Delayed noninvasive reduction of large bullae following thoracic irradiation.

Chest radiotherapy is a mainstay of management of thoracic oncology patients. Radiotherapy also injures nontarget tissues such as the lungs, coronary arteries, and esophagus, and safe limits to the doses that can be delivered to tumors have been determined empirically. Patients afflicted with lung cancer due to smoking often have concomitant chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which, on occasion, manifests as bullous emphysema. We describe a case and course of treatment of lung cancer found incidentally in a patient followed for severe pulmonary emphysema. Treatment consisted of radiochemotherapy after induction chemotherapy. Three years after the end of antineoplastic treatment, a follow-up computed tomography scan revealed complete retraction of a large emphysematous bulla that had been present prior to treatment.

Effect of diode laser application with G-probe on ocular hypotony after trabeculectomy with mitomycin-C.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of a new technique to treat overfiltering blebs leading to hypotony after penetrating glaucoma surgery. BACKGROUND: There is no previous report on diode laser application with G-probe on ocular hypotony consequent to trabeculectomy with adjunctive mitomycin-C. METHODS: This clinical trial was conducted on eight eyes of eight patients with hypotony after trabeculectomy with adjunctive mitomycin-C. Ten to 12 diode laser (810 nm) spots were applied by G-probe over the bleb area with 2000-2500 mw power and for 1500-2000 msec duration; if the bleb was thin, the laser was applied on its border. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 29.1 +/- 12.4 years; two of them were female. Mean preoperative and postoperative intraocular pressure (IOPs) were 4.3 +/- 1.5 and 10.1 +/- 3.4 mm Hg, respectively (p = 0.017). Although the IOP increased in seven eyes (87.5%), the visual acuity increased > or =1 line in four (50%), remained stable in three (37.5%), and decreased 1 line in one (12.5%) after an average follow-up of 4 months. All of the blebs were notably smaller and pigmented. No complications occurred other than the need to start Timolol eye drops in one eye for controlling IOP and peaked pupil in two others. CONCLUSION: Diode laser application with G-probe appears to be a useful modality of treatment for ocular hypotony and overfiltering blebs resulting from trabeculectomy with mitomycin-C.

A new reliable chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) for prostaglandin E2 using enhanced luminol as substrate.

A sensitive and reliable chemiluminescence immunoassay suitable for the quantitative determination of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) has been developed using 96 well microtiter plates (MTP). The assay is based on a competitive reaction between a highly specific monoclonal anti-PGE2 antibody (mouse), free antigen and solid phase bound antigen. The MTP was first coated with a bovine serum albumin (BSA)-PGE2 conjugate. Then, after preincubating, the anti-PGE2 antibody (Ab) and the analyte were added. The remaining amount of free antibody was captured by the solid phase bound BSA-PGE2 conjugate. The monoclonal antibody captured on the MTP was determined using biotinylated anti-mouse-Ab and a complex of avidin and biotin-labelled horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Substrate for HRP was the cyclic diacyl hydrazide compound luminol, enhanced by p-iodophenol. Photons emitted during the reaction were measured using a photomultiplier tube. The assay has been validated with assay buffer and human plasma over a concentration range of 10-50,000 pg/ml. The lower limit of quantification is 100 pg/ml (2 pg/well) and 150 pg/ml (3 pg/well) for buffer and plasma, respectively. The intra-day coefficients of variation (CV) for the range of 100-50,000 pg/ml are 3.2-8.9% (buffer) and 4.2-17.7% (plasma) and inter-day CV are 2.9-19.8% (buffer) and 3.6-21.2% (plasma). The method can be used for quantification of PGE2 in biological fluids like plasma and suction blister fluid.