Journal Medicine Nuclear

With positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, seeing is believing: Evaluating a patients response to chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) typically involves visual interpretation of scans of cancer tumors. Researchers have found that measuring a quantitative indexone that reflects the reduction of metabolic activity after chemotherapy first beginsadds accurate information about patients responses to first-line chemotherapy, according to a study in the October issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. .

Study Determines Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging Has Higher Specificity ...

NEWPORT NEWS, Va., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently published study results in The Breast Journal indicate that Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) may be more specific than MRI for evaluating patients with equivocal mammographic findings. The study, compiled by Dr. Rachel Brem and colleagues at The George Washington University Medical Center, compared the use of BSGI and MRI for women with an indeterminate mammogram. Standard procedure requires women with an indeterminate mammogram to have additional clinical work-ups.

According to Dr. Brem, Breast Specific Gamma Imaging (BSGI) -- nuclear medicine imaging of the breast -- is a physiologic approach to breast imaging. BSGI uses a high-resolution gamma camera and Tc-Sestamibi. Previous patient examinations demonstrated high-resolution cameras to be superior to conventional gamma imaging for both detecting breast cancer and screening high-risk patients.

U.S. helium supply is deflating

ST. LOUIS - Listen up, prank callers and party clowns.

The nation's supply of helium - the gas that has given rise to millions of party balloons and Donald Duck voices - is dwindling. In fact, the managers of the nation's lone helium reserve, in Texas, expect it to be depleted within 10 years.

"It's a bad pun, and I've used it before, but the nation's demand for helium has just ballooned in recent years," said Hans Stuart, a spokesman for the New Mexico Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the federal helium reserve near Amarillo.

Medicine, industry and science depend heavily on helium. It plays a significant role in nuclear magnetic resonance, welding, fiber optics and computer microchip production. NASA uses large amounts annually to pressurize space shuttle fuel tanks.

Managing a Cross-Strait Crisis

Nowhere in the world is the danger of a major war more serious in its potential consequences than in the Taiwan Strait. Policymakers both here and in the region are interested in finding ways to avoid a military confrontation between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). But should one begin, they will need to have available the tools to avoid a full-fledged conflagration. Naturally enough, security specialists have turned to the crisis management literature to devise strategies for addressing this latter problem. Are the literature and the strategies it has generated a good fit for the case of China and Taiwan--and, if not, what should be done to prepare for managing such a crisis?

The Cold War provided both the backdrop and the moral imperative leading to the growth in
crisis management studies.

siren call from Canada writes: Dion's actual statement, as reported by ...

'Dion hinted NATO could take action in Pakistan, which has a porous border with Afghanistan, if the Pakistani government doesn't move to track terrorists.

'We are going to have to discuss that very actively if they (the Pakistanis) are not able to deal with it on their own. We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan,' said Dion in Quebec City, commenting after his two-day trip to Afghanistan last weekend. 'As long as we don't solve the problem in Pakistan, I don't see how we can solve it in Afghanistan.'

Officials from Dion's office later stressed the Liberal leader meant diplomatic, not military intervention, was needed in Pakistan.' Posted 26/01/08 at 1:25 AM EST | Link to Comment .

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(For discussions of the latest topics, check out the Human Nature Fray.)

Binge-drinking women are rupturing their bladders. British doctors report three cases and urge their colleagues to look out for more. Symptoms: "free pelvic fluid," "suprapubic pain," and "re-absorption of urine through the peritoneum." How it happens: 1) You overload your bladder with urine from booze. 2) The alcohol "dulls the senses," leaving you with "a reduced urge to void despite the increased bladder volume." 3) You fall down, causing your swollen bladder to burst. Old assumption: "Women, because of the short length of the urethra and the less pronounced sphincter mechanism, would have a tendency to leak rather than rupture." New view: Women are binge drinking like men, so they're bursting their bladders like men.

Book Excerpt

Since Bryant was the athletic director (McKay would become USC's A.D. in 1972, but already had the authority to schedule the game) and the 11th-game opponent had not been chosen by either school, he had an "inkling" of what to expect. The fact that Alabama was segregated and USC was integrated was like a proverbial elephant standing in the corner of the Horizon Room of Western Airlines when Bryant arrived for their meeting. USC carried star black players from New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and California. The best black athletes in the world were from the Golden State. One of the first black quarterbacks in the NFL, Doug Williams, had grown up a Trojan fan because McKay had used a black quarterback, Jimmy Jones.

"I told [assistant coach] Marv Goux that I didn't know what Bear was up to, but the whole thing had the feel of a spy novel," McKay recalled in 2000.

Spinal Cord Is Not Hard Wired and Reorganizes After Injury

A new US study using laboratory mice found the spinal cord is not hard wired and when injured it reorganizes the way messages are routed, using alternate pathways that circumvent the damaged ones.

The study is published in the advanced online issue of Nature Medicine and is the work of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The study was led by Dr Michael V Sofroniew, professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Spinal cord injuries often result in disruption or loss of ability to walk because the long axons or nerve fibres that reach from the brain down into all regions of the spinal cord are severed.

Yet humans and laboratory animals with spinal cord injuries often make varying degrees of spontaneous recovery within a few months of injury.