Thyroid and gonads are radiosensitive organs which requires radiation shield to reduce the dose received. However,
radiation shielding is not widely used in radionuclide imaging because it is heavy, uncomfortable and can cause pain
in the spine. Therefore, a research was carried out to determine the ability of thyroid and gonad radiation shield
which is thinner and lighter in reducing radiation dose. A study was conducted in Hospital Putrajaya to determine
the radiation dose received by the thyroid and gonads during a complete Positron Emission Tomography-Computed
Tomography (PET-CT) procedure with and without radiation shield. A total of six male staffs have been chosen as subject
and data from 33 complete PET-CT procedures have been collected. For every PET-CT procedure, the subject’s thyroid
and gonad were shielded using 0.5-mm thick radiation shielded, model Mavig 615 (USA) and Shielding International
(USA) respectively. Thermal luminescent dosimeter (TLD) chips were used as radiation dose detector. The average 18FFDG radioactivity administered to the patient was 387 MBq and the average scan time is 9.224 ± 1.797 minutes. The
results showed that the mean equivalent dose received by the thyroid with and without shielding were 0.080 ± 0.033
mSv and 0.078 ± 0.039 mSv respectively. The mean equivalent dose received by gonad with and without shielding
were 0.059 ± 0.040 mSv and 0.061 ± 0.030 mSv respectively. Radiation shield with 0.5 mm thickness is unable to
reduce radiation dose received by the thyroid (p = 0.76) and gonads (p = 0.79) because it is too thin to resist the
high-energy radiation during PET-CT procedures. Thyroid receive higher radiation dose of 0.016 m Sv compared to
the gonads (p < 0.05) because the thyroid’s position is more exposed to radiation sources which are 18F-FDG during
radiopharmaceutical preparation and patients after administered with 18F-FDG during PET-CT procedure.
Keywords: equivalent dose, radiation shield, TLD
Environmental samples collected from oil palm premises were evaluated for dioxins/furans contamination. The samplings were carried out at oil palm premises located in Banting (Premise A) and Teluk Intan (Premise B), involving two environmental matrices namely ambient air and soil. The soil samples were collected in the plantations while ambient air samples were collected in the vicinity of the mills and refineries. The results of the analyses showed that the level of dioxins/furans in ambient air were generally higher in oil palm premise located adjacent to industrial establishments. The concentration levels at premise A mill and refinery located adjacent to industrial establishments, ranged from 64.14 WHO–TEQ fg m-3 to 131.87 WHO–TEQ fg m-3, while for premise B mill and refinery located in the rural area, ranged from 9.93 WHO–TEQ fg m-3 to 16.66 WHO–TEQ fg m-3. Meanwhile for soil samples, the highest concentrations were recorded in soil collected near roads used heavily by vehicles. The concentration levels of soil samples collected at premise A and
premise B plantations ranged from 1.910 WHO-TEQ pg g-1 dry weight to 3.305 WHO-TEQ pg g-1 dry weight.
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pre-treatment on the fishy flavour and odour removal of gelatine extracted from the skin of sutchi catfish (Pangasius sutchi). Pre-treatment of the skin involved soaking at 4°C in distilled water (GC), lime followed by tamarind (GLT) or salt followed by activated carbon (GSC) prior to extraction in warm distilled water (50°C) for 12 hours. Yield, physical properties and sensory were determined. Results showed that GLT produced highest yield (19.72%) compared to GSC (15.01%) and GC (15.81%). Although, GLT exhibited lowest gel strength (282.29g), viscoelasticity (14.1ºC) and setting point (10.46ºC) compared to other pre-treatments, fishy flavour and odour of the gelatine were almost absent with the score of 1.68 and 1.74, respectively. These values were below those of reference which are 1.87 (fishy flavour) and 2.71 (fishy odour) denoting from ‘absent to weak’. Since fishy flavour and odour were almost absent, soaking sutchi catfish skin in lime followed by tamarind could be a good method for achieving the desired sensory attributes of the freshwater fish by the reduction of the gelatine off flavour.
Chromatographic purification of chloroform extract of the twigs of Ellipeia cuneifolia has led to the discovery of three compounds comprising of 2´,4´-dihydroxy-4,6´-dimethoxychalcone; tepanone; and O-methylmoschatoline. Structures of the compounds were established by interpreting their spectral data and by comparing them with those of the literature. Two of them showed antibacterial activities.
Early pregnancy losses occur in 10-20% of all pregnancies. Surgical evacuation has always been the mainstay of management of miscarriages. The main aim of this study was to understand the success rate of expectant management of miscarriage with regards to gestational sac size and period of gestation. The secondary outcome was to measure the satisfaction level and the rate of pregnancy after 6 month of expectant management. Patients diagnosed with missed miscarriages were requested to choose between expectant or surgical management. Those decided for expectant management on “wait and watch” approach were assessed weekly up to 5 completed weeks until complete miscarriage was achieved spontaneously. Surgical evacuation was performed if medically indicated or requested by the patients at any time or at the end of fifth week if complete miscarriage was not achieved. Out of 212 cases, 75 (35.4%) opted for expectant management. Complete miscarriage was achieved in 85.3% of subjects by the end of fifth weeks respectively. Mean of Gestational sac size and period of gestation was not found to influence the success rate of complete spontaneous miscarriage in the expectant management. No morbidity was recorded during the five weeks of the study period. Mean satisfaction score was 9.7±8.3. Pregnancy occurred in 47% of patients within 6 months follow up. The Receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve analysis suggested the end of second week as the cut off for surgical intervention. This study revealed that expectant management of missed miscarriage is a reliable management of missed miscarriage within the first two weeks.
Introduction: Ovarian cancer is recognizable as the fourth leading cancer in Malaysia. Knowledge on ovarian cancer is low among Malaysian women, which may affect their interpretation of early symptoms and delay presentation of ovarian cancer cases. The aim of this study was to determine the level of ovarian cancer knowledge and its determinants among female nonacademic staff in Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia. Methods: A crosssectional study was designed to collect the data from 366 participants via a validated self-administered questionnaire, from April to July 2015. Results: The mean age of participants was 34 ± 7.89. Most of the sample was Malay (96.4%), married (61.5%). A total of 51.4% of respondents reported low knowledge level. Knowledge of ovarian cancer was significantly associated with marital status (p
Cerebral hypoperfusion involved a reduction in cerebral blood flow, leading to neuronal dysfunction, microglial activation and white matter degeneration. The effects on the blood-brain barrier (BBB) however, have not been well-documented. Here, two-vessel occlusion model was adopted to mimic the condition of cerebral hypoperfusion in Sprague-Dawley rats. The BBB permeability to high and low molecular weight exogenous tracers i.e. Evans blue dye and sodium fluorescein respectively, showed marked extravasation of the Evans blue dye in the frontal cortex, posterior cortex and thalamus-midbrain at day 1 following induction of cerebral hypoperfusion. Transmission electron microscopy revealed brain endothelial cell and astrocyte damages including increased pinocytotic vesicles and formation of membrane invaginations in the endothelial cells, and swelling of the astrocytes' end-feet. Investigation on brain microvessel protein expressions using two-dimensional (2D) gel electrophoresis coupled with LC-MS/MS showed that proteins involved in mitochondrial energy metabolism, transcription regulation, cytoskeleton maintenance and signaling pathways were differently expressed. The expression of aconitate hydratase, heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein, enoyl Co-A hydratase and beta-synuclein were downregulated, while the opposite observed for calreticulin and enhancer of rudimentary homolog. These findings provide insights into the BBB molecular responses to cerebral hypoperfusion, which may assist development of future therapeutic strategies.