[External exposure of hot cell operators in nuclear medicine].

Purpose: The coming into effect of decrees No. 626/94, 242/96 and 230/95 has once again brought out the problem of the radiation exposure of hot cell operators in nuclear medicine.

Material And Methods: With regard to the activity of the Division of Nuclear Medicine of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan, a map has been produced of the radiation fields in the hot cell in- and outside the working station by measuring the rate of exposure and evaluating the radiation energy using film dosimeters in multifilter containers.

How thick should CT/MR slices be to plan conformal radiotherapy? A study on the accuracy of three-dimensional volume reconstruction.

Aim And Background: The aim of this experimental study was to correlate the thickness of acquired CT slices (2, 4 and 8 mm) or MR slices (4 and 7 mm) with the accuracy of three-dimensional volume reconstruction as performed by a commercially available radiation therapy planning system.

Methods: We used a cylindrical phantom, with a 15-cm diameter and 20-cm height, containing 5 spheres (12.7-31.

Effect of ionizing radiation on cell-cycle progression and cyclin B1 expression in human melanoma cells.

In the present study we investigated the effect of gamma-irradiation (2.5 and 10 Gy) on cell-cycle progression of a human melanoma cell line, M14, characterized by a moderate radiosensitivity (SF2 = O.5).

Potential and limitations of magnetic resonance imaging for real-time monitoring of interstitial laser phototherapy.

Rationale And Objectives: Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has been suggested as a method to monitor interstitial laser phototherapy (ILP) in deep tissues. Unfortunately, a reliable relation between temperature and MR parameters has not yet been demonstrated. In this study, we examined whether such a relation exists and whether MR imaging can measure absolute temperature or temperature changes.

In vivo spectrophotometric evaluation of neoplastic and non-neoplastic skin pigmented lesions. III. CCD camera-based reflectance imaging.

Reflectance spectroscopy, which allows an objective evaluation of the color of surfaces, has recently been proposed as a useful tool to discriminate cutaneous melanoma from other pigmented cutaneous lesions. A novel spectrophotometric system based on the use of a charge coupled device camera provided with a set of interference filters has been developed to acquire images of cutaneous pigmented lesions at selected wavelengths ranging from 420 to 1040 nm. For each filter, an image was captured, digitized by a frame grabber and stored in a personal computer to perform off-line data handling.