White-coat effect and masked hypertension in patients with high-normal office blood pressure: results of the Hungarian ABPM Registry.

Objective: Blood pressure (BP) lowering therapy in hypertension can markedly reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. In case of high-normal office blood pressure (oBP), the initiation of antihypertensive medication is recommended by guidelines in patients with very high cardiovascular risk. The aims of this study were to evaluate the presence of white-coat high-normal BP (WhHNBP) and masked hypertension in high-normal oBP and to explore the prevalence of untreated very high cardiovascular risk patients.

Hystero-salpingo scintigraphy for fallopian tubal patency assessment: results from a prospective study.

Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a bygone method, hystero-salpingo-scintigraphy (HSSG), for tubal patency assessment of infertile women.

Material And Methods: Prospective cohort study involving women in the infertility workup at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. Seventy infertile patients were scheduled to either basic dynamic HSSG, post-purge dynamic HSSG, or post-purge dynamic HSSG followed by SPECT/CT for reducing tracer contamination.

Destroyed non-dopaminergic pathways in the early stage of Parkinson's disease assessed by posturography.

Background: The early stage of Parkinson's disease (PD) (Hoehn-Yahr (HY) I-II stages) is characterized by a negative pull test, which clinically excludes postural instability. Previous studies with dynamic posturography detected balance disturbances even at the onset of the disease but the age dependency or prediction of dyskinesia with dynamic posturography are not known.

Objective/hypothesis: We hypothesized that the postural instability evoked by dynamic posturography was part of the early stage of PD.

Cross-cultural validation of the Falls Efficacy Scale-International to assess concerns about falls among Hungarian community-living older people.

Purpose: The Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) is a reliable and valid tool for assessing concerns about falling. Our aims were to translate, culturally adapt, and evaluate the main psychometric characteristics (internal consistency, reproducibility, and convergent construct validity) of the Hungarian version of the FES-I on a sample of community-living older adults.

Methods: After translating and culturally adapting the original scale, 165 community-living older adults (aged 60 years or over) participated in the measurements and filled in the questionnaire.

Therapeutic gain with hyperfractionation in prophylactic cranial irradiation of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

IQ deterioration after prophylactic cranial irradiation is a dreaded complication for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Alternate treatment schemes are needed that achieve comparable tumor control, but avoid such long-term complication. To this end, a hyperfractionated treatment scheme is proposed.

Introducing a computerized record and verify system: its impact on the reduction of treatment errors.

A survey of treatment errors has been conducted over a period of several months before and after the introduction of a CMS computerized record and verify system for radiation treatments administered on a Varian CL-1800 accelerator. It was found that treatment errors could be reduced considerably. However, some errors were also caused by wrong data entry into the system.

Exacerbation of psoriasis after megavoltage irradiation. The Koebner phenomenon.

This is a case report of a patient with a known history of psoriasis who experienced an exacerbation after palliative treatment with high-energy irradiation. A discussion of the radiobiology is presented.

Monitoring the radiation dose to a multiprogrammable pacemaker during radical radiation therapy: a case report.

Multiprogrammable pacemakers, using complimentary metaloxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry, may fail during radiation therapy. We report about a patient who received 6,400 cGy for unresectable carcinoma of the left lung. In supine treatment position, arms raised above the head, the pacemaker was outside the treated area by a margin of at least 1 cm, shielded by cerrobend blocking mounted on a tray.

Advances in hospital pharmacy computing.

These brief descriptions of hospital pharmacy computer applications only scratch the surface of the many different areas in which they have the potential of being used. As the pharmacy profession becomes more knowledgeable in the application of computers, these systems will be used to the fullest degree. The computer is a very important tool for the pharmacy.

Scatter dose from tangential breast irradiation to the uninvolved breast.

Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) were used to measure scatter radiation to the uninvolved breast in 30 patients who received tangential breast or chest-wall radiation with a technique in which the deep edges of the tangential fields were aligned. In most patients, measurements were made during the 1st week of radiation therapy, after port radiographs were obtained to ensure proper field position and accurate alignment of the posterior tangential field edges. Phantom measurements were made simultaneously with TLD measurements to systematically assess the scatter dose as a function of the wedging, number of fields, type of accelerator, beam energy, and bolus used in each treatment.

Using different sets of wedges: clinical applications, dosimetry and safety interlocks.

Each accelerator is customarily supplied with one set of wedges, typically for a maximum field width of 15 cm across the wedge slope. Clinically, however, the need arises at times for larger wedged fields. Independent jaws may require wedges which are mounted at 90 degrees from a standard set, and some half-field treatment techniques may benefit from half-field wedges.

Impact of CT information on the treatment planning for lung tumors.

With CT information available today, the prevailing, though strong, argument for not applying lung corrections is that all clinical experience gathered so far applies to doses that were prescribed for uniform density throughout the treated volume. To ease the transition from not correcting, to the state of accounting for increased lung transmission, we have planned 10 patients: (a) in the conventional way with a wire contour obtained at simulation; target volume and critical structures were drawn in by the physician utilizing information gathered from diagnostic CT scans and X-ray films; no lung correction was applied for treatment planning. (b) For the same patients, a CT scan was obtained in treatment position and the target volume was outlined on the CT film utilizing the same information as in (a); a relative lung density of 0.