Photodynamic therapy of tumours: value of quantum chemical procedures for characterization of new drugs. Prediction of the electronic structure of zinc(II) phthalocyanine with special emphasis on triplet state excitation energies

Zinc(II) phthalocyanine is the active component of the liposomal formulation CGP 55847 which showed a high activity in photodynamic therapy in a variety of animal tumours. The photophysical properties of zinc(II) phthalocyanine have been studied in detail and compared to those of Photofrin, the only sensitizing agent approved so far for phase III/IV clinical trials. Since the efficacy of photodynamic therapy intrinsically depends on the spectroscopic features of the sensitizer, quantum chemical methods have proven to be an efficient means for optimizing chemical structures. As will be shown, a simple modification of the time-honoured INDO model of Pople allows a prediction of the singlet and triplet state properties of molecules of the size of zinc(II) phthalocyanine with an rms error of ≤ 1000 cm⁻¹.     

Prevalence of persistent vegetative state/apallic syndrome in Vienna

The aim of the project was to survey the hospital prevalence of apallic syndrome in a federal state in Austria at an exact point in time. To achieve this, a point prevalence study was carried out on 28 November 2001 in the Vienna region. The central element was a questionnaire, which provided an exact recording of the patients' condition. An additional preliminary task was to check all the discharge diagnoses in the hospitals of the Vienna Hospital Association (Wiener Krankenanstalten Verbund) between 1996 and 2000 according to the ICD-9 diagnoses for apallic syndrome. These data should serve to cross-check the recorded results. All hospitals (n = 48) and nursing facilities (n = 44) in Vienna were included in this investigation. As the aim of the study was to record the prevalence of apallic syndrome in the population of Vienna, four patients of the group with full-stage apallic syndrome (n = 36) were excluded as they were from other federal states. In total, 32 hospital patients who met the clinical criteria for apallic syndrome (full-stage) were recorded. The point prevalence of apallic syndrome was 1.9/100,000 inhabitants. As a result of this study, the exact survey of hospital prevalence of apallic syndrome could be found. As a consequence, the Viennese government has developed a rehabilitation concept for patients with apallic syndrome in Vienna.     

A preliminary study of stress symptoms and nutritional state in children

The aim of this work was to examine the occurrence of stressful events in the lives of children, using the ‘Scale of Infantile Social Readjustment’ (SISR), and the ‘Inventory of Symptoms of Infantile Stress’ (ISIS) to identify the presence of stress symptoms. The results of these evaluations were then used to examine the relationship between the levels of stress and the nutritional state of the children, by correlation. Forty 7–10‐year‐old children were included in the evaluation. From the analysed sample 49 per cent of them were eutrophic (weight/height normal to age), 50 per cent were above weight and 1 per cent was undernourished. Whereas 70 per cent of the girls were eutrophic and 30 per cent were above weight, only 35 per cent of the boys were eutrophic, 60 per cent were above weight and 5 per cent were undernourished. The results obtained in this first study indicated that 45 per cent of eutrophic girls demonstrated symptoms of stress, while 20 per cent of them were asymptomatic (with no symptoms of stress). Of the overweight boys, 30 per cent of them showed symptoms of stress and 35 per cent did not. This study indicated a possible relationship between weight and the symptoms of stress. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Off-resonance effects in the transient response of SSFP sequences.

A previously developed eigenvector formalism is adapted to off-resonance in the transient response of quasiperiodic steady-state free precession (SSFP) sequences, including TrueFISP as a special case. The effective relaxation rates for essentially parallel and perpendicular deviations from the steady state are determined analytically in leading order perturbation theory. The latter are a known cause of oscillatory artifacts and therefore constitute the main target of a variety of preparation techniques. In addition, the former also play a dominating role in applications such as inversion recovery (IR) TrueFISP, which intentionally measure far away from the equilibrium. For both components, the approach toward equilibrium turns out to depend sensitively on field inhomogeneities, especially for smaller ratios of T2/T1. For the perpendicular deviations, the calculations show that--except very close to banding artifacts, where the steady-state signal is almost zero--field inhomogeneities additionally increase their effective relaxation rate almost as much as in the free induction decay (FID). The analytical results are tested against numerical simulation and MR measurements.     

View ordering for magnetization prepared steady state free precession acquisition: application in contrast-enhanced MR angiography.

Magnetization prepared segmented acquisition requires a view order that maximizes signal contrast during the acquisition of the central portion of k-space. Steady state free precession (SSFP) acquisition further requires a view order that minimizes changes in phase-encoding gradients from one repetition to the next in order to minimize eddy current artifacts. In this article, optimal view ordering schemes satisfying these two requirements are formulated and applied to inversion prepared 3D SSFP contrast-enhanced MR angiography (MRA). Experiments on phantoms and pigs demonstrated improved background suppression and reduced image artifacts.     

