Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Experimental Models

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging is the modality of choice for clinical studies of the heart and vasculature, offering detailed images of both structure and function with high temporal resolution

Supersymmetric Decays of the Z' Boson

The decay of the Z' boson into supersymmetric particles is studied. We investigate how these supersymmetric modes affect the current limits from the Tevatron and project the expected sensitivities at the LHC. Employing three representative supersymmetric Z' models, namely, E_6, U(1)_{B-L}, and the sequential model, we show that the current limits of the Z' mass from the Tevatron could be reduced substantially due to the weakening of the branching ratio into leptonic pairs. The mass reach for the E_6 Z' bosons is about 1.3-1.5 TeV at the LHC-7 (1 fb^{-1}), about 2.5 - 2.6 TeV at the LHC-10 (10 fb^{-1}), and about 4.2 - 4.3 TeV at the LHC-14 (100 fb^{-1}). A similar mass reach for the U(1)_{B-L} Z' is also obtained. We also examine the potential of identifying various supersymmetric decay modes of the Z' boson because it may play a crucial role in the detailed dynamics of supersymmetry breaking.Comment: 30 pages, including 13 figures. improvements to the presentation and references adde

Acute liver toxicity with ifosfamide in the treatment of sarcoma: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Ifosfamide is a chemotherapy agent infrequently associated with liver toxicity. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first to describe serious liver toxicity associated with ifosfamide used in combination with doxorubicin that caused acute but fully reversible liver failure and encephalopathy. This report reviews the possible mechanisms by which ifosfamide causes this adverse effect.</p> <p>Case report</p> <p>A 61-year-old Caucasian woman who presented with an inoperable right neck mass due to synovial sarcoma was treated with standard-dose ifosfamide and doxorubicin. Within 24 hours of completing the first cycle of chemotherapy, she developed significant derangements in liver function, with a 250-fold increase in transaminase and associated synthetic function impairment and encephalopathy. No other causes of liver failure were identified. Both biochemical tests and encephalopathy were reversed after supportive management and treatment with <it>N</it>-acetylcysteine. No liver toxicity was observed with subsequent cycles of chemotherapy with doxorubicin alone.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This case highlights the possibility that chemotherapy agents can cause rare and idiosyncratic toxicities, so physicians must be vigilant for drug reactions, especially when patients do not respond to usual treatment.</p

Acute liver toxicity with ifosfamide in the treatment of sarcoma: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Ifosfamide is a chemotherapy agent infrequently associated with liver toxicity. To the best of our knowledge, this report is the first to describe serious liver toxicity associated with ifosfamide used in combination with doxorubicin that caused acute but fully reversible liver failure and encephalopathy. This report reviews the possible mechanisms by which ifosfamide causes this adverse effect.</p> <p>Case report</p> <p>A 61-year-old Caucasian woman who presented with an inoperable right neck mass due to synovial sarcoma was treated with standard-dose ifosfamide and doxorubicin. Within 24 hours of completing the first cycle of chemotherapy, she developed significant derangements in liver function, with a 250-fold increase in transaminase and associated synthetic function impairment and encephalopathy. No other causes of liver failure were identified. Both biochemical tests and encephalopathy were reversed after supportive management and treatment with <it>N</it>-acetylcysteine. No liver toxicity was observed with subsequent cycles of chemotherapy with doxorubicin alone.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This case highlights the possibility that chemotherapy agents can cause rare and idiosyncratic toxicities, so physicians must be vigilant for drug reactions, especially when patients do not respond to usual treatment.</p

Testing Technicolor Models in Top Quark Pair Production at High Energy Photon Colliders

We study pseudo-Goldstone boson corrections to top quark pair production rates in technicolor models with and without topcolor at the E=0.5 teV and 1.5 TeV photon colliders. We find that, for reasonable ranges of the parameters, the corrections are large enough to be observable, and the corrections in models with topcolor are considerably larger than those in models without topcolor, and they are all significantly larger than the corresponding corrections in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) with tan(beta) of the order of 1. So that the two kinds of technicolor models and the MSSM with tan(beta) of the order of 1 can be experimentally distinguished.Comment: Version for publication in Phys.Rev.D with some references and discussions added and some typos correcte

Flavor Mediation Delivers Natural SUSY

If supersymmetry (SUSY) solves the hierarchy problem, then naturalness considerations coupled with recent LHC bounds require non-trivial superpartner flavor structures. Such "Natural SUSY" models exhibit a large mass hierarchy between scalars of the third and first two generations as well as degeneracy (or alignment) among the first two generations. In this work, we show how this specific beyond the standard model (SM) flavor structure can be tied directly to SM flavor via "Flavor Mediation". The SM contains an anomaly-free SU(3) flavor symmetry, broken only by Yukawa couplings. By gauging this flavor symmetry in addition to SM gauge symmetries, we can mediate SUSY breaking via (Higgsed) gauge mediation. This automatically delivers a natural SUSY spectrum. Third-generation scalar masses are suppressed due to the dominant breaking of the flavor gauge symmetry in the top direction. More subtly, the first-two-generation scalars remain highly degenerate due to a custodial U(2) symmetry, where the SU(2) factor arises because SU(3) is rank two. This custodial symmetry is broken only at order (m_c/m_t)^2. SUSY gauge coupling unification predictions are preserved, since no new charged matter is introduced, the SM gauge structure is unaltered, and the flavor symmetry treats all matter multiplets equally. Moreover, the uniqueness of the anomaly-free SU(3) flavor group makes possible a number of concrete predictions for the superpartner spectrum.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. v2 references added, minor changes to flavor constraints and a little discussion adde

Immunofluorescence Assay for Serologic Diagnosis of SARS

We evaluated a virus-infected cell-based indirect immunofluorescence assay for detecting anti–severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) immunoglobulin (Ig) G antibody. All confirmed SARS cases demonstrated seroconversion or fourfold rise in IgG antibody titer; no control was positive. Sensitivity and specificity of this assay were both 100%. Immunofluorescence assay can ascertain the status of SARS-CoV infection

A Pilot study of the Sharing Risk Information Tool (ShaRIT) for Families with Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Individuals who carry deleterious BRCA mutations face significantly elevated risks of breast, ovarian, and other cancers. These individuals are also responsible for informing relatives of their increased risk for carrying the family BRCA mutation. Few interventions have been developed to facilitate this family communication process.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We developed the Sharing Risk Information Tool (ShaRIT), a personalized educational intervention, to support BRCA carriers as they discuss BRCA positive results and their implications with relatives. We conducted a pilot study of 19 BRCA carriers identified through the University of California San Francisco Cancer Risk Program. Our study had two aims: 1) to assess the feasibility and acceptability of ShaRIT, and 2) describe characteristics associated with increased family communication and BRCA testing. Participants in our study were divided into two groups: those who had not received ShaRIT as part of their genetic counseling protocol (control group, n = 10) and those who received ShaRIT (n = 9).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All 9 women who received ShaRIT reported that it was a useful resource. Characteristics associated with increased sharing and testing included: female gender, degree of relationship, and frequency of communication. Increased pedigree knowledge showed a trend toward higher rates of sharing.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Both participants and genetic counselors considered ShaRIT a well-received, comprehensive tool for disseminating individual risk information and clinical care guidelines to Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer Syndrome families. Because of this, ShaRIT has been incorporated as standard of care at our institution. In the future we hope to evaluate the effects of ShaRIT on family communication and family testing in larger populations of BRCA positive families.</p