[Evaluation of the Effect of Adiabatic Pulse and B1 Shim to the Radio Frequency Homogeneity in Chemical Shift Imaging].

It is considered that the enhancement of chemical shift and the elevation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) induced by high magnetic fields are useful for the evaluation of metabolism using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). However, the reduction of the localization in MRS seems to be caused by the decreased homogeneity of radio frequency (RF) pulses, especially in chemical shift imaging (CSI). To search the influence of B1 shim mode and the significance of adiabatic pulses, we have examined the changes of RF homogeneity using 3 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the water phantom and the metabolites phantom (containing acetate and lactate) in CSI.

[A Large Number of Circulating Tumor Cells(CTCs)Can Be Isolated from Samples Obtained by Using Leukapheresis Procedures].

We hypothesized that a large number of circulating tumor cells(CTCs)may be isolated from samples obtained by using the leukapheresis procedures that are utilized to collect peripheral blood mononuclear cells for dendritic cell vaccine therapy. We utilized the CellSearch System to determine the number of CTCs in samples obtained by using leukapheresis in 7 patients with colorectal cancer, 5 patients with breast cancer, and 3 patients with gastric cancer. In all patients, a large number of CTCs were isolated.