Usefulness of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging for evaluating the effect of hemostatic radiotherapy for unresectable gastric cancer

There are several reports that vouch for the usefulness of diffusion-weighted image (DWI) in making a diagnosis before treatment. However, no study has evaluated the effect of radiotherapy (RT) for unresectable gastric cancer. In the present case report, we evaluated the effectiveness of RT using DWI. An 81-year-old man was hospitalized with a broken bone and then diagnosed with advanced gastric cancer with breeding. He had chorionic renal failure and surgery was impossible. Further, contrast-enhanced computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were not performed due to renal failure, whereas palliative RT was performed. We followed up the patient using blood test and MRI (DWI) to estimate whether bleeding had stopped or not after radiotherapy. Hemostasis effect was found after 2 weeks of RT. In DWI examination, there was a decrease in the tumor signal intensity 30 days after RT. Similarly, at day 60, the tumor signal intensity further decreased on DWI and the blood test results indicated no progression of anemia. At 4 months after the RT, the patient died because of respiratory failure without any bleeding. DWI is useful not only for the initial diagnosis but also for evaluating the effectiveness of RT.Trial registration: National clinical study registered number: UMIN000026362

Measurement of six degree bi-directional motion error of linear stage

We proposed the measurement system of the six degree of motion errors which is based on distance measurement by the laser interferometer. The system has six parallel laser beams and six ball lenses as the retroreflectors on the linear stage, which reflect the corresponding laser beams. In the proposed system, the error of axial direction is measured with the ordinary distance measurement method by laser interferometer. The vertical errors to the axial direction and the roll errors around the optical axis are measured by tilted beams using the wedge prism. The pitch and yaw errors in the vertical plane to the optical axis are measured by the difference between distance of two ball lenses. The former system can measure the displacement and the error angle in one-direction. The propose system are expanded and bi-directional displacement and error angle can be measured. In this paper, it is shown how to expand the measurement system. As a result, the maximum displacement errors in x, y and z directions are 242nm, 179nm and 90nm. The maximum rotational errors around x, y, z axes are 1.75 arcsec, 2.35 arcsec and 1.67 arcsec