Ai Yoshida | Search PubMed

PubMed2006

Serum vitamin A concentrations in asthmatic children in Japan.

BACKGROUND: Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient with important roles in immunity and maintenance of normal epithelial cell differentiation. Little information is available regarding the relationship between vitamin A concentrations and asthma despite the repair of epithelial and other structural changes being of utmost importance for the relief of symptoms and control of the disease. The authors evaluated vitamin A and vitamin E concentrations in well-nourished children with asthma. METHODS: The serum vitamin A and vitamin E concentrations were measured by high performance liquid chromatography methods. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney U-test and Peason's correlation coefficient test. RESULTS: According to these methods, the mean serum vitamin A concentrations were significantly lower (19.41+/-7.45 microg/dL, mean+/-SD) in asthmatic children than controls (29.52+/-11.34 microg/dL, P=0.0001). To compare the correlation of C-reactive protein and serum vitamin A concentrations, there was also significant difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The data suggest that there is a correlation between vitamin A deficiency and the mechanism of asthmatic response. These data support that the mechanism of hypovitaminosis A in asthmatic children may involve not only the acute phase response but also the various degrees of chronic epitherial damage of airways.

Asthma↗

PubMed2004

[Thyroid uptake error in four different gamma camera systems].

The thyroid uptake of (123)I and (131)I is generally measured by a gamma camera system. We evaluated the error in determining thyroid uptake caused by different methods of calculation among four gamma camera systems with various collimators. We first designed an original thyroid phantom that consisted of the thyroid and a body containing various levels of radioiodine activity. The applications for thyroid uptake equipped in two gamma camera systems performed calculations by the automatic method with background counts not subtracted from the capsule counts. When the size of the rectangular region of interest (ROI) for the capsule was set at 10x8 cm (a typical ROI size for the thyroid), percentages of thyroid uptake as calculated by the manual method with background counts subtracted from the capsule counts and thyroid counts were 52% to 57% when the value was set at 55% for (123)I; and 54.2% and 58.7%, respectively, when the value was set at 60% for (131)I. On the other hand, the percentages of thyroid uptake calculated by the automatic method with the application using two gamma camera systems with non-subtraction of background counts from the capsule counts were 46% and 50.5% when the value was set at 55%; and 49.6% when the value was set at 60%. The values calculated by the automatic method were underestimated as a result of background counts that were not subtracted from the capsule counts. When ROI size for the capsule was set at 4x4 cm, which is slightly larger than the capsule size, even thyroid uptake as determined by the automatic method using the application showed a difference of less 2% from the set values. There was no difference in thyroid uptake among the various kinds of collimators, high-resolution collimators, all-purpose collimators, and a suitable collimator for gamma-ray energy of (123)I.

Gamma Cameras↗