser resurfacing can precisely remove epidermis and papillary dermis, sites pivotal to the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Our objective was to determine the efficacy and safety of superficially ablating carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers for treating isolated, recalcitrant psoriatic plaques.
Twelve adult subjects with stable, plaque-type psoriasis were recru...
In Reply.
—The results of initial studies cited by Drs Marks and Saltzman discussing the effectiveness of topical penciclovir illustrate the conundrum confronting clinicians in differentiating results of clinical significance in patient care as opposed to those found to be statistically significant. If patients were to have topical penciclovir in...
Citations
... Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers include a frequency-doubling potassium-titanyl-phosphate (KTP) crystal to generate green light for treating red ink; in addition to delivering the long, 1,064 nm primary wavelength that is poorly absorbed by melanin pigment and thus ideal for use in all skin types for treating black inks [4][5][6][7]. It has been theorized that shorter pulse durations in the sub-nanosecond range would be ideal for treating particles the size of tattoo granules [8][9][10]. The actual size of particles that lasers target is the granules that have been aggregated by resident macrophages, which is where the ink resides in tattooed skin. ...
... Thermo-ablation makes tiny conduits by burning away small micrometersized areas of the stratum corneum. This can be obtained by pulsed laser [144], arc discharge [145] or short-duration resistive heating [146]. The latter is employed by the PassPort TM system, commercialized by Altea Therapeutics Corp (Fig. 4n). ...
... An tes de realizar cualquier tratamien to, h abrá que asegu rarse d e qu e n o existe reflu jo. El láser d e coloran te pulsado ( LCP) , especialmen te con pulsos largos, puede ser útil para vasos de pequeñ o calibre ( < 1 mm de diámetro) 61 [69][70][71] es una buena opción, debido a su m ayor p od er d e p en etración . Así, p or ejem p lo, recien tem en te se h an obten id o bu en os resu ltad os ( aclaramien to de más del 75 % en varículas reticu lad as d e p iern as en tre 1 y 3 m m ) con láser Nd :YAG 1.064 n m , u n tratam ien to con p u lsos d e 50 ms y fluencias 72 de 100 J/ cm 2 . ...
Reference: Novedades en láser cutáneo
... Although skin biopsy is a helpful diagnostic method, patients may refuse or decline such an invasive procedure; therefore, a less invasive technique such as a provocation test may be appropriate to help in the diagnosis [9,10]. We suggest reassuring the patient and providing a short course of orally administered systemic corticosteroid therapy to accelerate clinical resolution. ...
... En effet, l'analyse des sites web sur cette période révélait une information de faible qualité, incomplète et peu compréhensible. Par ailleurs, l'accès à cette information s'avérait difficile et pollué par l'abondance de publicités [17][18][19][20][21]. La seule étude en chirurgie bariatrique, publiée par Madan en 2003, mettait en évidence une grande difficulté pour le patient à identifier les informations correctes et concluait qu'internet n'était pas une source d'information fiable pour les patients [22]. ...
... Thus, the energy produced by this laser can be used for cutting or volume ablation by tissue vaporization (Lee, 2008). Hair removal, skin resurfacing and tattoo removal are the most common applications where CW CO 2 laser plays a vital role ( Williams et al., 1999;Stratigos et al., 1998). The results of laser treatment depend on the immediate interaction of incident light with tissues as well as the subsequent tissue regeneration and repairing. ...
Reference: The effects of different laser doses on skin
... The hypothesized mechanism is secondary to a higher density of tattoo ink causing laser energy to be more intensely absorbed producing excess thermal damage. 5 Fortunately, no such adverse effects were noted in any of the 97 patients treated with cover-up tattoos and, therefore, may not suggest an increased risk for hypertrophic scars or keloids as was once thought. ...
... Furthermore, skin cooling is often used to protect the epidermis from thermal injury as melanin in the epidermis is an unwanted site for absorption of light, with the exception of epidermal pigmented lesions. 5 Different skin cooling methods are available, including cold gels, contact cooling, dynamic cooling (using cryogen spray) and cold air. Cooling can be delivered pre-, during-and post-treatment. ...
![[object Object]](https://i1.rgstatic.net/ii/profile.image/605603558850565-1521398548148_Q64/Rox_Anderson.jpg)
... This selectivity can be achieved by choosing the appropriate laser light wavelength and pulse duration responsible for the amount of heat diffusion. Psoriasis has previously been shown to respond to several types of lasers [7,[11][12][13][14]. In particular, with respect to vascular lasers, psoriatic lesions have been shown to improve with pulsed dye laser treatment (PDL, 595 nm) although some debate between different groups exists with respect to the efficacy and tolerability [15][16][17][18][19]. ...
... 61,62 Light in the middle of this near-infrared (NIR) region (around 800 nm) can penetrate through skin and up to several centimeters into tissue, 17 (8) of PT applications in the tangential field of cosmetics. PT targeting of melanin, in the form of laser hair removal, 64,65 and PT targeting of hemoglobin, in the treatment of port-wine stains 66 and varicose veins, 67,68 and have been widely and successfully applied in the clinic for decades. These applications take advantage of the fact that in biological structures such as hair follicles and blood vessels, there is a locally higher concentration of melanin and hemoglobin, respectively, than is present within surrounding tissues. ...
