Purpose: To evaluate a technique for total body irradiation (TBI) developed and adopted in our institution. Method and Materials: This technique has left and right lateral opposing field. The patient ...lies on the couch made by Stylofoam with legs semi‐collapsed. The arms are folded and positioned on the chest. Three types of fields are used for this technique, one whole body open field and 2 subfields. One subfield covers from chest to pelvis, and another subfield covers pelvis part. MLCs are only used for the former subfield to cover lung. The source to axis distance (SAD) is set to be 470 cm. The dose rate at the 470 cm SAD of three locations (head, abdomen, and pelvis) had measured directly by Farmer chamber with varying the thickness of solid water in advance. These measurements were performed for the following three reference points in the body, head, abdomen, and pelvis. This procedure enables us to calculate the value of cGy/MU at 470 cm SAD with any depth beforehand. We have implemented this technique to two patients. Both are prescribed 3Gy × 4 fx (BID) = 12 Gy. To evaluate the dose uniformity and to crosscheck the MU number calculated by the above method, Eclipse Ver. 6.5 with AAA 7.5.18 was used to calculate the dose distribution in the patient body. Results: Average dose at the midline was 11.99 ± 0.84 Gy, error shows 1 standard deviation. The MU difference between MU calculation and Eclipse was less than 4 %. Both cases has mean lung dose of 20% less than the prescription. Conclusion: It was found that reliable MU and acceptable dose distribution is able to be achieved without any special TBI devices or techniques, such as compensators on the gantry head or couch movement.
Chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU), characterized by the appearance of itchy wheals of unknown etiology, can be extremely debilitating and can significantly reduce a patient's quality of life (QOL). ...Fexofenadine, a non‐sedating, H1‐receptor selective, long‐acting antihistamine, is licensed worldwide for the treatment of CIU. A number of dose‐ranging studies have evaluated the efficacy and safety of fexofenadine for the the treatment of CIU. In two similar North American studies, patients received either fexofenadine HCI (20, 60, 120, or 240 mg bid) or placebo. All four doses of fexofendine were statistically superior to placebo at reducing pruritus and reducing the number of wheals (P 0.0238). A dose‐finding study undertaken in Japanese patients confirmed that fexofenadine HCI (60 mg and 120 mg bid) is an effective treatment for CIU. A similar dose response was shown in all three studies when the results were compared. Furthermore, health outcome analyses of the North American studies indicated that fexofenadine HCI 60 mg bid significantly improved patient's QOL. In these studies, fexofenadine had a consistently comparable safety profile to placebo, with no dose‐related trends in the incidence of adverse events. In conclusion, fexofenadine is an effective and well‐tolerated treatment for CIU, with a wide therapeutic window. Importantly, the lack of ethnic differences between the studies from North America and Asia indicate that the efficacy and safety of fexofenadine demonstrated in these studies are cross‐culturally applicable.
The PHENIX collaboration presents first measurements of low-momentum (0.4<p_{T}<3 GeV/c) direct-photon yields from Au+Au collisions at sqrts_{NN}=39 and 62.4 GeV. For both beam energies the ...direct-photon yields are substantially enhanced with respect to expectations from prompt processes, similar to the yields observed in Au+Au collisions at sqrts_{NN}=200. Analyzing the photon yield as a function of the experimental observable dN_{ch}/dη reveals that the low-momentum (>1 GeV/c) direct-photon yield dN_{γ}^{dir}/dη is a smooth function of dN_{ch}/dη and can be well described as proportional to (dN_{ch}/dη)^{α} with α≈1.25. This scaling behavior holds for a wide range of beam energies at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider, for centrality selected samples, as well as for different A+A collision systems. At a given beam energy, the scaling also holds for high p_{T} (>5 GeV/c), but when results from different collision energies are compared, an additional sqrts_{NN}-dependent multiplicative factor is needed to describe the integrated-direct-photon yield.
We investigated the benefits of a cognitive behavior therapy-based exercise program to reduce the dry eye symptoms of office workers.
We recruited 11 office workers with dry eye symptoms, aged 31-64 ...years, who voluntarily participated in group health guidance at a manufacturing company. Participants learned about the role of physical activity and exercise in enhancing wellness and performed an exercise program at home 3 days per week for 10 weeks. We estimated the indexes of body composition, dry eye symptoms, and psychological distress using the Dry Eye-Related Quality of Life Score and the World Health Organization's Subjective Well-Being Inventory questionnaires pre- and postintervention.
