Performance and reliability assessment of a lower dose, task-based scoliosis radiography protocol in pediatric patients.

Background: Follow-up scoliosis radiographs are performed to assess the degree of spinal curvature and skeletal maturity, which can be done at lower radiation exposures than those in standard-dose radiography.

Objective: Describe and evaluate a protocol that reduced the radiation in follow-up frontal-view scoliosis radiographs.

Materials And Methods: We implemented a postero-anterior lower dose modified-technique for scoliosis radiography with task-based definition of adequate image quality and use of technique charts based on target exposure index and patient's height and weight.

Method of determining technique from weight and height to achieve targeted detector exposures in portable chest and abdominal digital radiography.

This study presents a methodology to develop an X-ray technique chart for portable chest and abdomen imaging which utilizes patient data available in the modality worklist (MWL) to reliably achieve a predetermined exposure index (EI) at the detector for any patient size. The method assumes a correlation between the patients' tissue equivalent thickness and the square root of the ratio of the patient's weight to height. To assess variability in detector exposures, the EI statistics for 75 chest examinations and 99 abdominal portable X-ray images acquired with the new technique chart were compared to those from a single portable unit (chest: 3877 images; abdomen: 200 images) using a conventional technique chart with three patient sizes, and to a stationary radiography room utilizing automatic exposure control (AEC) (chest: 360 images; abdomen: 112 images).

Social Distancing with Portable Chest Radiographs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessment of Radiograph Technique and Image Quality Obtained at 6 Feet and Through Glass.

Purpose: To develop a technique that allows portable chest radiography to be performed through the glass door of a patient's room in the emergency department.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective review of 100 radiographs (50 [mean age 59.4 ± 17.

Prognostic impact of tumor budding and EMT in periampullary adenocarcinoma: a quantitative approach.

The presence of invasive cell clusters known as tumor budding and the closely related epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) have a prognostic impact on cancer patients' overall survival. Interestingly, data quantitatively analyzing and correlating the amount of tumor buds and patient overall survival as well as the impact of expression of epithelial phenotype markers are missing. Periampullary carcinoma samples of 171 patients were immunohistochemically stained for E-Cadherin (ECad).

Supramolecular Similarity in Polymorphs: Use of Similarity Indices (I).

A systematic investigation to assess the degree of similarity between polymorphs was carried out. A similarity indices (I) approach was applied in ten series of polymorphs with different characteristics and number of molecules in the asymmetric unit. Geometric (I), contact area (I), and stabilization energy (I) parameters were used.

Three-Dimensional Printing for Construction of Tissue-Equivalent Anthropomorphic Phantoms and Determination of Conceptus Dose.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a road map for rapid construction of anthropomorphic phantoms from computational human phantoms for use in diagnostic imaging dosimetry studies. These phantoms are ideal for performing pregnant-patient dosimetry because the phantoms imitate the size and attenuation properties of an average-sized pregnant woman for multiple gestational periods.

Materials And Methods: The method was derived from methods and materials previously described but adapted for 3D printing technology.

Characterizing energy dependence and count rate performance of a dual scintillator fiber-optic detector for computed tomography.

Purpose: Kilovoltage (kV) x-rays pose a significant challenge for radiation dosimetry. In the kV energy range, even small differences in material composition can result in significant variations in the absorbed energy between soft tissue and the detector. In addition, the use of electronic systems in light detection has demonstrated measurement losses at high photon fluence rates incident to the detector.

Monte Carlo simulations of adult and pediatric computed tomography exams: validation studies of organ doses with physical phantoms.

Purpose: To validate the accuracy of a Monte Carlo source model of the Siemens SOMATOM Sensation 16 CT scanner using organ doses measured in physical anthropomorphic phantoms.

Methods: The x-ray output of the Siemens SOMATOM Sensation 16 multidetector CT scanner was simulated within the Monte Carlo radiation transport code, MCNPX version 2.6.

SU-E-I-41: Characterization of a Linear Fiber-Optic Coupled Dosimeter.

