Supercritical fluids in medical radioisotope processing and chemistry,Part II: Applications – real and demonstrated

In Part I of this review series, an overview was presented on what the basic properties of supercritical fluids are and how they can, and are being used in many of today's industries as solvents for extraction, chromatography and reaction. A good part of this overview detailed the kinds of equipment needed, and techniques on how to use them for optimal performance. Part II of this series will delve into specific applications of supercritical fluid technology as it relates to aspects of medical isotope processing. The reader will note that very few applications of this technology to Nuclear Medicine have been published. Many potential applications cited within the context of this review derive from preliminary studies carried out in the author's laboratory. These examples are presented to spark interest in future developments of this nature. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Guided bone regeneration for immediate non‐submerged implant placement using bioabsorbable materials in Beagle dogs

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the combined application of different bioabsorbable materials for healing of residual peri‐implant defects after placement of non‐submerged implants into fresh extraction sockets. Second and third mandibular premolars were extracted from 10 Beagle dogs, the coronal part of the distal sockets were surgically enlarged and this was followed by immediate placement of specially designed hollow‐screw non‐submerged dental implants. For each animal, the coronal peri‐implant defects were further treated with one of the 4 following procedures: 1) no treatment, control site: 2) grafting with porous hydroxyapatite (HA); 3) collagen membrane tightly secured around the implant and over the defect and 4) grafting with HA covered with a collagen membrane. After 16 weeks of healing, specimens were removed from the mandibule and prepared for a histomorphometric evaluation. The bone-to-implant contact length (BIC) was measured and compared amongst the different treatment modalities. In the defect area, the irregular bone regeneration was similar between all the treatment procedures ( P >0.10). In the sites covered with a collagen membrane alone, the total BIC (47%) was greater than in control sites (28.7%. P <0.05) or sites grafted with HA (22.2%, P <0.02). Total BIC in sites treated with the HA‐membrane combination (43%) was only significantly different from sites treated with HA ( P <0.10). It is concluded that the use of bioabsorbable materials results in a limited increase of osseointegration when used in conjunction with immediate placement of non-submerged implants, although the principle of the one stage surgical approach can be maintained.     

The behaviorally active peptide ACTH 4-10: Measurement in plasma and pharmacokinetics in man

Summary A specific radioimmunoassay for the quantitative measurement of ACTH 4-10 and a procedure for its extraction from plasma have been developed.Its pharmacokinetics was studied in eight healthy male volunteers given ACTH 4-10 125 µg/kg body weight as a bolus i.v. injection, by infusion and intranasally. Following the i.v. bolus, plasma levels rapidly declined biexponentially, with half-lives of 0.39±0.05 min for the -phase and 3.84 ± 1.5 min for the -phase (mean±SD). The constant rate i.v. infusion yielded steady-state levels between 0.74 and 5.06 ng/ml plasma. Administered as intranasal spray, absorption of intact ACTH 4-10 was low and variable (maximal bioavailability 7.6%).The results are discussed in relation to the dose-dependent effects of ACTH 4-10 on the auditory evoked potential.     

Determination of a buspirone metabolite in plasma samples

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is described for the assay of the active metabolite [1-(2-pyrimidinyl)piperazinel of buspirone, an anxiolytic agent, in rat plasma.

The method is based on the use of ion-pair HPLC coupled to a liquid—solid extraction scheme. Samples of rat plasma (2 ml) with internal standard (1-phenylpiperazine), adjusted to pH 10.5 with borate buffer, were loaded on to a preactivated C-18 cartridge. The metabolite and the internal standard were eluted with 5 ml of methanol and injected on to a reversed-phase 10-μm Spherisorb ODS-2 column. The column was eluted with a mobile phase of 0.005 M sodium lauryl sulphate in citrate buffer (pH 3.6)-acetonitrile (65:35, v/v) at 2 ml min⁻¹. Detection was carried out at 248 nm. The recovery of the metabolite was 55%. The method was applied to the determination of the metabolite in rat plasma after oral dosing (25 mg kg⁻¹) of the parent compound.     

