Temperature monitoring: the consequences and prevention of mild perioperative hypothermia

Homeothermic species require a nearly constant internal body temperature. Significant deviations from “normal” internal temperature cause the metabolic function to deteriorate. Usually, the human thermoregulatory system maintains a core body temperature within 0.2°C of normal, near 37°C. Hypothermia results from exposure to cold, or exposure combined with drugs or illness that decrease thermoregulatory efficacy. Exposure to a cold operating room environment during anaesthesia and surgery commonly combines with anaesthetic-induced inhibition of thermoregulation to produce hypothermia. The prevention and management of temperature-related complications is expedited by an understanding of both normal and druginfluenced thermoregulation.Keywords: mild perioperative hypothermia; consequences; preventio

The long-term consequences of anaesthetic management

In distinct contrast to preventable anaesthetic mortality, which thankfully is now rare, all-cause postoperative mortality is surprisingly high. Approximately 5% of surgical patients die in the year following surgery. Mortality is roughly 10% in those who are older than 65 years of age.1 In other words, mortality in the year after surgery is approximately 10 000 times more common than preventable anaesthetic mortality. Thus, it is reasonable to ask to what extent anaesthetic management might influence long-term outcomes. The distinction being made here is between the classical definition of anaesthetic complications, which is restricted to the immediate perioperative period, perhaps extending to a few days after surgery, and the potential effects of anaesthetic management on events weeks, months or even years after surgery. Given that modern anaesthetic drugs are uniformly short acting, it is by no means obvious that the consequences of anaesthetic management could last more than hours or days after surgery. The long-term consequences of anaesthesia were not seriously considered until relatively recently. There is increasing evidence that some intraoperative anaesthetic management decisions have long-term consequences, and that others might as well.Keywords: long-term consequences; anaesthetic managemen

Hadron cancer therapy complex employing non-scaling FFAG accelerator and fixed field gantry design

Non-scaling FFAG rings for cancer hadron therapy offer reduced physical aperture and large dynamic aperture as compared with scaling FFAGs. The variation of tune with energy implies the crossing of resonances during acceleration. Our design avoids intrinsic resonances, although imperfection resonances must be, and can be, crossed. We consider a system of three non-scaling FFAG rings for cancer therapy with 250 MeV protons and 400 MeV/u carbon ions. Hadrons are accelerated in a common RFQ and linear accelerator, and injected into the FFAG rings at .. .. . H+/C6+ ions are accelerated in the two smaller/larger rings to 31 and 250 MeV/68.8 and 400 MeV/u kinetic energy, respectively. The lattices consist of doublet cells with a straight section for RF cavities. The gantry with triplet cells accepts the whole required momentum range at fixed field. This unique design uses either high temperature super-conductors or super-conducting magnets reducing gantry size and weight. Elements with variable field at beginning and at end set the extracted beam at the correct position for a range of energies

Using Dashboard Networks to Visualize Multiple Patient Histories: A Design Study on Post-operative Prostate Cancer

In this design study, we present a visualization technique that segments patients' histories instead of treating them as raw event sequences, aggregates the segments using criteria such as the whole history or treatment combinations, and then visualizes the aggregated segments as static dashboards that are arranged in a dashboard network to show longitudinal changes. The static dashboards were developed in nine iterations, to show 15 important attributes from the patients' histories. The final design was evaluated with five non-experts, five visualization experts and four medical experts, who successfully used it to gain an overview of a 2,000 patient dataset, and to make observations about longitudinal changes and differences between two cohorts. The research represents a step-change in the detail of large-scale data that may be successfully visualized using dashboards, and provides guidance about how the approach may be generalized

Methods of producing singlet oxygen using compounds having improved functionalization

Novel texaphyrin compounds having improved functionalization are described. Metal complexes of these compounds are active as photosensitizers for the generation of singlet oxygen and thus are potentially useful for treatments performed with singlet oxygen. Several of the metallotexaphyrin complexes absorb light in the physiologically important range of 690-880 nm. The complexes form long-lived triplet states and thus may act as efficient photosensitizers for generation of singlet oxygen.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

