Lipiodol visibility under ultrasound.

Background: Lipiodol is an oil-based solution commonly used in hysterosalpingogram (HSG), but not hysterosalpingo contrast sonography (HyCoSy). In women with unexplained infertility, evidence suggests that tubal flushing with Lipiodol results in improved fertility post-procedure. We propose that Lipiodol can be visualised under ultrasound similar to commonly used saline, and hence utilised for HyCoSy, allowing the benefit of an oil-based tubal flushing to occur with HyCoSy.

Mechanisms associated with cGMP binding and activation of cGMP-dependent protein kinase.

Using small-angle x-ray scattering, we have observed the cGMP-induced elongation of an active, cGMP-dependent, monomeric deletion mutant of cGMP-dependent protein kinase (Delta(1-52)PKG-I beta). On saturation with cGMP, the radius of gyration of Delta(1-52)PKG-I beta increases from 29.4 +/- 0.

Methods for measuring the infrared spectra of biological cells.

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy of biological cells is a growing area of research, with many papers focusing on differences between the spectra of cancerous and noncancerous cells. Much of this research has been performed using a monolayer of dehydrated cells. We posit that the use of monolayers can introduce artefacts that lead to an apparent but inaccurate measurement of differences between cancerous and noncancerous cells.