Joint EURADOS-EANM initiative for an advanced computational framework for the assessment of external dose rates from nuclear medicine patients.

BACKGROUND: In order to ensure adequate radiation protection of critical groups such as staff, caregivers and the general public coming into proximity of nuclear medicine (NM) patients, it is necessary to consider the impact of the radiation emitted by the patients during their stay at the hospital or after leaving the hospital. Current risk assessments are based on ambient dose rate measurements in a single position at a specified distance from the patient and carried out at several time points after administration of the radiopharmaceutical to estimate the whole-body retention. The limitations of such an approach are addressed in this study by developing and validating a more advanced computational dosimetry approach using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations in combination with flexible and realistic computational phantoms and time activity distribution curves from reference biokinetic models. RESULTS: Measurements of the ambient dose rate equivalent H*(10) at 1 m from the NM patient have been successfully compared against MC simulations with 5 different codes using the ICRP adult reference computational voxel phantoms, for typical clinical procedures with 99mTc-HDP/MDP, 18FDG and Na131I. All measurement data fall in the 95% confidence intervals, determined for the average simulated results. Moreover, the different MC codes (MCNP-X, PHITS, GATE, GEANT4, TRIPOLI-4®) have been compared for a more realistic scenario where the effective dose rate E of an exposed individual was determined in positions facing and aside the patient model at 30 cm, 50 cm and 100 cm. The variation between codes was lower than 8% for all the radiopharmaceuticals at 1 m, and varied from 5 to 16% for the face-to face and side-by-side configuration at 30 cm and 50 cm. A sensitivity study on the influence of patient model morphology demonstrated that the relative standard deviation of H*(10) at 1 m for the range of included patient models remained under 16% for time points up to 120 min post administration. CONCLUSIONS: The validated computational approach will be further used for the evaluation of effective dose rates per unit administered activity for a variety of close-contact configurations and a range of radiopharmaceuticals as part of risk assessment studies. Together with the choice of appropriate dose constraints this would facilitate the setting of release criteria and patient restrictions.

Curcumin inhibits the invasion and migration of pancreatic cancer cells by upregulating TFPI-2 to regulate ERK- and JNK-mediated epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

PURPOSE: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most deadly human malignancies. Curcumin is a natural polyphenolic compound with wide-ranging pharmacological effects. Growing evidence suggests that curcumin has anticancer activity against PC, but the mechanism remains incompletely elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of curcumin on the invasion and migration of PC cells. METHODS: Effect of curcumin on tissue factor pathway inhibitor (TFPI)-2 mRNA expression in PC cells was initially identified using qRT-PCR. Cytotoxicity of curcumin was assessed with MTT assays and IC50 was calculated. Involvement of ERK and JNK pathways, as well as protein expression of TFPI-2 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related markers, were detected using immunoblotting. Invasion and migration of PC cells were examined using Transwell assays. TFPI-2 expression was manipulated by transfection with siRNA and shRNA. Rescue assays were used to validate the effect of curcumin on cell invasion and migration via TFPI-2. RESULTS: Curcumin increased the expression of TFPI-2 mRNA and protein in PC cells and attenuated cell invasion and migration. Curcumin also inhibited ERK and JNK pathways and EMT in PC cells. Knockdown of TFPI-2 partially reversed the inhibition of ERK and JNK pathways and EMT by curcumin. Mechanistically, curcumin upregulated TFPI-2, thereby inhibiting the ERK and JNK pathways, leading to the inhibition of EMT in PC cells. CONCLUSION: Collectively, curcumin inhibits ERK- and JNK-mediated EMT through upregulating TFPI-2, which in turn suppresses the migration and invasion of PC cells. These findings provide new insights into the antitumor mechanism of curcumin.

Long-term effect and safety of non-occlusive intra-vas device for male contraception / 中华男科学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the long-term effect and safety of non-occlusive intra-vas device (IVD) for male contraception in comparison with no-scalpel vasectomy (NSV).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We conducted a follow-up investigation on 100 males who had received IVD and another 50 who had undergone NSV 6 years before. We compared the rates of sperm absence and complications between the two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Follow-up visits were successfully performed on 95 males (95%) of the IVD group and 44 (88%) of the NSV group. Pregnancy was not found in any of the cases. Spermatozoa (> or = 5 x 10(6)/ml) were not detected in 87 cases (91.58%) in the IVD group and in 44 cases (95.45%) in the NSV group, with no significant differences between the two groups (P > 0.05). The rate of postoperative complications in the IVD group (11.58%) showed no significant difference from that of the NSV group (4.55%) (P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>IVD is as effective and safe as NSV for male contraception.</p>

Epidemiological study on semen quality of 562 volunteers aged 22-30 / 中华流行病学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>This study is to understand the difference of semen quality among the different areas and the related factors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Five hundred and sixty-two people were under from seven provinces.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Results showed that the quantity and density of semen, the rate of moving forward semen, livability, percent age of normal formed semen and the total number of semen were statistically different among the seven areas. The difference was ranged as 28.82%, with the highest 2.95 ml in Shanxi province and the lowest 2.29 ml in Henan province. Geometric mean of semen density was found the lowest 36.27 x 10(6)/ml in Guizhou province, next to it was 42.52 x 10(6)/ml in Shandong province and the highest was 74.77 x 10(6)/ml in Hebei province. The percent age with forward progression of semen was seen the lowest 44.40% in Henan province, followed by 51.88% in Hebei province and 52.88% in Zhejiang province and the highest were 76.50% in Shanghai, 75.24% in Shanxi province, with a range of 72.30%. The highest semen viability was 85.89% in Shanghai, while the lowest 72.35% in Henan, with a range of 18.71%. Normal sperm morphology was seen the lowest 68.45% in Hebei province, with the highest 88.06% in Guizhou province, and the range was 28.65%. The geometric mean of total sperm count was seen the highest 204.23 x 10(6)/ml in Hebei province and the lowest 77.69 x 10(6)/ml in Guizhou province. Results showed through analysis of variance that some indexes were different in some provinces.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The results indicated that the semen quality was different in different regions in China and its influential factors may be region and geography environment.</p>