Objectives: Small field of view gamma detection and imaging technologies for monitoring in vivo tracer uptake are rapidly expanding and being introduced for bed-side imaging and image guided surgical procedures. The Hybrid Gamma Camera (HGC) has been developed to enhance the localization of targeted radiopharmaceuticals during surgical procedures; for example in sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsies and for bed-side imaging in procedures such as lacrimal drainage imaging and thyroid scanning. In this study, a prototype anthropomorphic head and neck phantom has been designed, constructed, and evaluated using representative modelled medical scenarios to study the capability of the HGC to detect SLNs and image small organs. Methods: An anthropomorphic head and neck phantom has been designed to mimic the adult head and neck including some internal organs and tissues of interest, such as the thyroid gland and sentinel lymph nodes. The design of the head and neck phantom included an adjustable inner jig holding the simulated SLNs and thyroid gland. The simulated thyroid gland was designed and 3D printed taking into consideration the size and the shape of a healthy adult thyroid gland. The inner sealed space of the thyroid was filled with 15MBq of 99mTc through two upper filling valves. Sealed micro-tubes (0.2ml) have been employed to simulate SLNs containing various 99mTc activity concentrations ranging between 0.1MBq and 1MBq, and can be positioned at any desired place in the head and neck region. An active background was simulated through mixing 10MBq of 99mTc solution with the water used to fill the outer shell of the head and neck phantom. Results: The head and neck phantom was employed to simulate a situation where there are four SLNs distributed at two different vertical levels and at two depths within the neck. Contrast to noise ratio (CNR) calculations were performed for the detected SLNs at an 80mm distance between both pinhole collimators (i.e. 0.5mm and 1.0mm diameters) and the surface of the head and neck phantom with a 100s acquisition time. The recorded CNR values for the simulated SLNs are higher when the HGC was fitted with the 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimator. For instance, the recorded CNR values for the superficially simulated SLN containing 0.1MBq of 99mTc using 0.5mm and 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimators are 6.48 and 16.42, respectively (~87% difference). The anatomical context provided by the hybrid imaging aided the localization process of radioactivity accumulation in simulated SLNs. Gamma and hybrid optical images were acquired using the HGC with both available pinhole collimators for the simulated thyroid gland. The thyroid images produced varied in terms of spatial resolution and detectability. The count profiles through the middle of the simulated thyroid gland images provided by both pinhole collimators were obtained. The HGC could clearly differentiate the individual peaks of both thyroid lobes in the gamma image produced by the 0.5mm pinhole collimator. In contrast, the recorded count profile for the acquired image using the 1.0mm diameter pinhole collimator showed broader peaks for both lobes, reflecting the degradation of the spatial resolution with increasing the diameter of the pinhole collimator. Conclusion: The capability of the HGC has been evaluated utilizing a prototype anthropomorphic head and neck phantom, and the gamma and hybrid images obtained demonstrate that it is ideally suited for intraoperative SLNs detection and small organ imaging. The standardization of test phantoms and protocols for SFOV portable gamma systems will provide an opportunity to collect data across various medical centers and research groups. Moreover, it will provide a technical baseline for researchers and clinical practitioners to consider when assessing their SFOV gamma imaging systems. The anthropomorphic head and neck phantom described is cost effective, reproducible, flexible and anatomically representative.
Background: Immunoassays are one of the oldest techniques used in diagnostic virology where a number of serologic techniques, with different degrees of sensitivity and specificity, for the detection of HCV antigens and their specific antibodies, have been developed.
