Endotrol tracheal tube and McGrath Mac are an effective combination for oral tracheal intubation

Background: Tracheal intubation using the 2nd-generation video laryngoscope sometimes cannot be performed easily because there is no functional endotracheal tube (ETT) guide. Therefore, a rigid stylet is often required during tracheal intubation. The Endotrol® tracheal tube (Endotrol) is a single use ETT that whole tube can be bent and slide easily into the trachea. We studied the intubation ease of a combination of an Endtrol and the McGrath® video laryngoscope (McGrath), which is one of the 2nd-generation video laryngoscopes. Methods: Sixty adult patients under general anesthesia were randomized into three groups: Group A: McGrath with Endotrol, B: McGrath with a rigid stylet attached ETT, and C: Direct laryngoscope with an ETT. The primary outcome measure was intubation time. Secondary outcomes were the number of insertion attempts required and the number of patients who complained of a sore throat after the procedure. The level of significance for each test was set at P < 0.05. Results: Intubation time (median [range] in seconds) was shorter in Group A (32 [27–54]) than Group B (37 [27–49]) and C (37 [27–50]) (P = 0.01 for both comparison). There was no significant difference among groups for the number of insertion attempts required. The number of patients with a sore throat was lower in Group A (0) than Group B (5) and C (6) (P = 0.02 and 0.01, respectively). Conclusion: A combination of an Endtrol and a McGrath is effective for shortening intubation time and avoiding sore throats

Low dose exposure diagnosis with a transXend detector aiming for iodine-marked cancer detection

The energy resolved computed tomography (CT), which had advantage over conventional CT (twofold higher CT value for iodine contrast agent and being free from beam hardening effect), was shown practical by employing the transXend detector: it measured X-rays as electric current and gave energy distribution of incident X-rays after analysis. This article shows a new application of the transXend detector for estimating the thicknesses of acrylic, iodine, and aluminum in a phantom. For this purpose, the responses of the segment detectors in the transXend detector are changed intentionally with inserting filters. With previously obtained two-dimensional maps for acrylic–iodine and acrylic–aluminum thicknesses, which are shown by the ratios of electric currents measured by the segment detectors, the thickness of materials on the path of the X-rays are obtained by a transmission measurement

Physical Meanings of Fractal Behaviors of Water in Aqueous and Biological Systems with Open-Ended Coaxial Electrodes

The dynamics of a hydrogen bonding network (HBN) relating to macroscopic properties of hydrogen bonding liquids were observed as a significant relaxation process by dielectric spectroscopy measurements. In the cases of water and water rich mixtures including biological systems, a GHz frequency relaxation process appearing at around 20 GHz with the relaxation time of 8.2 ps is generally observed at 25 &deg;C. The GHz frequency process can be explained as a rate process of exchanges in hydrogen bond (HB) and the rate becomes higher with increasing HB density. In the present work, this study analyzed the GHz frequency process observed by suitable open-ended coaxial electrodes, and physical meanings of the fractal nature of water structures were clarified in various aqueous systems. Dynamic behaviors of HBN were characterized by a combination of the average relaxation time and the distribution of the relaxation time. This fractal analysis offered an available approach to both solution and dispersion systems with characterization of the aggregation or dispersion state of water molecules. In the case of polymer-water mixtures, the HBN and polymer networks penetrate each other, however, the HBN were segmented and isolated more by dispersed and aggregated particles in the case of dispersion systems. These HBN fragments were characterized by smaller values of the fractal dimension obtained from the fractal analysis. Some examples of actual usages suggest that the fractal analysis is now one of the most effective tools to understand the molecular mechanism of HBN in aqueous complex materials including biological systems