Polymorphisms in the apoptotic pathway gene BCL-2 and survival in small cell lung cancer.

Introduction: We investigated the single-nucleotide polymorphism C-938A in the apoptotic gene BCL-2 to assess the potential impact as a genetic marker for response to chemotherapy and outcome prediction in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. Such a marker might help optimize lung cancer treatment in a tailored approach.

Methods: DNA derived from peripheral blood lymphocytes of 188 Caucasian SCLC patients treated at the Thoraxklinik Heidelberg was genotyped.

[Examples for asbestos-related findings in HRCT - criteria for the assessment of causal relationships in surveillance programmes and medical expert opinion].

The increasing use of high-resolution computed tomography in formerly asbestos-exposed workers requires valid diagnostic criteria for the findings which have to be reported as suspicious for being asbestos-related in surveillance programmes and for the assessment of causal relationships between former asbestos exposure and findings in computed tomography. The present article gives examples for asbestos-related findings in HR-CT and discusses the specificity of parenchymal and pleural changes due to asbestos fibres.

[Recommendations for reporting benign asbestos-related findings in chest X-ray and CT to the accident insurances].

Asbestos-related diseases still play an important role in occupational medicine. The detection of benign asbestos-related diseases is one condition for the compensation of asbestos-related lung cancer in Germany. Due to the increasing use of computed tomography, asbestos-related diseases are more frequently detected in the early stages.

Estimation of pulmonary motion in healthy subjects and patients with intrathoracic tumors using 3D-dynamic MRI: initial results.

Objective: To estimate a new technique for quantifying regional lung motion using 3D-MRI in healthy volunteers and to apply the technique in patients with intra- or extrapulmonary tumors.

Materials And Methods: Intraparenchymal lung motion during a whole breathing cycle was quantified in 30 healthy volunteers using 3D-dynamic MRI (FLASH [fast low angle shot] 3D, TRICKS [time-resolved interpolated contrast kinetics]). Qualitative and quantitative vector color maps and cumulative histograms were performed using an introduced semiautomatic algorithm.

[Digital radiography in chest imaging of occupational and environmental lung diseases].

The classification of pneumoconiosis according to ILO standard - comparing a X-ray of the lung with ILO radiographs - is well established in Germany. The extension of digital imaging is a challenging task in occupational medicine as well as in pneumology. Technical requirements are not known sufficiently and the necessary equipment is not well distributed.