Toward low-loss mid-infrared GaO-BaO-GeO optical fibers.

The development of efficient and compact photonic systems in support of mid-infrared integrated optics is currently facing several challenges. To date, most mid-infrared glass-based devices are employing fluoride or chalcogenide glasses (FCGs). Although the commercialization of FCGs-based optical devices has rapidly grown during the last decade, their development is rather cumbersome due to either poor crystallization and hygroscopicity resilience or poor mechanical-thermal properties of the FCGs.

Double-blind evaluation of homeopathy on cocaine craving: a randomized controlled pilot study.

Background: Brazil is among the nations with the greatest rates of annual cocaine usage. Pharmacological treatment of cocaine addiction is still limited, opening space for nonconventional interventions. Homeopathic Q-potencies of opium and Erythroxylum coca have been tested in the integrative treatment of cocaine craving among homeless addicts, but this setting had not proven feasible, due to insufficient recruitment.

Efficacy and limits of sildenafil citrate in patients with arterial erectile dysfunction: role of peripheral arterial disease and cardiovascular comorbidities.

Aim: To evaluate whether the response to sildenafil administration in patients with arterial erectile dysfunction (ED) was related to their peak systolic velocity (PSV), peripheral atherosclerosis, cardiovascular risk factors (RF) and/or comorbidities at low cardiovascular risk.

Methods: We enrolled 97 patients with 1-2 RF and comorbidities, combined with arterial ED alone (group A, n = 27), ED plus atherosclerotic carotid artery (group B, n = 23), ED plus lower limb artery abnormalities (group C, n = 25), and ED plus carotid and lower limb artery abnormalities (group D, n = 22). Sildenafil efficacy (100 mg twice a week for 12 weeks) was also examined in patients with =or>3 RF, peripheral atherosclerosis and no cardiovascular comorbidities (group E, n = 20).

Ultrarapid high-dose course of prophylactic cranial irradiation in small-cell lung cancer: evaluation of late neurologic morbidity in 16 long-term survivors.

Despite the reduction in the incidence of brain metastases following prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), the use of this modality is still controversial due to the lack of improvement in survival and the appearance of neurotoxicity in long-term survivors. Moreover, the optimum dose, fraction size, and timing are not known. From 1980 to 1988, 70 patients with limited stage SCLC underwent PCI after or during multimodality treatment of their primary tumor.

Photodynamic therapy in gynaecological neoplastic diseases.

Since 1982, our department has used photodynamic therapy (PDT) in the treatment of loco-regional recurrences of gynaecological cancers. We have treated 26 patients in this time. In the majority of cases the site of vaginal recurrences was the vaginal vault.

[Analysis of recurrences following conservative treatment of breast carcinoma].

In the conservative treatment of early breast cancer, great attention must be paid to define the prognostic factors correlated with the local recurrence rate. The goal is to customize surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy to the risk predicted in every single patient. To investigate the impact of some prognostic factors in a group of patients treated with homogeneous treatment schedules, 251 women with UICC stage I or II breast cancer were examined in the Padua Radiotherapy Department from 1988 to 1990.

Gynecologic cancer recurrences and photodynamic therapy: our experience.

The incidence of locoregional recurrences of gynecological tumors is still a major problem. Many authors suggest that it is the major cause of death in patients affected by cervical-endometrial cancers. The results achieved by retreating these patients with conventional therapies are still unsatisfactory.

[Teleradiotherapy in the treatment of thyroid neoplasms].

The role of external radiotherapy in the treatment of thyroid neoplasms is not yet well defined. The indications for loco-regional treatment in the case of: anaplastic carcinomas (alone or in combination with surgery or chemotherapy); differentiated and medullary carcinomas at diagnosis or relapse; nodes or osseous metastases not otherwise curable (surgery, hormones, brachytherapy); cerebral metastases; are accepted by everyone. Results, from the various clinical reports published, are positive.

[Neoplasms of the gallbladder and the extrahepatic bile ducts: radio-chemotherapeutic combined treatment. Results in 18 treated cases].

According to current literature, the main cause of death in patients with gallbladder (GB) and extrahepatic biliary ducts (EHBD) neoplasms is related to local and locoregional tumor spread rather than to distant metastases. Surgery, even when radical, is followed by a high number of relapses. That is why postoperative radiation therapy (RT) is usually combined with surgery.

Oesophageal cancer treated by photodynamic therapy alone or followed by radiation therapy.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with porphyrins and red light is receiving increasing attention in the management of malignant tumours. At present PDT is primarily indicated for the treatment of superficial or early-stage lesions. At the Department of Radiotherapy and the First Institute of Surgery in Padova (Italy) more than 150 cases of tumours of different types have been treated using this technique.

[Cyclophosphamide and total lymph node irradiation as conditioning for bone marrow transplant in severe aplastic anemia].

Personal experience is outlined with a preparative regimen consisting of total nodal irradiation (TNI) and cyclophosphamide in patients with severe aplastic anemia undergoing bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Nine patients (median age 23) previously having blood transfusions received BMT at the BMT Center in Pesaro. All patients were prepared for transplantation with cyclophosphamide 50 mg/kg/day (day -6, -5, -4, -3), and 7.

[Laser-photo-radiotherapy in the treatment malignant tumors].

Photoradiation therapy or, as more recently defined, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been effective in the treatment of several kinds of cancers, above all of the skin, lung, esophagus and bladder. It is based on the preferential retention by tumor and photosensitizing properties of certain porphyrins. We began to investigate this technique experimentally in 1978 and clinically in september 1982, with report of the initial results in 38 patients in 1985.

[Meningeal prophylaxis with radiocolloids in childhood leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma].

Experiences in 13 children treated with radiocolloids (198Au and 32P) applied intrathecally are presented. This treatment may replace the external radiation therapy in prophylaxis or therapy of central nervous system (CNS) involvement in childhood leukemia and non Hodgkin lymphoma. The follow-up median value was 18 months.

Effect of hematoporphyrin and red light on AH-130 solid tumors in rats.

Thirty Wistar albino rats with a subcutaneous Yoshida hepatoma AH-130 were exposed to 590 to 690 nm light from a high pressure Xenon arc-lamp 24 h after intraperitoneal injection of hematoporphyrin, 5 to 10 mg/kg. In all cases, the tumor decreased rapidly in size, due to necrosis caused both by direct action of the photoactivated porphyrin on the tumor cells and by secondary effects on blood vessels. No injury of normal tissues was detected.

Sensitivity to radiations of Mg2+ and (Ca2+ + Mg2+) ATPase activities associated with erythrocyte membrane fragments.

Treatment of disrupted erythrocyte membranes with ionizing radiation induces a partial oxidation of -SH groups (as expected from reported data) and a loss of membrane phospholipids as confirmed by the decrease of membrane amino groups. The resulting disturbance of the membrane assembly strongly affects the membrane bound divalent cation-dependent ATPase activities, possibly by causing the formation of a dead-end enzyme complex unable to complete the ATP splitting cycle.

[Dosimetry of the bladder and the rectum: comparison between the measured and calculated dose (author's transl)].

The authors examine 62 cases of curietherapy in the deep vagina on 21 cases of utero-vaginal applications and make a comparison between two dosimetric methods used to measure the dose to the rectum and to the bladder: the direct measure by the Siemens Gammameter dosimeter and the Chassagne-Horiot method. Very large differences were found between the doses evaluated by the two methods. The values with the direct measure were often found to be higher than the calculated ones.