Successful Medical Management of Pregnancy Toxemia in Goats

Pregnancy toxaemia is a metabolic disorder that occurs in does and ewes during the late stage of pregnancy. Pregnant does that have low energy levels and having multiple numbers of fetuses are more susceptible to toxaemia. The present study was carried out in twenty five goats in advanced stage of pregnancy with the history of anorexia, torticolis, grinding of teeth, salivation and rigors. On clinical examination of animals, they were dull, depressed with tachycardia, tachypenia, opisthotonus and pale conjunctival mucous membrane. The biochemical parameters revealed hypoglycemia and hypocalcemia. Urine samples were collected and urine analysis revealed positive for ketone bodies. The goats were successfully treated with 25% dextrose i/v as a bolus, multiple electrolytes solution containing 5% dextrose i/v, glycerin orally and Vitamin B-complex injection intramuscularly and all the twenty five animals survived. Out of 25 animals medical termination of pregnancy was done in 21 cases and four animals delivered a live kid.

2D linear array device as a quality assurance tool in brachytherapy applications

Background: External beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy plays a vital role in the management of cancer cervix. High dose rate brachytherapy is being presently used worldwide for the brachytherapy applications. At present, 2-Dimensional linear array detectors are the most common QA tool used for pretreatment patient specific quality assurance in external beam radiotherapy alone and till date no dedicated brachytherapy tool is available. An attempt has been made to explore the feasibility of using 2 dimensional linear array, Imatrixx as a QA tool for brachytherapy

Materials and Methods: Reference treatment plans are generated by Plato treatment planning system using the images of Imatrix acquired with Siemens CT simulator. The efficacy of Imatrixx as a QA tool for intracavitary treatment plan verification, dwell position and dwell time accuracy verification are studied

Results: The length and the widths along with the area of the reference isodose curves of the intracavitary treatment plans generated by Plato Planning system and measured with Imatrixx is compared. The difference in area of the reference isodose curve is found to vary from -0.59 cm2 to 4.59 cm[2]. The estimated user correction factor for lridium-192 energy, 0.38 MeV is 1.090 with a standard deviation of +/-0.0211. Machine related QA such as dwell position and dwell time were measured with Imatrixx with an accuracy of 0.5 mm and 0.02 s respectively

Conclusion: Results shows that the 2-Dimensional linear array, Imatrixx can be used with accepted accuracy for both machine and patient specific quality assurance in brachytherapy treatments?