导管射频消融治疗飞行员快速心律失常临床分析

目的探讨导管射频消融（RFCA）在治疗飞行员多种快速性心律失常中的安全性及临床应用价值，探讨飞行员快速性心律失常的航空医学鉴定标准。方法对13例快速性心律失常的飞行员进行了电生理（EP）检查，特发性室性心动过速（VT）1例，频发室性期前收缩（VE）2例，阵发性心房纤颤（AF）1例，房室折返性心动过速（AVRT）5例，房室结折返性心动过速（AVNRT）3例，房性心动过速（AT）1例。对其中12例采用RFCA治疗。结果RFCA即刻成功率为100％，全组无并发症发生。1例房性心动过速未行导管射频消融治疗。所有飞行员术后地面观察6个月后，返院进行随访复查，同时进行飞行鉴定。12例导管射频消融治疗，术后6个月24h动态心电图、12导联心电图检查和食道电生理检查均未检测到术前的同型快速性心律失常发作，延迟成功率为100％，医学鉴定合格。1例AT仍有发作，飞行不合格。结论对于飞行员快速性心律失常进行导管射频消融治疗是一种安全、有效的治疗方法。心脏电生理检查应作为飞行员快速性心律失常医学鉴定的主要指标之一。     

Steady state of gradient echo sequences with radiofrequency phase cycling: Analytical solution,contrast enhancement with partial spoiling

Spoiled gradient echo sequences can only reach a homogeneous steady state if sufficiently strong crusher gradients are used in combination with RF phase cycling (RF spoiling). However, the signal depends quite sensitively on the chosen phase increment ? and—lacking analytical solutions—numerical simulations must be used to study the transient and steady‐state magnetization. For the steady state an exact analytical solution is derived, which holds for arbitrary sequence and tissue parameters. Besides a considerably improved computation performance, the analytical approach enables a better understanding of the complicated dependence on ?. For short repetition times (TR) the regime of small ? turns out to be particularly interesting: It is shown that the typical ?_c, where RF spoiling starts to become effective, is essentially inversely proportional to T₂. This tissue dependence implies that contrasts can be considerably larger with partial spoiling (? ≈ ?_c) than with conventional RF spoiling (? ? ?_c). As an example, the uptake of contrast agents in tissues is investigated. For typical parameters a considerably improved contrast enhancement can be obtained, both theoretically and experimentally. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

在线考试系统设计

作为评价网络学习效果的一个环节，网上考试越来越被人们接受和认同。文章介绍了在线考试系统的功能和结构，并对该考试系统中所用到的关键技术进行了详细的介绍，包括系统的通用性和安全性、题库的建设和管理、随机组卷算法等。     

胃镜检查与幽门螺杆菌感染关系的初步探讨

本文用前瞻性连续检测方法，对２６９例患者作胃粘膜ＨＰ检测，且同步对消毒前后的胃镜、有关器械和操作者手套采样，作ＨＰ检测。结果发现，消毒前镜端（含弯曲部）、活检钳、清洁刷、器械管道插口和操作者手套采样标本的ＨＰ阳性率分别达６９．５１％、７３．６０％、８１．６２％、８７．７３％和９７．７２％。目前常规的清洗消毒虽能清除ＨＰ对胃镜的大部分污染，但还存在一些易忽视的环节，这可能在检查中引起医源性感染，应予高度重视。     

Interobserver variation in the evaluation of neurological signs: observer dependent factors.

Introduction - Interobserver variation among four observers in evaluation of eight selected neurological signs was investigated. Material & methods - Two hundred and two consecutive unselected inpatients were examined by two senior neurologists and two trainees, all without knowledge of the neurological case history. The signs examined were: anisocoria, jerky eye movements, facial palsy, elbow extension force, finger-nose test, Barré sign, knee jerk, and extensor plantar reflex. Observed agreement rates and kappa coefficients were calculated in order to compare the interobserver variability among neurologists and trainees, and to evaluate differences in the interobserver variability between signs. Results - Observed agreement rates varied from 0.80 to 0.95 for neurologists and from 0.65 to 0.98 for trainees. For neurologists kappa coefficients ranged from 0.40 to 0.67 and for trainees from 0.22 to 0.81. The neurologists had higher kappa values than the trainees in 5 signs, but this difference was only statistically significant for jerky eye movements. For the individual signs the observed agreement rates were between 0.50 and 0.93 for all four examiners combined, and overall kappa values varied from 0.32 to 0.71 with highest agreement for facial palsy and lowest for knee jerk. Conclusion - The magnitude of the interobserver and intersign variation indicates that the interpretation of the neurological signs tested, without knowledge of the case history, should be done with some caution.