Intrapancreatic accessory spleen false positive to 68Ga-Dotatoc: case report and literature review

Background: Intrapancreatic accessory spleen (IPAS) is an uncommon finding of pancreatic mass. Differential diagnosis with pancreatic tumor, especially with non-functional neuroendocrine tumor (NF-NET), may be very hard and sometimes it entails unnecessary surgery. A combination of CT scan, MRI, and nuclear medicine can confirm the diagnosis of IPAS. 68-Ga-Dotatoc PET/CT is the gold standard in NET diagnosis and it can allow to distinguish between IPAS and NET. Case presentation: A 69-year-old man was admitted to our hospital for an incidental nodule in the tail of the pancreas with focal uptake of 68-Ga-dotatate at PET/CT. NET was suspected and open distal splenopancreatectomy was performed. Pathologic examination revealed an IPAS. Conclusion: This is the second IPAS case in which a positive 68Ga-Dotatoc uptake led to a false diagnosis of pancreatic NET. Here is a proposal of a literature review

Performance of the Fully Digital FPGA-based Front-End Electronics for the GALILEO Array

In this work we present the architecture and results of a fully digital Front End Electronics (FEE) read out system developed for the GALILEO array. The FEE system, developed in collaboration with the Advanced Gamma Tracking Array (AGATA) collaboration, is composed of three main blocks: preamplifiers, digitizers and preprocessing electronics. The slow control system contains a custom Linux driver, a dynamic library and a server implementing network services. The digital processing of the data from the GALILEO germanium detectors has demonstrated the capability to achieve an energy resolution of 1.53 per mil at an energy of 1.33 MeV.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, preprint version of IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science paper submitted for the 19th IEEE Real Time Conferenc

Autonomic dysregulation and self‐injurious thoughts and behaviours in children and young people: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Background: self-injurious thoughts and behaviours (SITBs) have been associated with dysfunction of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) in children and young people, suggesting that objective ANS measures may aid assessment of suicide risk, but a systematic synthesis of this literature is currently lacking.Methods: following a pre-registered protocol (PROSPERO CRD42022327605), we conducted a systematic search of PubMed, Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, and Web of Science, for empirical studies published until 10th May 2022 that compared indices of ANS functioning in individuals aged 0–25 years with versus without SITBs, or reported continuous associations between ANS measures and SITBs. Study quality was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scales. Pooled effect sizes (Hedge's g) were estimated with random-effects meta-analytic models.Results: twenty studies (1979 participants) were included in our systematic review, with 16 included in meta-analyses. Results suggested that SITBs were associated with altered cardiac indices of arousal (g = −0.328, p < 0.001), which was driven by lower heart rate variability in individuals with SITBs (g = −0.375, p = 0.025). Overall results for electrodermal activity were not significant (g = 0.026, p = 0.857), but subgroup analyses showed increased activity in studies of individuals who engaged specifically in non-suicidal self-harm (g = 0.249, p = 0.014) but decreased activity in the remaining studies (g = −0.567, p = 0.004).Conclusions: our systematic review and meta-analysis found evidence of reduced parasympathetic regulation as well as more tentative evidence of altered electrodermal activity in children and young people displaying SITBs. Future longitudinal studies should test the clinical utility of these markers for detecting and monitoring suicide risk

Analysis of the antibiotic resistance profiles in methicillin-sensitive s. Aureus pathotypes isolated on a commercial rabbit farm in Italy

The breeding of meat rabbits is an important sector in the livestock industry in Italy. The focus of this study was to describe the antibiotic resistance profile distribution among the Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus isolated in a rabbit farm. From 400 animals of different ages and three farm workers, 96 randomly selected strains isolated from various anatomical sites and lesions were analysed. According to spa typing and the resistance profiles towards veterinary and human antibiotics, 26 pathotypes were identified. The highest resistance was observed against Tetracyclines (92.3%) and Macrolides (80.8%), while almost all were susceptible to Penicillins, according to the limited use of β-lactams on the farm. In total, 92.3% of pathotypes were multidrug resistant (MDRs). Two MDR pathotypes belonging to the t2802 spa type were isolated from both farmers and rabbits. Age categories harboured significantly different pathotypes (p = 0.019), while no association was found between pathotypes and lesions (p = 0.128) or sampling sites (p = 0.491). The antibiotic resistance was observed to increase with the time spent in the farm environment (age category). The selective pressure exerted by antibiotic use acted by giving advantage to more resistant strains rather than by lowering susceptibility to various drug categories within strains