Water soluble texaphyrin metal complex preparation

The present invention involves water soluble hydroxy-substituted texaphyrins retaining lipophilicity, the synthesis of such compounds and their uses. These expanded porphyrin-like macrocycles are efficient chelators of divalent and trivalent metal ions. Various metal (e.g., transition, main group, and lanthanide) complexes of the hydroxy-substituted texaphyrin derivatives of the present invention have unusual water solubility and stability. They absorb light strongly in a physiologically important region (i.e. 690-880 nm). They have enhanced relaxivity and therefore are useful in magnetic resonance imaging. They form long-lived triplet states in high yield and act as photosensitizers for the generation of singlet oxygen. Thus, they are useful for inactivation or destruction of enveloped viruses, mononuclear or other cells infected with such viruses as well as tumor cells. They are water soluble, yet they retain sufficient lipophilicity so as to have greater affinity for lipid rich areas such as atheroma and tumors. They may be used for magnetic resonance imaging followed by photodynamic tumor therapy in the treatment of atheroma and tumors. These properties, coupled with their high chemical stability and appreciable solubility in water, add to their usefulness.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

Water soluble texaphyrin metal complexes for enhancing relaxivity

The present invention involves water soluble hydroxy-substituted texaphyrins retaining lipophilicity, the synthesis of such compounds and their uses. These expanded porphyrin-like macrocycles are efficient chelators of divalent and trivalent metal ions. Various metal (e.g., transition, main group, and lanthanide) complexes of the hydroxy-substituted texaphyrin derivatives of the present invention have unusual water solubility and stability. They absorb light strongly in a physiologically important region (i.e. 690-880 nm). They have enhanced relaxivity and therefore are useful in magnetic resonance imaging. They form long-lived triplet states in high yield and act as photosensitizers for the generation of singlet oxygen. Thus, they are useful for inactivation or destruction of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), mononuclear or other cells infected with such virus as well as tumor cells. They are water soluble, yet they retain sufficient lipophilicity so as to have greater affinity for lipid rich areas such as atheroma and tumors. They may be used for magnetic resonance imaging followed by photodynamic tumor therapy in the treatment of atheroma and tumors. These properties, coupled with their high chemical stability and appreciable solubility in water, add to their usefulness.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

FREE-ELECTRON LASERS

We can now produce intense, coherent light at wavelengths where no conventional lasers exist. The recent successes of devices known as free-electron lasers mark a striking confluence of two conceptual developments that themselves are only a few decades old. The first of these, the laser, is a product of the fifties and sixties whose essential characteristics have made it a staple resource in almost every field of science and technology. In a practical sense, what defines a laser is its emission of monochromatic, coherent light (that is, light of a single wavelength, with its waves locked in step) at a wavelength in the infrared, visible, or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. A second kind of light, called synchrotron radiation, is a by-product of the age of particle accelerators and was first observed in the laboratory in 1947. As the energies of accelerators grew in the 1960s and 70s, intense, incoherent beams of ultraviolet radiation and x--rays became available at machines built for high-energy physics research. Today, several facilities operate solely as sources of synchrotron light. Unlike the well-collimated monochromatic light emitted by lasers, however, this incoherent radiation is like a sweeping searchlight--more accurately, like the headlight of a train on a circular track--whose wavelengths encompass a wide spectral band. Now, in several laboratories around the world, researchers have exploited the physics of these two light sources and have combined the virtues of both in a single contrivance, the free-electron laser, or FEL (1). The emitted light is laserlike in its narrow, sharply peaked spectral distribution and in its phase coherence, yet it can be of a wavelength unavailable with ordinary lasers. Furthermore, like synchrotron radiation, but unlike the output of most conventional lasers, the radiation emitted by free-electron lasers can be tuned, that is, its wavelength can be easily varied across a wide range. The promise of this new technology extends from the fields of solid-state physics, gas- and liquid-phase photochemistry, and surface catalysis to futuristic schemes for ultrahigh-energy linear accelerators