Degaussing procedure and performance enhancement by low-frequency shaking of a 3-layer magnetically shielded room.

We report on the performance of a Magnetically Shielded Room (MSR) intended for next level 3He/129Xe co-magnetometer experiments that require improved magnetic conditions. The MSR consists of three layers of Mu-metal with a thickness of 3 mm each and one additional highly conductive copper-coated aluminum layer with a thickness of 8 mm. It has a cubical shape with a walk-in interior volume with an edge length of 2560 mm. An optimized degaussing (magnetic equilibration) procedure using a frequency sweep with a constant amplitude followed by an exponential decay of the amplitude will be presented. The procedure for the whole MSR takes 21 min, and measurements of the residual magnetic field at the center of the MSR show that |B| < 1 nT can be reached reliably. The chosen degaussing procedure will be motivated by online hysteresis measurements of the assembled MSR and by eddy-current simulations, showing that saturation at the center of the Mu-metal layer is reached. Shielding factors can be improved by a factor ≈4 in all directions by low frequency (0.2 Hz), low current (1 A) shaking of the outermost Mu-metal layer.

PSMA-Expression Is Highly Associated with Histological Subtypes of Renal Cell Carcinoma: Potential Implications for Theranostic Approaches.

In renal cell carcinoma (RCC), accurate imaging methods are required for treatment planning and response assessment to therapy. In addition, there is an urgent need for new therapeutic options, especially in metastatic RCC. One way to combine diagnostics and therapy in a so-called theranostic approach is the use of radioligands directed against surface antigens. For instance, radioligands against prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) have already been successfully used for diagnosis and radionuclide therapy of metastatic prostate cancer. Recent studies have demonstrated that PSMA is expressed not only in prostate cancer but also in the neovasculature of several solid tumors, which has raised hopes to use PSMA-guided theranostic approaches in other tumor entities, too. However, data on PSMA expression in different histopathological subtypes of RCC are sparse. Because a better understanding of PSMA expression in RCC is critical to assess which patients would benefit most from theranostic approaches using PSMA-targeted ligands, we investigated the expression pattern of PSMA in different subtypes of RCC on protein level. Immunohistochemical staining for PSMA was performed on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival material of major different histological subtypes of RCC (clear cell RCC (ccRCC)), papillary RCC (pRCC) and chromophobe RCC (cpRCC). The extent and intensity of PSMA staining were scored semi-quantitatively and correlated with the histological RCC subtypes. Group comparisons were calculated with the Kruskal-Wallis test. In all cases, immunoreactivity was detected only in the tumor-associated vessels and not in tumor cells. Staining intensity was the strongest in ccRCC, followed by cpRCC and pRCC. ccRCC showed the most diffuse staining pattern, followed by cpRCC and pRCC. Our results provide a rationale for PSMA-targeted theranostic approaches in ccRCC and cpRCC.