Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant tumour of bone in young patients. The survival of these patients has largely been improved due to adjuvant and neo-adjuvant chemotherapy in addition to surgery. Boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) is proposed as a complementary therapy, due to its ability to inactivate tumour cells that may survive the standard treatment and that may be responsible for recurrences and/or metastases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe neutron autoradiography technique using polycarbonate nuclear track detectors (NTD) has been extended to quantify the boron concentration in hard tissues, an application of special interest in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). Chemical and mechanical processing methods to prepare thin tissue sections as required by this technique have been explored. Four different decalcification methods governed by slow and fast kinetics were tested in boron-loaded bones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Molecular diagnosis is a useful diagnostic tool in primary nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI), an inherited disease characterized by renal inability to concentrate urine. The AVPR2 and AQP2 genes were screened for mutations in a cohort of 25 patients with clinical diagnosis of NDI. Patients presented with dehydration, polyuria-polydipsia, failure to thrive (mean ± SD; Z-height -1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate if serum C-reactive protein (s-CRP) and interleukin 6 (s-IL6) provide information for predicting renal damage and for DMSA patient selection in children with urinary tract infection (UTI).
Methods: This observational study was carried out in children with UTI. s-CRP and s-IL6 were measured at UTI diagnosis.
This study was designed to determine whether the measurement of interleukin (IL)-6 in urine is useful for distinguishing between acute pyelonephritis and lower urinary tract infection. This observational study was carried out at León Hospital (Spain) on 35 patients (ten boys) aged between 0 and 14 years with urinary tract infection. Urinary levels of IL-6 were determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) at diagnosis and after recovery.
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