The GALATEA Test-Facility for High Purity Germanium Detectors

GALATEA is a test facility designed to investigate bulk and surface effects in high purity germanium detectors. A vacuum tank houses an infrared screened volume with a cooled detector inside. A system of three stages allows an almost complete scan of the detector. The main feature of GALATEA is that there is no material between source and detector. This allows the usage of alpha and beta sources as well as of a laser beam to study surface effects. A 19-fold segmented true-coaxial germanium detector was used for commissioning

Primary Cardiac Angiosarcoma: A Fatal Disease

A 42-year-old man with a cardiac tamponade underwent an urgent pericardiotomy that showed tumoral tissue, covering the surface of the right atrium. The tumor was then partially excised, and the histological examination revealed the presence of a moderately-differentiated angiosarcoma. The patient was then referred to the oncology unit and scheduled for a chemotherapy schedule including Epirubicin (60 mg/m2, on days 1 and 2) plus Ifosfamide (2000 mg/m2, on days 1 to 3) and Uromitexan (2000 mg/m2 at hours 0, 4, 8 after IFO). All drugs were administered every three weeks. After two cycles, a restaging work-up revealed a partial remission. The treatment was continued for another two cycles. A new evaluation by cardiac MRI evidenced a local and distant (lung) progression of disease. The patient died after three months. This paper confirms that cardiac angiosarcoma is a fatal disease, and the prognosis is usually 6–11 months from time of diagnosis

The EEE Project

The new experiment ``Extreme Energy Events'' (EEE) to detect extensive air showers through muon detection is starting in Italy. The use of particle detectors based on Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC) will allow to determine with a very high accuracy the direction of the axis of cosmic ray showers initiated by primaries of ultra-high energy, together with a high temporal resolution. The installation of many of such 'telescopes' in numerous High Schools scattered all over the Italian territory will also allow to investigate coincidences between multiple primaries producing distant showers. Here we present the experimental apparatus and its tasks.Comment: 4 pages, 29th ICRC 2005, Pune, Indi

Prevalence and clinical significance of acquired left coronary artery fistulas after surgical myectomy in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

ObjectivesThe relevance of iatrogenic left coronary artery fistulas complicating surgical myectomy in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is not known. We prospectively defined the echocardiographic features, prevalence, and clinical significance of left coronary artery fistulas in 40 consecutive patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy undergoing extended septal myectomy.MethodsEchocardiographic analysis was performed preoperatively and 1 and 6 months after surgical intervention. Diagnosis of left coronary artery fistulas required evidence of diastolic flow draining from the left ventricular wall into the left ventricular cavity according to prespecified criteria.ResultsLeft coronary artery fistulas were detected in 9 (23%) of the 40 study patients as a single occurrence in all except 1 patient, who had multiple fistulas. At 6 months, left coronary artery fistulas could still be detected in only 2 of the 9 patients. Of these, 1 patient remained asymptomatic but continued to show left coronary artery fistula persistence at 37 months postoperatively. The other, a woman with prior alcohol septal ablation, had progressive severe symptoms that required percutaneous closure of the fistula with a covered stent after angiographic identification of a large first septal branch fistula associated with distal left anterior descending coronary artery steal.ConclusionsIn patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, left coronary artery fistulas are common in the early period after surgical myectomy, although their echocardiographic prevalence is dependent on operator awareness. Most left coronary artery fistulas heal spontaneously. Occasionally, however, fistulas can persist and cause symptoms requiring therapeutic intervention