Efficacy of CO₂ Infusion for Preoperative Computed Tomographic Angiography with Computed Tomographic Colonography.

BACKGROUND Computed tomographic colonography (CTC) is useful for patients for whom colonoscopy may be difficult to perform and is widely employed to examine the vasculature prior to colorectal cancer surgery. Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) was shown to be beneficial intraoperatively to manipulate blood vessels and prevent vascular injury. Three-dimensional (3D)-CTA combined with CTC (3D-CTA with CTC) is useful for preoperative evaluations of the anatomy of mesenteric vessels, colon, and lymph nodes.

Age-related differences in image quality of prospectively ECG-triggered axial and helical scans for coronary CT angiography.

We investigated the underlying reasons for the occurrence of misalignment artifacts in prospectively ECG-triggered axial coronary CT angiography scans. In this study we analyzed 56 consecutive patients scanned in axial mode and 66 consecutive patients scanned in helical mode. Predictors for the occurrence of misalignment artifacts were evaluated by multivariable logistic regression analysis for those patients scanned in the axial mode; advanced age was identified as the sole independent predictor (odds ratio: 1.

[Assessment of the utility of digital subtraction in lacrimal passage contrasting].

The utility of lacrimal passage contrasting by a digital subtraction system (DS system) was assessed in comparison with a computed radiography system (CR system) by means of simulating the exposure dose of a patient's crystalline lens and measuring the image contrast of both systems. The exposure dose of the patient's crystalline lens in the DS system was an average of 45.8 mGy, which was 41.

Quantitative evaluation of reconstruction methods after gastrectomy using a new type of examination: digestion and absorption test with stable isotope 13C-labeled lipid compound.

Background: Digestive and absorptive disorders may negatively influence patients' nutrition, thus resulting in weight loss after gastrectomy. A relationship thus seems to exist between the fat absorptive function and body weight after gastrectomy; however, so far there has been no evidence to prove this hypothesis. Therefore, in this study we evaluated fat absorption ability using a stable isotope, (13)C-trioctanoin, based on the range of the gastrectomy and the method of reconstruction, and we also determined the feasibility of this test.

Selective use of transthyretin and retinol-binding protein as markers in the postoperative assessment of protein nutritional status.

We evaluated several markers to judge the postoperative state of protein nutriture in eight patients following surgery for cancer. Seven patients had a good prognosis and had no evidence of infections or other complications. Following surgery, all of the patients showed a shift toward abnormal values for the serum concentrations of albumin, transthyretin (TT), retinol-binding protein (RBP), and the amino acid (AA) ratio of nonessential to essential amino acids.