Physician and nurse knowledge about patient radiation exposure in the emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Imaging methods that use ionizing radiation in emergency departments (EDs) have increased with advances in radiological diagnostic methods. Physician and nurse awareness of the radiation dose in the ED and the associated cancer risks to which the patients are exposed were surveyed with a questionnaire. METHODS: A total of 191 subjects in six EDs participated in this study. ED physicians and ED nurses were asked about the risks and the radiation doses of imaging methods ordered in the ED. The differences between the two groups were compared using Student's t-test for continuous variables. A Fisher's exact and Chi-squared tests were used for categorical variables. RESULTS: A total of 82 ED physicians and 109 ED nurses completed the questionnaire; 38 (46.3%) physicians and 8 (7.3%) nurses correctly answered the question about the chest X-ray radiation dose. A question about the number of chest X-rays that is equivalent to the dose of a pelvic X-ray was answered correctly by 5 (6.1%) physicians and 9 (8.3%) nurses (P = 0.571). Questions regarding abdominal computed tomography (CT), chest CT, brain CT, abdominal ultrasonography, and brain magnetic resonance imaging were answered correctly more frequently by the physician group than the nurse group (P < 0.05). The risk of developing cancer over a lifetime due to a brain CT was correctly answered by 21 (25.6%) physicians and 30 (27.5%) nurses (P = 0.170). A similar question regarding abdominal CT was correctly answered by 21 (25.6%) physicians and 42 (38.5%) nurses (P = 0.127). CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge of the radiation exposure of radiology examinations was lower in nurses than physicians, but knowledge was poor in both groups. ED physicians and nurses should be educated about radiation exposure and cancer risks associated with various diagnostic radiological methods.

Bran extracts from pigmented rice seeds inhibit tumor promotion in lymphoblastoid B cells by phorbol ester.

Using flow cytometry, we quantitatively evaluated anti-tumor-promoting activity of rice bran extracts by measuring inhibition of Epstein-Barr virus early-antigen activation (EBV-EA) induced by the tumor promoter 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA). This assay measures anti-tumor-promoting activity and cytotoxicity of target substances using the same batch of cells. Using this short-term procedure, we have determined the anti-tumor-promoting activity of 70% ethanol-water extracts of bran (outer layer) from seeds of five pigmented rice cultivars: Jumlalocal-1, DZ 78, Elwee, LK1-3-6-12-1-1, and LK1A-2-12-1-1. The results show that, compared to an extract from the non-pigmented white cooking rice variety Chuchung, the extracts from the pigmented varieties strongly inhibited phorbol ester-induced tumor promotion in marmoset lymphoblastoid cells B95-8 in vitro. These findings may facilitate development and use of new health-promoting rice varieties.