Purpose: This study investigated the dosimetry performance of a linear fiber-optic coupled dosimeter with a sensitive element varying from 3 to 15 cm in length. The dosimeter is comprised of a tissue equivalent plastic scintillating fiber coupled to a photomultiplier tube (PMT). The sensitive element has a length representative of the dimensions of common adult internal organs and measures the absorbed dose along the entire sensitive length.

Testing for differences in rates of speciation, extinction, and morphological evolution in four tribes of cichlids endemic to Lake Tanganyika, East Africa.

Patterns of morphological disparity yield important insight into the causes of diversification and adaptive radiation in East African cichlids. However, comparisons of cichlid disparity have often failed to consider the effects that differing clade ages or stochasticity may have on disparity before making interpretations. Here, a model of branching morphological evolution allows assessment of the relative contributions of differing turnover and morphological change rates, clade ages, and stochastic variation to the observed patterns of disparity in four endemic tribes of Lake Tanganyika cichlids.

Lowland-upland migration of sauropod dinosaurs during the Late Jurassic epoch.

Sauropod dinosaurs were the largest vertebrates ever to walk the Earth, and as mega-herbivores they were important parts of terrestrial ecosystems. In the Late Jurassic-aged Morrison depositional basin of western North America, these animals occupied lowland river-floodplain settings characterized by a seasonally dry climate. Massive herbivores with high nutritional and water needs could periodically experience nutritional and water stress under these conditions, and thus the common occurrence of sauropods in this basin has remained a paradox.

Relevance of underlying disease and bacterial vacA and cagA status on the efficacy of Helicobacter pylori eradication.

Aim: To study the effects of Helicobacter pylori associated diseases and the bacterial vacA and cagA statuses on the efficacy of H. pylori eradication.

Methods: A prospective study in a consecutive series of outpatients of a gastroenterological institution and of a primary practice.

Astrocytes modulate macrophage phagocytosis of myelin in vitro.

Previous work from this laboratory has shown that both macrophages and microglia phagocytize relatively little myelin in vitro under basal conditions. In an effort to better simulate the conditions within the central nervous system (CNS), we have co-cultured these cells with astrocytes, the most numerous of the neural cells in the CNS, and have compared myelin phagocytosis in the co-cultures with that in cells cultured alone. Both macrophages and microglia in company with astrocytes phagocytized about three times as much myelin as controls, as measured by the formation of cholesterol ester, while astrocytes alone showed little evidence of myelin phagocytosis.

Diagnosis and management of acute pancreatitis.

Many aspects of acute pancreatitis treatment have been controversial, but with the refinement of contrast enhanced computed tomography, advances have been made towards quicker diagnosis and treatment of this condition. The management of this disease process for complication, and determination of cause so those future occurrences may be prevented.

Formation of acetaldehyde adducts with ethanol-inducible P450IIE1 in vivo.

Hepatic microsomes, obtained from rats pair-fed liquid diets supplemented with either ethanol or an isocaloric amount of carbohydrates (for 4 weeks), were subjected to crossed immunoelectrophoresis. Anti-acetaldehyde adduct-specific immunoglobulin reacted on the protein blots with a single major 52,000 dalton polypeptide. This same protein was recognized by antibodies specific for P450IIE1, an ethanol-inducible P450 isozyme.

The role of alcoholism and liver disease in the appearance of serum antibodies against acetaldehyde adducts.

We recently presented preliminary data indicating the presence of antibodies against acetaldehyde adducts in sera of over 70% of alcoholic patients. To assess the respective roles of liver disease and alcohol consumption as well as the specificity of this immune response, 141 patients in various stages of alcoholic and nonalcoholic liver diseases were tested by a hemagglutination assay. Sixty-three (73%) of 86 alcoholics had antibody titers above control levels (p less than 0.

Humoral immune response to acetaldehyde adducts in alcoholic patients.

Sera of alcoholic patients were found to contain antibodies to acetaldehyde adducts as determined by immunodiffusion. Differences in antibody levels were determined by hemagglutination with acetaldehyde adduct-conjugated red blood cells. Anti-acetaldehyde adduct immunoglobulin titers in 21 healthy, non-drinking individuals ranged from 10-80, whereas 25 of 34 alcoholics had titers of 160 or above (P less than 0.