[Spectroscopic imaging of the human liver using 3D CSI: optimization and application in patients with metastatic uvea melanoma]. / Spektroskopische bildgebung der menschlichen leber mittels 3D-CSI: etablierung und anwendung bei patienten mit metastasiertem aderhautmelanom.

PURPOSE: (31)P MR spectroscopy (MRS) allows the noninvasive assessment of metabolic alterations in tumors. Due to physical as well as technical limitations, mostly large and single voxels are used. We used a spatially resolved (31)P MRS technique to characterize metabolic abnormalities inside and adjacent to liver metastases of patients with uvea melanoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Optimization of 3D chemical shift imaging (3D CSI) was performed in healthy volunteers (n = 19; voxel size 25 ml). Patients (n = 8) with liver metastases were then examined. Cross sectional imaging was available for all patients. RESULTS: Compared to healthy volunteers, the PME/PDE ratios of patients with liver metastasis were significantly higher (0.56 +/- 0.30 vs. 0.39 +/- 0.21; p < 0.05). A trend towards increased PME/beta ATP ratios (2.07 +/- 1.83 vs. 1.02 +/- 0.45; p = 0.12) and decreased Pi/PME ratios (0.57 +/- 0.29 vs. 1.06 +/- 0.58; p = 0.06) was also observed. Patients with metastases > or = 5 cm showed significantly higher PME/PDE ratios (0.68 +/- 0.17 vs. 0.45 +/- 0.03; p < 0.05). Liver parenchyma adjacent to metastases did not show any significant changes compared to non-diseased tissue. CONCLUSION: 3D CSI allows the simultaneous analysis of metabolic alterations in diseased as well as in healthy human liver. Metastases show significant metabolic alterations. Thus, (31)P MRS opens new possibilities for therapeutic monitoring.

Daptomycin produces an enhanced bactericidal activity compared to ceftriaxone, measured by [3H]choline release in the cerebrospinal fluid, in experimental meningitis due to a penicillin-resistant pneumococcal strain without lysing its cell wall.

Daptomycin monotherapy was superior to ceftriaxone monotherapy and was highly efficacious in experimental pneumococcal meningitis, sterilizing the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of three of three rabbits after 4 to 6 h. With daptomycin therapy only a negligible release of [(3)H]choline as marker of cell wall lysis was detectable in the CSF, peaking around 250 cpm/min after 4 h, compared to a peak of around 2,400 cpm/min after 4 to 6 h for the ceftriaxone-treated rabbits.

A comparison of the visual and technical assessment of preparations made by dental students.

The preparation of acrylic teeth in a simulated clinical environment (phantom head) plays an essential role in pre-clinical dental education where evaluation is performed visually by instructors. The aim of this investigation was to verify the quality criteria of a tooth preparation for a metal-ceramic crown (tooth No. 21) with the help of digital measurement. Thirty-six acrylic teeth were prepared by students and one tooth was prepared ideally by a trained dentist: These were examined and compared. Five experienced instructors independently assessed the quality criteria with the use of a criterion list. Afterwards, the teeth were scanned with the 3D-laser scanner 'es1' (Etkon Company, Munich, Germany). The calculation of the correlation coefficient demonstrated a satisfactory correlation between visual and digital rating concerning convergence angle, shoulder width and occlusal reduction. Greater differences between experimental groups were observed with regards to other criteria on the applied criterion list. A directed calibration of the evaluators and a re-evaluation of some measurements would be necessary to gain more precise results.

A static, closed and scaffold-free bioreactor system that permits chondrogenesis in vitro.

OBJECTIVE: To characterise in vitro engineered cartilaginous constructs made employing a novel static, scaffold-free and closed chamber system. DESIGN: Chondrocytes derived from slaughter age pigs (3-6 months) were seeded at high density (20 x 10(6)) into cylindrical chambers (1.0 x 0.5cm) and were maintained between an upper and a lower membrane (100 kDa) for 21 days and subsequently cultured in open culture for 7 additional days. RESULTS: Viable constructs produced were approximately 10 mmx2mm in size and were stable enough to be handled by surgical pincers. Histology and electron microscopy evaluations revealed a neo-cartilage structure of high cell density with a comprehensive extracellular matrix. Predominately collagen type II and negligible amounts of collagen types I and X were detected using RT-PCR and SDS-PAGE analyses. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we provide evidence of a scaffold-free system that can produce immature hyaline-like cartilaginous constructs suitable for in vivo implantation, or that may be useful for in vitro studies of events related to the process of chondrogenesis.

[Chemotherapeutic effects of nitro compounds. 1. Nitroanilines]. / Cehmotherapeutisch wirksame Nitroverbindungen 1. Mittelung: Nitroverbindungen

More than 200 nitro compounds, most of them nitroaniline derivatives substituted with one or more radicals having a basic reaction, were prepared and investigated as to their therapeutic activity against bacteria, fungi, protozoa, helminths, viruses and tumors. Several mono-nitrobenzenes with a radical having a basic reaction showed weak in-vitro activity against gram-positive bacteria and against Crocker's sarcoma 180; they also showed systemic activity against nematodes (Aspiculuris tetraptera) and viruses. The majority of therapeutically active compounds with pronounced in-vivo activity against Trichomonas fetus, Entamoeba histolytica, Schistosoma mansoni, cestodes, nematodes (Ancylostoma caninum), viruses (influenza, MHV, SAV and EMC) and various types of carcinoma (Ehrlich's carcinoma, leukemia 1210, Crocker's sarcoma 180) were dinitrobenzene derivatives with one radical having a basic reaction and electropositive groups or unreactive or reactive chlorine atom, and di-nitrobenzene with two equal or two different radicals having a basic reaction. Compound No. 70 revealed a marked in-vitro activity against fungi (Trichophyton; Microsporum, Candida albicans). Other nitro compounds such as bis-mono- and bis-dinitrobenzene derivatives likewise showed a systemic action against E. histolytica, viruses and, in particular, carcinoma (Crocker's sarcoma 180, Ridgway's osteosarcoma). Oxygen and sulfur analogue compounds as well as compounds produced by reduction also possessed a distinct activity against E. histolytica and viruses. On the basis of the present results particularly the dinitrobenzenes substituted with two radicals having a basic reaction include a number which have in common that a structure/activity relationship is recognizable in respect of E. histolytica, Schistosoma mansoni and different types of viruses. The activity against viruses in this class of compounds is probably due to an increased interferon production in the host animal. Whether the mechanism of action is the same against E. histolytica or Schistosoma mansoni has not been determined so far. A tumorigenic effect was observed mainly in those di-nitrobenzenes which are classed as alkylating compounds. Because of the small chemotherapeutic index the trials were not continued with the most effective compounds mentioned.

[Brain scintigraphic check-ups during inflammatory CNS diseases to prove absence or presence of brain abscesses and subdural empyemas]. / Hirnszintigraphische Verlaufskontrollen bei entzündlichen Krankheitsbildern des ZNS zum Ausschluss oder Nachweis von Hirnabszessen und subduralen Empyemen

Methods of instrumental diagnosis, which are used to provide evidence for the absence of complications associated with inflammatory processes of the central nervous system and which often give unsatisfactory results in addition to being accompanied by major risks, are compared with long-time scintigraphic reexaminactions which involve no danger to the patient examined by this method. This comparison has been made from the point of view of workers at a department of neuroradiology of a clinic of neurosurgery. Process-like developments into abscesses or empyemata as well as mixed conditions may be readily diagnosed by cerebral scintigraphy so that it is sufficient to make only one single angiographic examination which, if necessary, may be directly followed by neurosurgical intervention.