Multivariate analysis for the estimation of target localization errors in fiducial marker-based radiotherapy.

Purpose: To assess the target localization error (TLE) in terms of the distance between the target and the localization point estimated from the surrogates (|TMD|), the average of respiratory motion for the surrogates and the target (|aRM|), and the number of fiducial markers used for estimating the target (n).

Methods: This study enrolled 17 lung cancer patients who subsequently underwent four fractions of real-time tumor tracking irradiation. Four or five fiducial markers were implanted around the lung tumor.

Effects of outside air temperature on the preparation of antineoplastic drug solutions in biological safety cabinets.

Purpose: In Japan, biological safety cabinets are commonly used by medical staff to prepare antineoplastic agents. At the Division of Chemotherapy for Outpatients, Nagoya University Hospital, a class II B2 biological safety cabinet is used. The temperature inside this biological safety cabinet decreases in winter.

A simulation study of the radiation-induced bystander effect: modeling with stochastically defined signal reemission.

The radiation-induced bystander effect (RIBE) has been experimentally observed for different types of radiation, cell types, and cell culture conditions. However, the behavior of signal transmission between unirradiated and irradiated cells is not well known. In this study, we have developed a new model for RIBE based on the diffusion of soluble factors in cell cultures using a Monte Carlo technique.

Interfractional reproducibility in pancreatic position based on four-dimensional computed tomography.

Purpose: To assess the interfractional positional variation of the pancreas using four-dimensional computed tomography (4D-CT) and to determine the suitable phase of respiration for dose delivery methods to account for pancreatic tumor motion.

Methods And Materials: Fifteen patients with pancreatic cancer were enrolled in this study. For each patient, 4D-CT scans were performed at CT simulation and three times during the course of treatment.

Simulation for improvement of system sensitivity of radiochromic film dosimetry with different band-pass filters and scanner light intensities.

The delivered dose of high-energy photon beams is measured with radiochromic film. Previous studies sought to improve the system sensitivity of radiochromic film dosimetry by use of band-pass filters. However, band-pass filters reduce the scanning light intensity.

The Latent Risk of Acidosis in Commercially Available Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) Products: a Randomized Clinical Trial in Postoperative Patients.

To evaluate the latent risk of acidosis in commercially available total parenteral nutrition (TPN) products, three types of commercially available TPN products were compared in postoperative patients. Sixty-four hospitalized patients with gastro-intestinal disease who undertook curative gastro intestinal resection were studied prospectively and administered with TPN solutions. Three types of commercially available TPN products were assigned randomly to eligible patients.

The extensive nitration of neurofilament light chain in the hippocampus is associated with the cognitive impairment induced by amyloid beta in mice.

Tyrosine nitration of proteins at an extensive level is widely associated with the cognitive pathology induced by amyloid beta peptide (Abeta). However, the precise identity and explicit consequences of protein nitration have scarcely been addressed. In this study, we examined the detectable nitration of proteins in the hippocampus of mice with cognitive impairment (day 5) induced by the i.

Discontinuation of donepezil for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in geriatric practice.

Background: Maintaining continuous pharmacological treatment of patients with dementia is often difficult. In the current study we surveyed the discontinuation of donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor, for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in a Japanese geriatric outpatient clinic in a university hospital.

Methods: Using a retrospective chart review from 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2005, prescriptions of donepezil and the reasons for discontinuing the prescription in a university hospital were determined.

Restraining tumor necrosis factor-alpha by thalidomide prevents the amyloid beta-induced impairment of recognition memory in mice.

No effective remedy has currently been realized to prevent the cognitive impairments of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The interruption of the toxic pathways of amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) still remains promising for the treatment. The involvement of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in the toxicity of Abeta(1-40) in recent reports provide a fresh target for the interruption.

A natural scavenger of peroxynitrites, rosmarinic acid, protects against impairment of memory induced by Abeta(25-35).

Peroxynitrite (ONOO(-))-mediated damage is regarded to be responsible for the cognitive dysfunction induced by amyloid beta protein (Abeta) in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, we examined the protective effects of rosmarinic acid (RA), a natural scavenger of ONOO(-), on the memory impairment in a mouse model induced by acute i.c.