The 10-week exercise program and the questionnaires were completed by 48.1% (39 of 81) of the participants. Body composition did not change pre- and postintervention. However, the average of the Dry Eye-Related Quality of Life Score scores in participants with subjective dry eye significantly improved after the intervention. Moreover, the World Health Organization's Subjective Well-Being Inventory positive well-being score tended to increase after the intervention.
In this study, we showed that a 10-week exercise program improved subjective dry eye symptoms of healthy office workers. Our study suggests that a cognitive behavior therapy-based exercise program can play an important role in the treatment of patients with dry eye disease.
Jet production rates are measured in p+p and d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{sNN}$=200 GeV recorded in 2008 with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Jets are reconstructed using the ...R = 0.3 anti-kt algorithm from energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter and charged tracks in multi-wire proportional chambers, and the jet transverse momentum (pT ) spectra are corrected for the detector response. Spectra are reported for jets with 12 < pT < 50 GeV/c, within a pseudorapidity acceptance of |η|< 0.3. The nuclear-modification factor (RdAu) values for 0%-100% d+Au events are found to be consistent with unity, constraining the role of initial state effects on jet production. However, the centrality-selected RdAu values and central-to-peripheral ratios (RCP) show large, pT -dependent deviations from unity, challenging the conventional models that relate hard-process rates and soft-particle production in collisions involving nuclei.
Purpose: One of the important issues that we are facing in the current radiation process is the long treatment time for irradiating protons to the tumor moving with respiration. In order to improve ...this problem, we are currently developing the highly precise and very short time proton IGRT using the high intensity beam from cyclotron and the real‐time images acquired by two flat panel detectors attached to the gantry. The dose‐rate by using this method will reach 10 to 100 times of the present one. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of HSG cell in such an ultra high dose‐rate regime and its LET dependence by using the colony assay method. Material and method: We attached the HSG cells at the bottom of the plastic chamber, and irradiated the spatially and temporally homogeneous proton beam. We used 235MeV proton beams with the different beam current of 10nA and 300nA in order to study the dose‐rate effect. The chamber was molded in a Polyethylene block with a hole which fits tightly to the chamber. It was placed at plateau(1.75, 114Gy/min, yD=0.56keV/ m), then at Bragg‐peak(8, 325Gy/min, yD=3.19keV/ m) to see the LET dependence of RBE at high dose‐rate. Result: There were no significant splits observed in survival curves of HSG cell over the proton dose‐rate. The ratio of RBE at lower dose‐rate to that at higher dose‐rate was 0.98−+0.08 at Bragg‐peak and was 0.96−+0.11 at plateau. On the other hand, the RBE ratio at Bragg‐peak to plateau was 1.13–1.20, which suggests that the position dependence of RBE cannot be neglected. Conclusion: We conclude that in the therapeutic planning of high dose‐rate radiation, the present RBE can be consistently used. Instead, the RBE enhancement toward the Bragg‐peak and beyond should be reconsidered.
Bipolar segmental clavicle fractures are simultaneous clavicle fractures of both proximal and distal ends. Few case reports describing these fractures have been published, and the management of these ...injuries have remained controversial. Non-operative treatment is likely to result in poor shoulder function due to the instability of the fracture in patients with high physical demands. In contrast, surgical treatment with fixation of both proximal and distal ends of the clavicle possibly may cause life-threatening complications. We present a 74-year old female farmer who had injured her left shoulder and was diagnosed with a bipolar segmental clavicle fracture. Taking the fracture mechanism into consideration, we surgically treated only the distal end of the clavicle fracture with a locking plate. The proximal end of the clavicle fracture was treated without surgical intervention. Both fracture sites achieved bony union after four months and she returned to her activities as a farmer. Quick DASH score was 5.0 with excellent results at three years after operation.
Frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17) is a familial neurological disorder, characterized genetically by autosomal dominant inheritance, clinically by behavioral ...abnormalities and parkinsonism, and neuropathologically by tauopathy. Linkage analyses of affected families have led to identification of several exonic and intronic mutations in the tau gene. In this study, we analyzed molecular species of tau in the soluble and insoluble fractions of brain affected by the FTDP-17 R406W mutation. Protein chemical analysis and Western blotting using site-specific antibodies indicated that almost equal amounts of wild-type and mutant tau were present in the Sarkosyl-insoluble fraction of the R406W brain. Consistent with this, wild-type and mutant tau colocalized in neurofibrillary tangles in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of the R406W brain. In contrast to soluble R406W tau, which was less phosphorylated than soluble wild-type tau, the Sarkosyl-insoluble mutant tau was highly phosphorylated as well as the insoluble wild-type tau.
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