The reduction or no fill “for ECG triggered coronary CT angiography (CTA) results in a substantial reduction in radiation doses without compromising image quality and performance, according to a study published in the April edition in American Journal of Radiology. ECG triggered coronary CTA is a common, minimally invasive procedure used to evaluate blockages in the coronary arteries.
“During ECG-triggered coronary CTA, there is a mandatory minimum that the scanner should be the course of each heartbeat, and there is usually an extension was added before and after what is called” filler, “said Troy LaBounty , MD, lead study author. ” By reducing or eliminating the filler that shorten the scanning time and reduce the dose of radiation, “LaBounty said.
The study was conducted at three sites, including Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, NY Radiology Associates Fairfax in Fairfax, Virginia and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. We included 886 patients who underwent ECG-triggered coronary CTA with a time of filling 0, 1-99, 100-150 or milliseconds.
About 40 percent of children and up to 70 percent of adults in remission from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) will have a relapse. In recent years, doctors have come to believe that this is due to leukemia stem cells, constantly replicating cancer cells that produce immature blood cells characteristic of leukemia and are resistant to traditional cancer treatments. Now, researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have discovered a possible way to kill these cells and prevent the release of a relapse.The study, published online March 26 in the journal Science, shows that leukemic stem cells can not thrive without a particular cellular pathway, known as the Wnt / beta-catenin, suggesting that targeting this pathway may inhibit the growth and development of AML.
“The greatest potential of this study is the suppression of relapse of leukemia with a drug that inhibits beta-catenin,” says Scott Armstrong, MD, PhD, Division of Children pediatric hematology / oncology and lead author of the study.