Materials and methods: One hundred and four sera samples were collected from National Center for Blood Transfusion, Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases Hospital, Central Public Health Laboratories and Teaching Laboratories. According to the manufacturers practical instructions, many available methods for detecting Anti-HCV antibodies, including enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), immunochromatographic assay (ICA), recombinant immunoblot
In this paper, the relationship between urban growth, land use, site availability, and impacts on the general appearance of the city generated by functional characteristics of port cities were analyzed. Various data were used to identify patterns of land use change and city growth and expansion. The research aims to analyze the impact of the port on the growth of the city, study the urban growth of the city of Umm Qasr and predicting the growth trends, and to identify the most influential factors in this growth. The study dealt with the concepts of urban growth and the factors that characterize the growth of port cities and the current situation of the city. The practical part included the mechanisms used by the researcher to analyze the
... Show MoreStarting with a problem of the weakness of accounting disclosure in some companies administration when preparing and presenting the financial reports which are submitted to the Tax authority. This problem impacts on Tax authority performance (The effect on the quality of the performance of the tax authority), because of the lack of conviction for the information contained in those reports, and the failure to achieve accurate results in tax authority performance that leads to a negative impact on determining taxable income and affect tax revenue, as well as negative impact on determining taxable income and affect tax revenue, as well as negati
... Show MoreCrystalline silicon (c-Si) has low optical absorption due to its high surface reflection of incident light. Nanotexturing of c-Si which produces black silicon (b-Si) offers a promising solution. In this work, effect of H2O2 concentrations towards surface morphological and optical properties of b-Si fabricated by two-step silver-assisted wet chemical etching (Ag-based two-step MACE) for potential photovoltaic (PV) applications is presented. The method involves a 30 s deposition of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in an aqueous solution of AgNO3:HF (5:6) and an optimized etching in HF:H2O2:DI H2O solution under 0.62 M, 1.85 M, 2.47 M, and 3.7 M concentrations of H2O<
... Show MoreThe current research aims to train students to take benefit of their studies to analyze and taste the artistic works as one of the most important components of the academic structure for students specializing in visual arts; then to activate this during training them the methods of teaching. Consequently, the capabilities of mind maps were employed as a tool that would be through freeing each student to analyze a model of artistic work and think about his analytical principles according to what he knows. Then, a start-up with a new stage revolves around the possibility of transforming this analysis into a teaching style by thinking about how the student would do. The same person who undertook the technical analysis should offer this work
... Show MoreObjectives: The study aims to assess and evaluate the caregivers knowledge about management of the children with growth hormone deficiency and to find out the relationship between caregivers kowledge and caregivers age, gender, number of individual in house hold, Date of treatment started ,Caregivers level education and economic status Methodology: Quazi expermental study design was carried out at (Child's Central Teaching Hospital, Medical City of Al Imamian Al Khadhmain Teaching Hospital, and National Centre for Treatment and Research of Diabetes,Specialized Center for Endocrine Diseases and Diabetes, and Department of Medical City Children Welfare Teaching Hospital started from
... Show MoreThe objective of this study was to establish an accurate, precise, sensitive, simple, fast and reliable method for the determination of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride in pure or in pharmaceutical dosage forms using Homemade instrument fluorimeter continuous flow injection analyser with solid state laser (405 nm) as a source. The method is based upon the fluorescence fluorescein sodium salt and its quenching by ciprofloxacin hydrochloride in aqueous medium. The solutions of standard and the sample were prepared in distilled water. The calibration graph was linear in the concentration range of using (10 - 100) mMol.L-1 ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (r= 0.9891) with relative standard deviation (RSD%) for 3 mMol.L-1 ciprofloxacin HCl solution is
... Show MoreIron is one of the abundant elements on earth that is an essential element for humans and may be a troublesome element in water supplies. In this research an AAN model was developed to predict iron concentrations in the location of Al- Wahda water treatment plant in Baghdad city by water quality assessment of iron concentrations at seven WTPs up stream Tigris River. SPSS software was used to build the ANN model. The input data were iron concentrations in the raw water for the period 2004-2011. The results indicated the best model predicted Iron concentrations at Al-Wahda WTP with a coefficient of determination 0.9142. The model used one hidden layer with two nodes and the testing error was 0.834. The ANN model coul
... Show MoreThe purpose of this research work is to synthesize conjugates of some NSAIDs with sulfamethoxazole as possible mutual prodrugs to overcome the local gastric irritation of NSAID with free carboxyl group by formation of ester linkage that supposed to remain intact in stomach and may hydrolyze in intestine chemically or enzymatically; in addition to that attempting to target the synthesized derivative to the colon by formation of azo group that undergo reduction only by colonic bacterial azo reductaze enzyme to liberate the parent compound to act locally (treatment of inflammation and infections in colon)
This work has been carried out to develop national drug product contains 2.5mg/ml clonazepam as oral drop; it is used for the treatment of epilepsy in infants and children.
Several formulations were prepared using oral drop base, flavor, buffer, sweeteners and preservatives. Selection of best formula relied solely on physic-chemical testing of samples.
Stability study was conducted on the product for six months at different temperatures to determine the expiration date and the best storage conditions.
From the study we obtained an oral drop of good clear solution. The expiry date calculated to be not less than 2 years.