A simplified guide ruler from numeric table method in doing rotational osteotomy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Čobeljić et al. recently reported a numeric table method to provide precise rotational osteotomy which is a well established orthopaedic procedure. The numeric table requires four pages in length that is rather inconvenient during performing an osteotomy operation. </p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We thus develop our own method by summarizing the data of the four-page table into a small ruler, which is easy to carry and use in operation room. An electrical version of this ruler is also available. We also build a computer model to verify Čobeljić et al. method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The error of Čobeljić et al. is between -37% to 16% (mean ± SD = -6% ± 9%). We verify our ruler by calculating the absolute difference between our method and that of Čobeljić et al. The difference is less than 0.1 mm.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our ruler is convenient for practical use for the rotational osteotomy procedure with equal precision. Further clinical verification is needed to justify its real significance.</p

Study of Highly Pixelated CdZnTe Detector for PET Applications

AbstractWe are investigating the feasibility of a high-resolution PET insert device based on a Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CdZnTe) detector with 350μm anode pixel pitch to be integrated into a conventional animal PET scanner to improve its image resolution to sub-500 micrometer range. In this work, we have used a simplified version of the future 2048-pixel CdZnTe planar detector with 250μm anode pixel size and 100μm gap. This simplified 9 anode pixel structure makes it possible to conduct experiments without a complete ASIC readout system (with 2048 channels) that is still under development. We characterized this CdZnTe detector by investigating it charge sharing, spatial resolution, and energy resolution. We imaged a Na-22 point source using the coincidence events between this 350μm pixelated CdZnTe detector and a lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) based Siemens Inveon PET detector. The reconstructed PET image shows a resolution of 590μm full width at half maximum (FWHM) by using single-pixel events. When we included double-pixel charge sharing events in the image reconstruction, the image resolution was degraded to 655μm, but the sensitivity of the coincidence system increased 2.5 to 3 times

Efficient Prodrug Activator Gene Therapy by Retroviral Replicating Vectors Prolongs Survival in an Immune-Competent Intracerebral Glioma Model.

Prodrug activator gene therapy mediated by murine leukemia virus (MLV)-based retroviral replicating vectors (RRV) was previously shown to be highly effective in killing glioma cells both in culture and in vivo. To avoid receptor interference and enable dual vector co-infection with MLV-RRV, we have developed another RRV based on gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) that also shows robust replicative spread in a wide variety of tumor cells. We evaluated the potential of GALV-based RRV as a cancer therapeutic agent by incorporating yeast cytosine deaminase (CD) and E. coli nitroreductase (NTR) prodrug activator genes into the vector. The expression of CD and NTR genes from GALV-RRV achieved highly efficient delivery of these prodrug activator genes to RG-2 glioma cells, resulting in enhanced cytotoxicity after administering their respective prodrugs 5-fluorocytosine and CB1954 in vitro. In an immune-competent intracerebral RG-2 glioma model, GALV-mediated CD and NTR gene therapy both significantly suppressed tumor growth with CB1954 administration after a single injection of vector supernatant. However, NTR showed greater potency than CD, with control animals receiving GALV-NTR vector alone (i.e., without CB1954 prodrug) showing extensive tumor growth with a median survival time of 17.5 days, while animals receiving GALV-NTR and CB1954 showed significantly prolonged survival with a median survival time of 30 days. In conclusion, GALV-RRV enabled high-efficiency gene transfer and persistent expression of NTR, resulting in efficient cell killing, suppression of tumor growth, and prolonged survival upon CB1954 administration. This validates the use of therapeutic strategies employing this prodrug activator gene to arm GALV-RRV, and opens the door to the possibility of future combination gene therapy with CD-armed MLV-RRV, as the latter vector is currently being evaluated in clinical trials

Discovery of New Eunicellins from an Indonesian Octocoral Cladiella sp.

Two new 11-hydroxyeunicellin diterpenoids, cladieunicellin F (1) and (–)-solenopodin C (2), were isolated from an Indonesian octocoral Cladiella sp. The structures of eunicellins 1 and 2 were established by spectroscopic methods, and eunicellin 2 was found to be an enantiomer of the known eunicellin solenopodin C (3). Eunicellin 2 displayed inhibitory effects on the generation of superoxide anion and the release of elastase by human neutrophils. The previously reported structures of two eunicellin-based compounds, cladielloides A and B, are corrected in this study