Intravitreal injection of Ozurdex(®) implant in patients with persistent diabetic macular edema, with six-month follow-up

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of intravitreal dexamethasone injections in diabetic macular edema (DME). METHODS: A 700 μg slow-release intravitreal dexamethasone implant (Ozurdex®) was placed in the vitreal cavity of 17 patients (19 eyes) affected with persistent DME. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was assessed through Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS). Central macular thickness (CMT) was measured by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. BCVA and CMT examinations were carried out at baseline (T0) and repeated after three days, one month (T1), three months (T3), four months (T4), and six months (T6) post injection. RESULTS: Dexamethasone implant induced an improvement in ETDRS at T1, T3, T4, and T6 post injection. CMT was reduced at T1, T3, and T4, while at T6, CMT values were not statistically different from baseline. No complications were observed during the follow-up. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that dexamethasone implant is effective in reducing DME symptoms within a six-month frame

Multifragmentation threshold in ^{93}Nb+{nat}Mg collisions at 30 MeV/nucleon

We analyzed the $^{93}Nb$ on $^{nat}Mg$ reaction at 30 MeV/nucleon in the aim of disentangling binary sequential decay and multifragmentation decay close to the energy threshold, i.e. $\simeq 3$ MeV/nucleon. Using the backtracing technique applied to the statistical models GEMINI and SMM we reconstruct simulated charge, mass and excitation energy distributions and compare them to the experimental ones. We show that data are better described by SMM than by GEMINI in agreement with the fact that multifragmentation is responsible for fragment production at excitation energies around 3 MeV/nucleon.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables Soumis \`a Nuclear Physics

Isotope correlations as a probe for freeze-out characterization: central 124Sn+64Ni, 112Sn+58Ni collisions

124Sn+64Ni and 112Sn+58Ni reactions at 35 AMeV incident energy were studied with the forward part of CHIMERA multi-detector. The most central collisions were selected by means of a multidimensional analysis. The characteristics of the source formed in the central collisions, as size, temperature and volume, were inspected. The measured isotopes of light fragments (3 <= Z <=8) were used to examine isotope yield ratios that provide information on the free neutron to proton densities.Comment: 4 pages, Contribution to 8th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, Moscow 200

Mass and charge identification of fragments detected with the Chimera Silicon-CsI(Tl) telescopes

Mass and charge identification of charged products detected with Silicon-CsI(Tl) telescopes of the Chimera apparatus is presented. An identification function, based on the Bethe-Bloch formula, is used to fit empirical correlation between Delta E and E ADC readings, in order to determine, event by event, the atomic and mass numbers of the detected charged reaction products prior to energy calibration.Comment: 24 pages, 7 .jpg figures, submitted to Nucl.Instr.

Status and perspectives of the 4 pi charged particles multidetector CHIMERA

The construction of the multidetector CHIMERA designed to detect and identify charged particles and fragments emitted in heavy ion reactions at intermediate energy is in progress and is coming to an end. The construction of this multidetector is presented in this paper as well as the status of the project

Isospin effects studied with the CHIMERA detector at 35 Mev/nucleon

The yield of light charged particles and intermediate mass fragments is studied for the neutron-rich, 124Sn+64Ni, and neutron-poor, 112Sn+58Ni, reactions at 35MeV/nucleon as a function of the impact parameter. Our main observations are: (i) The yields of 1H, 3He and 4He particles in the neutron-poor system are enhanced with respect to the neutron-rich system and the yield of 3H is suppressed at all impact parameters, (ii) The ratio of 3H to 3He yield is three times larger for neutron poor system, (iii) The N/Z ratio of the emitted intermediate-mass fragments shows dependence on the isospin of the system, (iv) The neutron richness of detected intermediate mass fragments depends strongly on their rapidity. The gross features of the experimental data are reproduced by quantum molecular dynamics model calculations