Evaluation of Deep Thermal Rehabilitation System Using Resonant Cavity Applicator During Knee Experiments.

This paper evaluates experiments on the knee using a new heating rehabilitation system. For effective thermal rehabilitation of osteoarthritis, it is necessary to heat the deep tissue inside the knee joint. Our new rehabilitation system is based on the re-entrant type resonant cavity applicator which was developed for deep hyperthermia treatment in our previous studies. Our experimental results using agar phantoms showed our heating system is able to heat the deep tissue inside the knee without physically contacting the surface skin. In this study, we developed a prototype applicator and experimented on a healthy human subject's knee under clinical conditions. To evaluate heating performance, we conducted heating experiments with our resonant cavity applicator and a conventional microwave diathermy system and compared the results. The experimental results of temperature increase distributions inside the human body were estimated by ultrasound imaging techniques. The estimated results from our knee experiments show that our heating system is able to heat knee tissue more deeply than microwave diathermy systems can and thus would be effective for deep thermal rehabilitation applications in clinics.

[Double-blind comparative clinical evaluation of cefamandole and cefmetazole in the treatment of respiratory tract infections].

Cefamandole sodium (CMD), a new cephalosporin-derivative, was synthesized in the Laboratory of Eli-Lilly Co. Ltd. U.S.A. in 1972. CMD, which is several times more active than cefmetazole (CMZ, a cephamycin antibiotic) against Gram-positive cocci, is only as active as the latter antibiotic against Gram-negative bacilli. Against Haemophilus influenzae, CMD exhibits an antimicrobial activity which is as strong as that of ampicillin sodium. Our previous comparative tests on efficacy and safety of CMD versus cefazolin (CEZ) demonstrated that CMD was as effective and safe as CEZ in the treatment of respiratory tract infections. In the present clinical trial, the efficacy and safety of CMD are evaluated by a comparative double blind method using CMZ, a more recently synthesized cephamycin antibiotic, as a reference drug. For this purpose, a comparative double blind study was carried out in 50 institutions and clinics in Tohoku and Hokkaido districts in Japan. A total of 272 inpatients, who was aged over 16 years and was diagnosed as having pneumonia, lung abscess or acute infectious exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, was included in this trial. They received 2 g of CMD or CMZ twice a day by intravenous drip infusions, as a rule, for 14 days. Of these patients, 264 (133 received CMD and 131 CMZ) were available for the evaluation of safety and usefulness. Two hundred and thirty-eight patients (122 received CMD and 116 CMZ) were adopted for the evaluation of efficacy. Prior to the treatment, there was no significant difference with respect to age, sex, severity of infection and underlying diseases between subjects in 2 treatment groups. An excellent or good clinical response was obtained in 82% of the patients treated with CMD, and in 81% of those treated with CMZ. Thus, there was no significant difference in cure rate between 2 treatment groups. However, an excellent clinical response was found in 12.3% of the patients treated with CMD, whereas only in 4.3% of those treated with CMZ. This difference in percentage of excellent clinical response between 2 treatment groups was statistically significant (P less than 0.05). Of the 87 patients with moderate to severe infection who were treated with CMD, 13 showed an excellent response. Only 4 of 90 patients treated with CMZ showed an excellent response. Statistically the difference in the rate of excellent response between these 2 groups was significant (P less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)