Clinical evaluation of a dose management system-integrated 3D skin dose map by comparison with radiochromic films.

Objectives: To validate the performance of an automatic tool to estimate a patient's peak skin dose (PSD) and a skin dose map from data collected by a radiation dose management system (RDMS) during interventional procedures.

Methods: In total, 288 eligible consecutive patients undergoing abdominopelvic embolisation or planned coronary angioplasty using radiochromic films were screened between June 2018 and March 2019. For 98 included patients, PSD was measured using radiochromic films (PSD) and computed by RDMS (PSD) using one flat and two anthropomorphic phantoms.

The Björk-Shiley convexo-concave heart valve experience from the perspective of the supervisory panel.

The 20-year activities of a medical supervisory panel appointed under the terms of a settlement agreement of the Bowling v. Pfizer class action suit involving the Björk-Shiley convexo-concave (BSCC) heart valve are detailed. Of approximately 86,000 valves implanted, catastrophic failure of the valve was reported in 663 patients from 1978 to 2012.

Synthetic hydrogel scaffold is an effective vehicle for delivery of INFUSE (rhBMP2) to critical-sized calvaria bone defects in rats.

Medtronic's INFUSE Bone Graft provides surgeons with a potent tool for stimulating bone formation. Current delivery vehicles that rely on Absorbable Collagen Sponges (ACS) require excessive quantities of the active ingredient in INFUSE, recombinant human Bone Morphogenic Protein-2 (rhBMP2), to achieve physiologically relevant concentrations of the growth factor, driving up the cost of the product and increasing the likelihood of undesirable side effects in neighboring tissues. We demonstrate that a simple light-mediated, thiol-ene chemistry can be used to create an effective polymer delivery vehicle for rhBMP2, eliminating the use of xenographic materials and reducing the dose of rhBMP2 required to achieve therapeutic effects.

White matter microstructure and cognition in non-neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: This study examined white matter (WM) structural and metabolic alterations in relation to cognition in patients with non-neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (non-NPSLE).

Background: SLE can produce cognitive impairment even without overt neuropsychiatric features, but the pathogenesis of this dysfunction is not well understood. Our preliminary study of non-NPSLE found evidence correlating cognitive impairment with increased choline/creatine (Ch/Cr) in frontal lobe WM.

Identification of fibers at risk for degeneration by diffusion tractography in patients at high risk for MS after a clinically isolated syndrome.

Purpose: Focal inflammatory/demyelinating lesions are thought to be the source of Wallerian degeneration or other injury to local, transiting fiber tracts in the brain or spinal cord in multiple sclerosis (MS). A methodology is established to isolate connections between focal demyelinating lesions and intersecting fibers to permit explicit analyses of the pathology of secondary fiber injury distant from the focal lesion.

Materials And Methods: A strategy is described and feasibility demonstrated in three patients with a clinically isolated syndrome and positive MRI (at high risk for MS).

Multiple sclerosis pathology in the normal and abnormal appearing white matter of the corpus callosum by diffusion tensor imaging.

Lesions in the corpus callosum in multiple sclerosis (MS) include those that are hyperintense on T2-weighted images, which can be either focal (isolated) or connected, but there is evidence that the corpus callosum, similar to other white matter regions, contains normal appearing white matter (NAWM) which is abnormal based on quantitative MR methodologies. In this pilot study, diffusion tensor based measures were determined in corpus callosum from 10 patients with MS and 12 age and gender matched controls. T2-hyperintense lesions were carefully segmented out from normal appearing corpus callosum to minimize contamination of the NAWM fraction with these lesions.

Neurobiology of smooth pursuit eye movement deficits in schizophrenia: an fMRI study.

Objective: Smooth pursuit eye movements are abnormal in patients with schizophrenia. The investigators used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain hemodynamic response during a smooth pursuit eye movement task in patients with schizophrenia and healthy comparison subjects.

Method: Fourteen patients with schizophrenia and 14 healthy comparison subjects performed a smooth pursuit eye movement task while undergoing 1.

Pulmonary immunoglobulin responses to Streptococcus pneumoniae are altered but not reduced in human immunodeficiency virus-infected Malawian adults.

We tested the hypothesis that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected adults have a specific defect in anti-pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide (Pn-specific) immunoglobulin (Ig) in fluid obtained from the lower respiratory tract. Higher levels of total IgG and IgM were present in bronchoalveolar lavage samples from HIV-infected subjects than in those from HIV-uninfected subjects. Pn-specific IgG and IgM in bronchoalveolar lavage samples were not significantly different between HIV-infected and -uninfected subjects.

Thin-section CT findings in flock worker's lung, a work-related interstitial lung disease.

Purpose: To characterize the thin-section computed tomographic (CT) features of flock worker's lung (FWL) and to determine whether these features may be used to distinguish workers with FWL from flock workers who do not fulfill diagnostic criteria for FWL.

Materials And Methods: Thin-section CT images obtained in 43 flock workers (including 11 with FWL) were reviewed independently by radiologists blinded to occupational and clinical details. CT features recorded included ground-glass opacities, consolidation, micronodules, reticular abnormality, and septal thickening.

Monitoring eye movements during fMRI tasks with echo planar images.

Verifying task compliance during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments is an essential component of experimental design. To date, studies of oculomotor tasks such as smooth pursuit eye movements have either measured task performance outside the magnet and assumed similar performance during functional neuroimaging, or have used MR-compatible eye movement recording devices, which can be costly and technically difficult to use. We describe a simple method to visualize and quantify eye movements during an imaging experiment using the gradient echo images.