Managing radiation use in medical imaging: a multifaceted challenge

This special report aims to inform the medical community about the many challenges involved in managing radiation exposure in a way that maximizes the benefit-risk ratio. The report discusses the state of current knowledge and key questions in regard to sources of medical imaging radiation exposure, radiation risk estimation, dose reduction strategies, and regulatory options.     

Endovascular Treatment of Phlegmasia Cerulea Dolens with Impending Venous Gangrene: Manual Aspiration Thrombectomy as the First-Line Thrombus Removal Method

Purpose  

Our purpose was to report the outcome of endovascular treatment with manual aspiration thrombectomy as the first-line thromboablative method for phlegmasia cerulea dolens.     

Recent advances in copper radiopharmaceuticals

Copper has five radioisotopes ((60)Cu, (61)Cu, (62)Cu, (64)Cu, and (67)Cu) that can be used in copper radiopharmaceuticals. These radioisotopes decay by mixed emissions of β+, β-, and γ with a wide range of half-lives from 9.74 min ((62)Cu) to 2.58 d ((67)Cu), which enable the design and synthesis of a variety of radiopharmaceuticals for different biomedical applications in diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine. However, due to the availability and production cost, the research efforts in copper radiopharmaceuticals are mainly focused on the use of (64)Cu (t(1/2) = 12.7 h; 17.4% β+, 43% EC, 39% β-), a radioisotope with low positron energy (E β+max = 0.656 MeV) that is ideal for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging quantification and β- emissions along with Auger electron for radiotherapy. Driven by the ever-increasing availability of preclinical and clinical PET scanners, a considerable interest has been seen in the development of novel copper radiopharmaceuticals in the past decade for a variety of diseases as represented by PET imaging of cancer. To avoid unnecessary literature redundancy, this review focuses on the unrepresented research aspects of copper chemistry (e.g. electrochemistry) and their uses in the evaluation of novel nuclear imaging probe design and recent advances in the field towards the practical use of copper radiopharmaceuticals.     

GPR30 deficiency causes increased bone mass,mineralization, and growth plate proliferative activity in male mice

Estrogen regulation of the male skeleton was first clearly demonstrated in patients with aromatase deficiency or a mutation in the ERα gene. Estrogen action on the skeleton is thought to occur mainly through the action of the nuclear receptors ERα and ERβ. Recently, in vitro studies have shown that the G protein–coupled receptor GPR30 is a functional estrogen receptor (ER). GPR30‐deficient mouse models have been generated to study the in vivo function of this protein; however, its in vivo role in the male skeleton remains underexplored. We have characterized size, body composition, and bone mass in adult male Gpr30 knockout (KO) mice and their wild‐type (WT) littermates. Gpr30 KO mice weighed more and had greater nasal‐anal length (p < .001). Both lean mass and percent body fat were increased in the KO mice. Femur length was greater in Gpr30 KO mice, as was whole‐body, spine, and femoral areal bone mineral density (p < .01). Gpr30 KO mice showed increased trabecular bone volume (p < .01) and cortical thickness (p < .001). Mineralized surface was increased in Gpr30 KO mice (p < .05). Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling showed greater proliferation in the growth plate of Gpr30 KO mice (p < .05). Under osteogenic culture conditions, Gpr30 KO femoral bone marrow cells produced fewer alkaline phosphatase–positive colonies in early differentiating osteoblast cultures but showed increased mineralized nodule deposition in mature osteoblast cultures. Serum insulin‐like growth factor 1 (IGF‐1) levels were not different. These data suggest that in male mice, GPR30 action contributes to regulation of bone mass, size, and microarchitecture by a mechanism that does not require changes in circulating IGF‐1. © 2011 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.     

Comparison of efficiency of intravitreal ceftazidime and intravitreal cefepime in the treatment of experimental Pseudomonas aeruginosa endophthalmitis

In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of cefepime in the treatment of experimental Pseudomonas aeruginosa endophthalmitis. We compared the findings with the standard dose of ceftazidime (1 mg/0.1 ml). Thirty-six New-Zealand White rabbits were divided into 6 equal groups and were treated with different methods (Group 1 = sham, Group 2 = 0.5 mg/0.1 ml cefepime, Group 3 = 1 mg/0.1 ml cefepime, Group 4 = 2 mg/0.1 ml cefepime, Group 5 = 1 mg/0.1 ml ceftazidime, Group 6 = control). The eyes of rabbits in each group were examined clinically on 1^st, 3^rd, and 6^th day of the experiment. At 6^th day, 0.1 ml vitreous humor aspirates were obtained and plated for quantification on the blood agar and the results were expressed as colony-forming unit/ml. Subsequently, the eyeballs were enucleated and the histopathological evaluation was performed. Our findings denoted beneficial effects of cefepime in treatment groups (especially, in Groups 3 and 4). Intravitreal cefepime may be an alternative drug in the treatment of P. aeruginosa endophthalmitis.     

Is there any cardioprotective role of Taurine during cold ischemic period following global myocardial ischemia?

Background  

The aim of the present study was to investigate the cardioprotective effect of Taurine on the donor hearts during cold ischemic period.     

Total knee arthroplasty in patients with fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia has recently emerged as a diagnosis of exclusion for patients with chronic, widespread pain. We investigated the influence of this comorbidity on outcomes of total knee arthroplasty (TKA). We matched 59 patients (90 knees) who underwent primary TKA with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia to control patients who underwent the same surgery. Postoperative satisfaction and functional outcomes were assessed using a Likert scale and the SF-36 survey, respectively. At 3.4 years' follow-up, fibromyalgia patients were less satisfied with TKA than control patients, and had lower preoperative and postoperative SF-36 scores. They demonstrated improvement comparable to that of controls following TKA, however. Fibromyalgia patients appear to show improvement comparable to that of controls following surgery. This syndrome should not be considered a contraindication for surgery.