Evaluation of Talbot's Safety Zone of Infusion Volume and Osmolality in Infusion Therapy for Decompensated Liver Cirrhosis

Problems with infusion therapy for correcting fluid and sodium imbalance in decompensated liver cirrhosis (DLC) were investigated by establishing the safety zone of Talbot et al. for parenteral fluid therapy in 4 DLC patients infused with over 900 ml of fluid each day for at least 9 days. The safety zone was different in each case. The safe infusion volume decreased and the safe electrolyte concentration shifted to a lower osmolality when there was ascites with renal failure than ascites without renal failure. Infusion therapy was performed without deterioration of the water and sodium balance in those patients whose infusion volume and fluid osmolality were in the safety zone. In contrast, ascites retention increased and peripheral edema appeared in patients whose infusion volume and osmolality were out of the safety zone. Therefore, the safety zone should be determined repeatedly during infusion therapy.</p

Clinical studies of hepatocellular carcinoma with liver cirrhosis and ascites.

A comparison was made of the clinical findings of 59 patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) accompanied with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (of which 35 had ascites and 24 did not at the time of admission) and 164 patients with LC, but without HCC (of which 39 had ascites and 125 did not). HCC patients were older and more often had hepatomegaly, vascular spider and pleural effusion than LC patients. Ascites was more frequently observed in HCC than in LC patients when the serum albumin level and the indocyanine green disappearance rate were relatively well maintained and when peripheral edema was absent. There was no difference in the ascitic protein concentration between LC and HCC patients. Malignant cells were detected in ascites only in 14% of the HCC patients. These facts indicate the presence of ascites-inducing factors in HCC patients which have no direct relation to serum colloid osmotic pressure and effective hepatic blood flow. Almost all of the HCC patients with ascites (96%) died with ascites, whereas 54% of the LC patients with ascites recovered from the ascitic condition.</p

Clinical studies of resistant ascites in liver cirrhosis.

Resistant ascites was studied in 34 patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites. The patients were initially divided into 3 groups on the basis of the weekly cumulative ascites retention curve: patients relieved of ascites within 3 weeks of admission, patients relieved between 4 and 12 weeks and patients with ascites persisting beyond 13 weeks. &#34;Resistant ascites&#34; was defined as &#34;ascites persisting for more than 13 weeks after admission to the hospital&#34;. The patients were then reclassified into 3 groups : Group A being those patients relieved of ascites within 12 weeks, Group B being those with resistant ascites and group C being those who died within 12 weeks of admission. There were no differences in age and sex distribution, etiology of liver cirrhosis, past medical history or physical findings among the 3 groups. However, Group B had higher levels of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen than Group A on admission. Serum bilirubin was higher and serum albumin was lower in Group C than in Group B, which indicates that Group C had greater liver cell failure.</p

A case of giant cavernous hemangioma of the liver complicated by intravascular coagulopathy.

A case of liver hemangioma complicated by intravascular coagulopathy is presented because of the rarity of the association. Hemangioma of the liver was suspected by palpation of the liver tumor, scintigraphy and x-ray examination, and confirmed by selective hepatic arteriography in combination with exploratory laparotomy. Intravascular coagulopathy was established by demonstrating secondary fibrinolysis and consumption of platelets and coagulation factors. Unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia due to micro-angiopathic hemolytic anemia was also present. The clinical course of the clotting abnormalities was basically a chronic one with an occasional acute or subacute defibrination process associated with further enlargement of the hepatic tumor. These provide sufficient evidence that the intravascular coagulopathy was closely related with the hemangioma in the liver. Neither ligation of a presumed nutritional artery of the hemangioma nor radiation therapy caused any demonstrable reduction in the tumor size.</p

The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

The Quiescent Intracluster Medium in the Core of the Perseus Cluster

Clusters of galaxies are the most massive gravitationally-bound objects in the Universe and are still forming. They are thus important probes of cosmological parameters and a host of astrophysical processes. Knowledge of the dynamics of the pervasive hot gas, which dominates in mass over stars in a cluster, is a crucial missing ingredient. It can enable new insights into mechanical energy injection by the central supermassive black hole and the use of hydrostatic equilibrium for the determination of cluster masses. X-rays from the core of the Perseus cluster are emitted by the 50 million K diffuse hot plasma filling its gravitational potential well. The Active Galactic Nucleus of the central galaxy NGC1275 is pumping jetted energy into the surrounding intracluster medium, creating buoyant bubbles filled with relativistic plasma. These likely induce motions in the intracluster medium and heat the inner gas preventing runaway radiative cooling; a process known as Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback. Here we report on Hitomi X-ray observations of the Perseus cluster core, which reveal a remarkably quiescent atmosphere where the gas has a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 164+/-10 km/s in a region 30-60 kpc from the central nucleus. A gradient in the line-of-sight velocity of 150+/-70 km/s is found across the 60 kpc image of the cluster core. Turbulent pressure support in the gas is 4% or less of the thermodynamic pressure, with large scale shear at most doubling that estimate. We infer that total cluster masses determined from hydrostatic equilibrium in the central regions need little correction for turbulent pressure.Comment: 31 pages, 11 Figs, published in Nature July

Hitomi (ASTRO-H) X-ray Astronomy Satellite

The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E  >  2  keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month