屈光度对SMILE术后眼压的预测和校正

目的 探究SMILE术后眼压的预测并校正。方法 回顾性研究+前瞻性验证。纳入2019-12/2021-12于中部战区总医院行SMILE的患者90例(180眼),随机抽取30眼为验证集,余150眼为训练集。前瞻性录入2022-01/2022-09SMILE的51例(102眼)为测试集。首先分析训练集手术前3d、术后1wk、1mo、3mo及6mo的眼压情况,确定眼压稳定期及于术前的眼压变化量(ΔIOP);再选取球柱镜代数和(SC)、球镜度(DS)、柱镜度(DC)及眼压(IOP)、中央角膜厚度(CCT)、角膜平均曲率(Km)、前房深度(ACD),眼压稳定时的变化量(ΔCCT、ΔKm、ΔK1、ΔK2、ΔACD)及个体因素,纳入与ΔIOP相关的因素拟合回归模型;最后建立适合临床SMILE术后眼压预测及校正的公式并作效能验证。结果 除术后1wk、3mo及6moIOP三者间无明显差异外,余时段IOP间差异均有统计学意义(P＜0.05);各因素与ΔIOP拟合最佳回归方程：ΔIOP=0.459IOP_术前-0.183SC-0.041Age+1.292ΔACD-1.270(调节R₂^=0.533,P＜0.001)。仅纳入术前IOP和SC,拟合简化方程：ΔIOP=0.496IOP_术前-0.194SC-2.952(调节R₂^=0.498,P＜0.001);预测和校正公式：IOP_术后预测=0.5IOP_术前+0.2SC+3,IOP_术后校正=IOP_术后+0.5IOP_术前–0.2SC–3。简化公式的效能验证显示良好。结论 SMILE术后3月IOP趋于稳定,且ΔIOP与屈光度相关。SMILE术后IOP可通过简化公式作快速临床预测和校正。     

呼气相胸片的识别研究

根据呼气相胸片中肺部区域灰度较高的特点，通过边缘提取和边缘跟踪确定胸部区域，运用最大类间方差方法确定图像分割的阈值．再提取出肺部区域，然后求出肺部的灰度均值。但这样的结果并不理想。于是在此基础上提出修正方案，即以肺部灰度均值和骨骼灰度均值的比值作为特征值．即比例法。此方法可以较客观的识别呼气相胸片。最后用类间距离对这两种方法进行了量化比较。     

基于模糊连接度的多发性硬化症MR图像自动分割算法

多发性硬化症(MS)是一种严重威胁中枢神经功能的疾病,利用磁共振成像技术能够无损伤地检出其病灶。为了自动地对多发性硬化症病灶进行分割,提出了基于模糊连接度的分割算法,实现了种子点的自动选取。作为多发性硬化症分割的预处理,针对脑部MR FLAIR图像的特征,基于区域增长方法,还提出了脑部组织提取算法。通过对临床患者MR图像的分割实验,表明该分割算法能够比较准确地分割多发性硬化症病灶,其分割效果明显好于模糊C-均值聚类算法和基于马尔可夫场模型的分割算法。该算法还具有无监督、运算速度快、稳健性好等优点,能够应用于多发性硬化症的临床辅助诊断。     

Testicular sperm extraction in azoospermic men submitted to bilateral orchidopexy

BACKGROUND: This study was carried out to evaluate whether bilateral orchidopexy represents a poor or good prognostic factor in azoospermic men undergoing testicular sperm extraction (TESE). METHODS: One hundred and seven presumed non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) patients, according to conventional clinical parameters (volume of testis, FSH, clinical history) were submitted to testicular biopsy with TESE. Thirty men (28%) had a history of bilateral orchidopexy for cryptorchidism. RESULTS: Normal spermatogenesis or mild hypospermatogenesis was diagnosed in 12/30 ex-cryptorchid patients and in 7/77 presumed NOA patients (P = 0.0004). Conversely, pure Sertoli cell-only syndrome or complete maturation arrest was found in 10/30 ex-cryptorchid patients and in 48/77 presumed NOA patients (P = 0.0094). In 53/107 patients (49.5%), TESE allowed a positive sperm retrieval. At least one spermatozoon was observed in 22/30 ( approximately 73%) ex-cryptorchid patients and in 31/77 ( approximately 40%) presumed NOA patients (P = 0.0026). A large number of spermatozoa (equivalent to an obstructive pathology) were retrieved in 13/30 ex-cryptorchid and in 10/77 presumed NOA patients (P = 0.001). A history of bilateral orchidopexy in presumed NOA patients correlates positively for the chance of retrieving testicular spermatozoa (odds ratio 3.8; 95% confidence interval 1.41-10.21; P = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: Although bilateral cryptorchidism is usually considered a testicular secretive dysfunction, TESE permits retrieval of a large number of spermatozoa in almost 40% of cases. Our data suggest the existence of congenital or acquired obstructive anomalies of the seminal ducts in azoospermic orchidopexed men.     

An intelligent system for diagnosis of the heart valve diseases with wavelet packet neural networks

In this paper, an intelligent system is presented for interpretation of the Doppler signals of the heart valve diseases based on the pattern recognition. This paper especially deals with combination of the feature extraction and classification from measured Doppler signal waveforms at the heart valve using the Doppler Ultrasound. Because of this, a wavelet packet neural network model developed by us is used. The model consists of two layers: wavelet and multi-layer perceptron. The wavelet layer is used for adaptive feature extraction in the time-frequency domain and is composed of wavelet packet decomposition and wavelet packet entropy. The multi-layer perceptron used for classification is a feed-forward neural network. The performance of the developed system has been evaluated in 215 samples. The test results showed that this system was effective in detecting Doppler heart sounds. The correct classification rate was about 94% for abnormal and normal subjects.