Successful Pregnancy with a Full-Term Vaginal Delivery One Year After n-Butyl Cyanoacrylate Embolization of a Uterine Arteriovenous Malformation

Uterine arteriovenous malformation (AVM) causes significant morbidity with vaginal bleeding. Traditional therapy is a hysterectomy with no potential for future pregnancy. We present a case of successful superselective embolization of uterine AVM using n-butyl cyanoacrylate with subsequent normal term pregnancy and uncomplicated vaginal delivery in 1 year.     

A simple analysis of 5 thinner components in human body fluids by headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME)

A simple method for the extraction of 5 thinner components from human whole blood and urine, using the headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) method is presented. After heating a vial containing the samples with 5 compounds (toluene, benzene,n-butyl acetate,n-butanol andn-isoamyl acetate) at 80°C, a polydimethylsiloxane-coated SPME fiber was exposed to the headspace of the vial to allow adsorption of the compounds. The fiber needle was then injected into a capillary gas chromatography (GC) port. The headspace SPME-GC gave intense peaks for each compound and a low level of background noise was seen only for whole blood. Recovery rates o the 5 compounds by use of the headspace SPME-GC were 50–70%. Reproducibility for headspace SPME-GC data were excellent for both body fluids. The calibration curves showed linearity in the range 2–100 ng/0.5 ml whole blood or urine. The detection limits of each compound were 1.1–2.4 ng/0.5 ml sample. The present results on the analysis of 5 thinner components by headspace SPME-GC suggest its applicability to a number of other volatile compounds in forensic toxicology.     

Characterization of the energy distribution of neutrons generated by 5 MeV protons on a thick beryllium target at different emission angles

Neutron energy spectra at different emission angles, between 0° and 120° from the Be(p,xn) reaction generated by a beryllium thick-target bombarded with 5 MeV protons, have been measured at the Legnaro Laboratories (LNL) of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics research (INFN). A new and quite compact recoil-proton spectrometer, based on a monolithic silicon telescope, coupled to a polyethylene converter, was efficiently used with respect to the traditional Time-of-Flight (TOF) technique. The measured distributions of recoil-protons were processed through an iterative unfolding algorithm in order to determine the neutron energy spectra at all the angles accounted for. The neutron energy spectrum measured at 0° resulted to be in good agreement with the only one so far available at the requested energy and measured years ago with TOF technique. Moreover, the results obtained at different emission angles resulted to be consistent with detailed past measurements performed at 4 MeV protons at the same angles by TOF techniques.