Learning from dying patients during their final days: life reflections gleaned from dignity therapy.

Dignity therapy is a novel therapeutic approach designed to decrease suffering, enhance quality of life and bolster a sense of dignity for patients approaching death. The benefits of dignity therapy were previously documented in a sample of 100 terminally ill patients. One of the products of dignity therapy is a transcript of the edited therapy session(s).

Early detection and quantification of murine melanoma bone metastases with magnetic resonance imaging.

Objective: Bone metastases occur in approximately 80% of patients with advanced cancer and cause significant morbidity. There are currently no established means by which to identify the early growth of micro-metastatic cells or their effects on bone at a time when curative therapy might be initiated. We postulated that high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could detect and quantify the growth and destructive effects of bone micrometastases.

Normal murine bone morphometry: a comparison of magnetic resonance microscopy with micro X-ray and histology.

Objective: The authors have devised a means to assess subtle changes in the structure of bone using magnetic resonance (MR) microscopy. MR microscopy was compared with micro X-ray and histology to analyze the structure of normal bone.

Design: Femurs of C57Bl/6 mice were examined ex vivo using differently orientated slices and pulse sequences on both a 9.