Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Classifying Antiabortion-Rights Crimes As 'Terrorism' Unnecessary, USA Today Opinion Piece States
Scott Roeder, who is charged with the murder of abortion provider George Tiller, and James von Brunn, who is charged with last week"s shooting death of a Holocaust Memorial Museum guard, "appear to be murderers, not terrorists," Jonathan Turley, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University, writes in a USA Today opinion piece. Although "liberals denounced" the tendency of conservatives to call "every possible crime an act of terrorism" while former President George W. Bush was in office, now that there are antiabortion-rights and anti-Semetic suspects, "there is an insistence that these crimes must be treated as terrorism -- as if to call them "murder" or "hate crimes" would diminish their significance," Turley states. Many people who "kill strangers out of hate for their race or religion or some other association" are "loners or rogue operators who seek to satisfy a blood lust against different groups," Turley contends, noting that classifying a crime as an act of terrorism allows for a different types of prosecution, investigation and punishment. According to Turley, the "term "terrorism" once had a clear meaning before it was used as a point of emphasis to evaluate or distinguish certain crimes." The Bush administration"s broadening of the definition to include "any prosecution that disrupts a "potential" terrorism threat" served to further divert the term from its historical definition, he adds. Now, "many want to see terrorism investigations targeting antiabortion activists and other groups that use violent speech," Turley writes."We do not advance our efforts by classifying every hate crime as terrorism," Turley continues, adding that it would be "the terrorists who will benefit from our lack of focus" in the definition. According to Turley, the "fact is that even an authoritarian nation can do little to stop a determined rogue operator from walking into a church and killing someone like Dr. Tiller." Referring to "someone such as Roeder as a murderer does not diminish the crime or the victim" because "we do not have to call murder "terrorism" to take the crime or its causes seriously," Turley writes (Turley, USA Today, 6/17).

Pneumococcal Vaccine Reduces Child Deaths In Developing Countries
A new trial has found that pneumococcal vaccine is effective in preventing severe pneumonia, the leading cause of death among children in developing countries. Co-ordinated by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) between 2000 and 2004, a large scale efficacy trial first of its kind in Asia - was carried out in the Philippines to investigate the effect of an investigational pneumococcal vaccine.
News of the day
Marijuana Rivals Mainstream Drugs For HIV/AIDS Symptoms
Those in the United States living with HIV/AIDS are more likely to use marijuana than those in Kenya, South Africa or Puerto Rica to alleviate their symptoms, according to a new study published in Clinical Nursing Research, published by SAGE. Those who did use marijuana rate it as effective as prescribed or over the counter (OTC) medicines for the majority of common symptoms, once again raising the issue that therapeutic marijuana use merits further study and consideration among policy makers.
Oncology

Quantification Of Perfusion & Permeability In Prostate Using Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI With Inversion-Prepared Dual-Contrast Sequence

UroToday.com - The dynamic contrast-enhanced dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-DSC-MRI) technique presented in the article(1) is based on a novel dual-contrast sequence. The sequence is a gradient echo sequence that uses a single inversion pulse and subsequent acquisition of two contrasts/echoes with different inversion and echo times. Inversion preparation increases the signal-to-noise ratio in comparison to other gradient echo sequences. The blood volume in the prostate is relatively small, i.e., approximately one percent, while the interstitial contrast-agent-enhancing volume is approximately 20 percent. Therefore, conventional imaging sequences fail to separate the low contrast agent signal originating from the blood from that originating from interstitial tissue. The first contrast/echo is acquired with a short echo time and is T1-weighted, allowing quantification of the total signal contribution while failing to separate the blood signal from the interstitial contrast agent signal. The second echo is acquired with a long echo time and is applied to assess susceptibility contrast. The susceptibility contrast specifically amplifies the contrast agent concentration difference between blood and interstitial volume in prostate tissue, thereby allowing quantification of the mean transit time of blood through the tissue capillaries. Therefore, the dual contrast approach allows us to estimate the contrast agent concentration in both prostate blood and prostate interstitium. In combination with an appropriate compartment model and post processing algorithms, the dual-contrast sequence enables in situ quantification of pharmacokinetic parameters in the prostate with unprecedented accuracy. The high contrast-to-noise ratio of the novel sequence allows application of a more elaborate pharmacological model for quantifying physiological parameters. The method was used to quantify several physiological parameters including the fractional volumes of the blood and interstitial compartments, the blood transport parameters perfusion and bolus dispersion, and vessel permeability, which is the exchange parameter between blood and interstitium. Perfusion, in particular, enables statistically significant differentiation of prostate cancer from normal tissue, high-grade prostate cancer from chronic prostatitis, and chronic prostatitis from normal prostate tissue(2). Quantification of these independent pharmacokinetic parameters might in the future help to establish noninvasive prognostic factors for prostate cancer and might allow a more precise differentiation between low-grade and high-grade prostate cancer. Moreover, the parametric maps generated with DCE-DSC-MRI can serve to individually tailor radiation therapy and allow monitoring the response to radiation or hormone therapy. Finally the quantification of physiological parameters improves inter- and intra- individual comparability of data obtained by different investigators and with different MR scanners. 1. LÃødemann L, Prochnow D, Rohlfing T, Franiel, Warmuth C, Taupitz M, Rehbein H, Beyersdorff D, Simultaneous quantification of perfusion and permeability in the prostate using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging with an inversion-prepared dual-contrast sequence. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 2009; 37:749-762. 2. Franiel T, LÃødemann L, Rudolph B, Rehbein H, Staak A, Taupitz M, Prochnow D, Beyersdorff D, Evaluation of normal prostate tissue, chronic prostatitis, and prostate cancer by quantitative perfusion analysis using a dynamic contrast-enhanced inversion-prepared dual-contrast gradient echo sequence. Invest Radiol 2008; 43:481-487. Written by Tobias Franiel1 and Lutz LÃødemann2 as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com 1 Department of Radiology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charité Campus Mitte, Schumannstr. 20/21, 10117 Berlin, Germany 2Department of Radiotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charité Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, Germany UroToday - the only urology website with original content written by global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice. To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to: www.urotoday.com Copyright © 2009 - UroToday


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009