Open-label Study with Nalmefene as Needed Use in Alcohol-Dependent Patients with Evidence of Elevated Liver Stiffness and/or Hepatic Steatosis.

Aims: This open-label study in patients with alcohol dependence and evidence of elevated liver stiffness and/or hepatic steatosis was designed to explore the efficacy of nalmefene (18 mg) in reducing alcohol consumption and its subsequent effects on a variety of clinically relevant liver parameters.

Methods: Adult patients with a diagnosis of alcohol dependence and evidence of elevated liver stiffness and/or hepatic steatosis (liver stiffness >6 kPa or controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) >215 dB/m as measured by transient elastography) were recruited at two study sites in Germany. During the 12-week treatment period, patients were instructed to take nalmefene each day they perceived a risk of drinking alcohol.

Percutaneous computed tomography-guided fine needle brachytherapy of pulmonary malignancies.

Small caliber needle aspiration of lung lesions has been successfully and safely used for diagnostic purposes. We report our initial experience using computed tomography-guided fine needle percutaneous implantation for direct intralesional high-dose rate brachytherapy for malignant pulmonary lesions. Twenty patients with primary lung cancer or metastatic cancer which involved the lung or chest wall were treated with a high-dose rate remote afterloader.

Postural changes in pulmonary blood flow in pulmonary hypertension: a noninvasive technique using ventilation-perfusion scans.

To determine whether postural changes in ratio of upper to lower (U:L) zone pulmonary blood flow reflect pulmonary arterial pressures, we used pulmonary perfusion photoscintigraphy to study 12 normal subjects and 10 patients with precapillary pulmonary hypertension (eight classified as "primary" and two as thromboembolic). All patients underwent right-heart catheterization and measurement of pulmonary arterial systolic, diastolic, mean and capillary (wedge) pressures. The distribution of perfusion was then assessed in the supine and erect positions after i.