ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Parkinson disease and related syndromes are associated directly with the concentrations of neuromelanin, iron and other heavy metals, and nowadays it is discussed the possible protective role of neuromelanin by the sequester redox active iron ions, reducing the formation of free hydroxyl radicals and therefore inactivating the iron ions that induce oxidative stress. The aim of this work is to study the concentration ratios between iron ions and neuromelanin in subthalamic nucleus of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) using Electron Spin Resonance (ESR). METHODS: Necropsy samples of subthalamic nucleus from eight human brains were studied: three non-affected by any neurodegenerative disease and five with Parkinson's disease. The samples were stored in formaldehyde and washed with a solution of 0.01 molar of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. ESR experiments were development in a JEOL FA-200 X-Band spectrometer at different temperatures between -170° C to room temperature. The relative concentrations of each species were estimated from the double integral values of the fitted spectra. RESULTS: For all samples, ESR spectra showed to be composed of three different signals following the Curie's law. One signal was attributed to high-spin ferric ions (gâ¼ 4.3) in rhomboedric symmetry, Cu(II) ions (close to g=2.0) and neuromelanin (gâ¼ 2.01). The ferric ions concentration ratio between patients and controls was 3.0±0.2. The same ratio for neuromelanine was 0.24±0.06. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results indicated a significant increment of iron concentration in PD samples which agrees with previous histochemical and biochemical reports. This finding and the clear reduction of neuromelanin concentration in PD samples suggest the possible role of neuromelanin as iron ions storage.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to use MRI gel dosimetry to determine the dose profile of 50kV MAGNUM® X-ray tube, MOXTEK Inc., in order to calibrate small solid dosimeters of alanine, tooth enamel and LiF-TLDs, commonly used in clinical quality assurance and datation dosimetry. METHODS: MAGIC-f polymer gel was kept in two plastic containers of 100mL, avoiding attenuation of the primary beam trough the wall. Beam aberture of 3mm and dose rate of 16.5Gy/min were set, reproducing irradiation conditions of interest. The dose rate was assumed based on data of the vendor information of the tube and dose of 30Gy was delivered at the surface of the gel. MAGIC-f gel was irradiated at source-surface distances(SSD) of 0.1cm and 1.0cm. After 24hours of irradiation, gel was scanned in an Achieva® 3T Philips® MRI tomography using relaxometry sequence with 32 Echos, Time-to-Echo(TE) of 15.0ms, Time-to-Repetition(TR) of 6000ms and Field-of-View(FOV) of 0.5×0.5×2.0mm. Dose map at the central plain of irradiation was calculated from T2 relaxometry map. RESULTS: The gel dosimetry results evidenced a build-up depth of 0.13cm for SSD=0.1cm and no build-up was detected for SSD=1.0cm. However, the dose profile evidenced high gradient of dose in SSD=0.1, decreasing the dose from 100% to 30% in 1.4cm depth inside the gel; In turn, the dose distribution is homogeneous after 0.4cm deth for SSD=1.0cm. CONCLUSIONS: MRI gel dosimetry using MAGIC-f presented as feasible technique to determine dose profiles for kilovoltage x-rays tubes. The results evidenced that the calibration of small solid dosimeters can be performed using SSD of 1.0cm in the 50kV MAGNUM® X-ray tube using 0.4cm/g/cm3 filter. This work was funded supported by CNPQ, CAPES and FAPESP.