Itinerario terapéutico de las personas con discapacidad y mediaciones en el cuidado de la salud: la mirada de los familiares

Las familias son agentes cualificados de las prácticas en salud y contribuyen en la búsqueda del cuidado de las personas con discapacidad. Este artículo presenta los itinerarios que recorren los adultos con discapacidad motriz en torno de su rehabilitación y la participación de sus familiares en este proceso. A tal fin se analizan las entrevistas semi-estructuradas a familiares que viven con personas con discapacidad motriz de 50 años o más en el Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires (AMBA). Para el relevamiento de la información de carácter cualitativo, se utilizó una muestra de tipo intencional (18 casos) por cuotas según sexo, nivel socioeconómico y tipo de vínculo (hijo/a o cónyuge). Los hallazgos muestran que los itinerarios terapéuticos en vistas del cuidado y la rehabilitación de las personas con discapacidad se dividen en dos etapas centrales: la búsqueda de un diagnóstico y la búsqueda del tratamiento. Ambas instancias se configuran de acuerdo a los factores sociales, económicos y culturales de sus familias. Según las evidencias se concluyó que los servicios de salud pueden funcionar, por momentos, como obstaculizadores de los itinerarios terapéuticos de sus usuarios si desatienden el vínculo entre sus acciones y la red familiar, en la cual se toman decisiones sobre el tratamiento a seguir y se gestiona cotidianamente el cuidado

Gamma-ray Tracking with Segmented HPGe Detectors

This paper gives a brief overview of the technical progress that can be achieved with the newly available segmented HPGe detectors. Gamma-ray tracking detectors are a new generation of HPGe detectors which are currently being developed to improve significantly the efficiency and resolving power of the 4 … germanium detectors arrays for high-precision ∞-ray spectroscopy. They consist of highly segmented HPGe detectors associated with fast digital front-end electronics. Through the pulse-shape analysis of the signals it is possible to extract the energy, timing and spatial information on the few interactions a ∞-ray undergoes in the HPGe detector. The tracks of the ∞-rays in the HPGe detector can then be reconstructed in three dimensions based on the Compton scattering formula. Such a detector has been used for the first time during an in-beam experiment. The ∞-decay of the Coulomb excitation of a 56 Fe nucleus was measured with the highly segmented MARS prototype positioned at 135 degree. The energy resolution has been improved by a factor of 3 as compared to standard HPGe detectors due to very precise Doppler correction based on knowledge of the ∞-ray track. I Introduction The future facilities for radioactive beams will allow, for the first time, the exploration of a new large area of the nuclear landscape. In connection with the study of the ∞-radiation, it is important to point out that the intensity of such radioactive beams is expected to be much smaller than that of stable beams, Doppler Effects in many experiments are expected to be much stronger and an intense background of X-rays could be present. Consequently, a new generation of powerful HPGe arrays with segmented detectors is being designed. Both in USA and in Europe several projects, based on segmented HPGe detectors, have already started and are in an advanced status of realization. The objective of the more recent R&D efforts is to improve the total efficiency by removing the BGO shields without affecting the P/T ratio with the use of the tracking technique, namely the reconstruction of the ∞-ray path to identify the ∞-incident direction (for the Doppler correction), the removal of the background and to check whether or not the ∞ was fully absorbed in the array. Such development implies unprecedented R&D efforts where completely new technology has to be applied, tested or developed in all the constituents of an HPGe array, from the detector to the front-end electronics. The typical feature of the energy deposition of a ∞-ray is that of interacting in a limited number of positions. ∞-tracking of this hits is a very challenging and ambitious task. First, one has to identify, isolate and localize each hit inside a segmented detector with pulse shape analysis based on the study of the physical mechanism of the pulse generation or with Artificial Intelligence techniques (like Neural Networks or Genetic Algorithm [1]) of the direct and induced electrical pulses produced by every interacting ∞-rays. Second, a tracking algorithm has to reconstruct the real trajectory from the list of interaction points through statistical techniques. The result is expected to be the complete reconstruction of the track of the incident ∞, namely the complete description of the interacting ∞-ray. Worldwide efforts have been done using simulations and proof-of-principle measurements and turned out to be successful. The feasibility of the entire process of ∞ray tracking is demonstrated in this paper based on an experiment, done at the LNL in Italy, using the MARS prototype detector