TRANS-FUSIMO: Preliminary in-vivo animal results of MR-guided Focused Ultrasound of liver under respiratory motion

Background: Treating liver tumors using FUS poses a great challenge due to the respiratory motion of the target and by the rib cage obscuring the anatomical location of the malignancy. In the EU FP7 project TRANS-FUSIMO (www.trans-fusimo.eu) a novel treatment software has been developed to support MR guided focused ultrasound treatment of liver lesions through electronic real-time beam steering of the ultrasound transducer. Prior to clinical use we conduct an in-vivo animal trial using the TRANS-FUSIMO treatment system (TTS) to evaluate the safety and the technical efficacy and efficiency of generation predefined necrotic lesions in the healthy liver. Material and Methods: The pre-clinical …

Time to onset of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaws: a multicentre retrospective cohort study

Objectives: Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) is a potentially severe adverse effect of bisphosphonates (BP). Although the risk of ONJ increases with increasing duration of BP treatment, there are currently no reliable estimates of the ONJ time to onset (TTO). The objective of this study was to estimate the TTO and associated risk factors in BP-treated patients. Subjects and Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from 22 secondary care centres in seven countries relevant to 349 patients who developed BP-related ONJ between 2004 and 2012. Results: The median (95%CI) TTO was 6.0 years in patients treated with alendronate (n = 88) and 2.2 years in those treated with zoledronate (n = 218). Multiv…

Osteoporosis risk factors in HIV positive women with osteoporosis: A retrospective analysis

Multifactorial risk factors such as HIV/HCV co-infection and antiretroviral therapy (ARV) have been associated with osteoporosis in HIV+ women. We retrospectively analysed which known risk factors were associated with the diagnosis of osteoporosis, according to the WHO definition, in HIV positive women who were followed-up at the AIDS Centre of the University of Palermo, Italy between January 2011 and December 2014. Twenty-one HIV+ women with osteoporosis (13 HIV+ mono-infected and 8 HIV/HCV co-infected females) who underwent dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and liver stiffness assessment were included in the study. No significant differences between the HIV and HIV/HCV group were fou…

Science case study and scientific simulations for the enhanced X-ray Timing Polarimetry mission, eXTP

The X-ray astronomy mission eXTP (enhanced X-ray Timing Polarimetry) is designed to study matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism. Primary goals are the determination of the equation of state (EoS) of matter at supranuclear density, the physics in extremely strong magnetic fields, the study of accretion in strong-field gravity (SFG) regime. Primary targets include isolated and binary neutron stars, strong magneticfield systems like magnetars, and stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. In this paper we report about key observations and simulations with eXTP on the primary objectives involving accretion under SFG regimes and determination of NS-EoS.

Timing and Spectral properties of Low Mass X-ray Binary Systems hosting Neutron Stars