Total Cube Research Articles

Radiation Maculopathy Treated with Ranibizumab

Aim: Radiation maculopathy is a major cause of vision loss after brachytherapy or localized radiation treatments. Here, we describe a case report of a patient with bilateral radiation maculopathy and macular edema treated with ranibizumab and panretinal laser photocoagulation. Methods: Baseline fluorescein angiography and spectral domain OCT (SDOCT) was obtained. Eight-monthly intravitreous injections of ranibizumab 0.5 mg were performed in each eye. Snellen visual acuity, central subfield thickness (CST), total cube volume (TCV), cube average thickness (CAT) was recorded and a fundoscopic exam was performed at each visit. A final fluorescein angiography was obtained at the final visit. Results: After 8 treatments of ranibizumab 0.5 mg, Snellen visual acuity was 20/200 OD and 20/40 OS. The final CST was 392 µm OD and 495 µm OS, TCV was 13.4 mm3 OD and 11.1 mm3 OS, and CAT was 371 µm OD and 310 µm OS. Fundus photography and fluorescein angiography showed stabilization of radiation maculopathy OU but prominent macular ischemia OD. Conclusion: Vision loss from radiation maculopathy can be successfully treated with off-label ranibizumab in the short term. However, visual improvement is limited by macular ischemia, which had a larger effect on final visual acuity than reductions in CST, TCV, or CAT. Our study and others suggest that larger clinical trials to determine the dose, timing, and duration of ranibizumab treatment could benefit patients with radiation maculopathy.

The trabecular heterogeneity of femoral head in male osteoporotic fracture

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the femoral head trabecular heterogeneity in Chinese male patients with osteoporotic fracture and their effects on osteoporotie fracture.Methods Human femoral heads were obtained from 11 male osteoporotie fracture (OP) patients ranged from 51 to 82 years old [average age (65±9 ) years old], and 7 male trauma ( TM ) patients ranged from 46 to 75 years old [average age (61±11 ) years old] who underwent total hip arthroplasty within two hours after either osteoporotic or trauma hip fracture.The OP was defined as having a fragility fracture.After laying femoral head as living body position and locating mark, nine trabecular specimens were obtained from femoral heads, each of 6 mm × 6 mm× 7 mm.The cortical shell was not included in each specimen.One cube was selected as the primary compressive trabecular region and the other 8 specimens as non-primary compressive trabecular region.These cubes were scanned using high-resolution microcomputed tomography scanner (μCT).After scanning, the data of total cubes, primary compressive trabecular region and noncompressive trabecular region were used for analysis by t test.Results In OP group volumetric bone mineral deosity(vBMD) [( 182.15±66.00) mg/mm3 vs (223.97±70.92) mg/mm3, t =3.041], tissue bone mineral density (tBMD) [(538.76±64.72) mg/mm3 vs (580.01±63.86 ) mg/mm3, t = 3.160],bone volume fraction (TV/BV) [(0.22 ± 0.06) % vs (0.26 ± 0.07 ) %, t = 2.821], trabecular thickness (Tb.Th.) [( 161.07 ±42.75 ) μm vs ( 205.47 ± 74.44 ) μm, t = 3.233] were significantly decreased while bone surface/bone volume ( BS/BV ) [( 13.75 ± 2.55 ) mm-1 vs ( 12.28 ± 2.70 ) mm-1, t =-2.777] was significantly increased in the non-primary compressive trabecular region than that in the primary compressive trabecular region ( P < 0.05 ).vBMD [( 182.15 ± 66.00) mg/mm3 vs ( 248.05 ±105.48) mg/mm3, t = - 3.598], tBMD [(538.76 ± 64.72) mg/mm3 vs ( 570.54 ± 100.32) mg/mm3,t=-2.108],TV/BV [(0.22±0.06) % vs (0.28±0.12) %, t= -3.466], Tb.Th.[(161.07±42.75) μm vs (200.31 ±96.63) μm, t= -2.866], trabecular number (Tb.N.)[(1.46±0.23)/mm3 vs ( 1.57 ± 0.29)/mm3, t = - 2.396] were significantly decreased while trabecular separation ( Tb.Sp.) [(780.82 ± 144.85 )μm vs ( 653.09 ± 119.64) μm, t = 5.470], degree of anisotropy (DA) ( 1.57±0.20 vs 1.47±0.18, t = 2.930 ) were significantly increased in OP than in TM in the non-compressive trabecular region( P < 0.05 ).No significant differents were found between OP and TM for any of the parameters measured in the primary compressive trabecular region.Tb.Th.[(199.37±68.22)μm vs (176.33 ±71.21 )μm, t = 2.060,P < 0.05] were significantly increased in the primary compressive trabecular region than that in the non-primary compressive trabecular region and no significant differences were found in the other parameters in the all 18 specimens.Conclusions The femoral head trabeculae had a heterogenic distribution in OP.Bone loss in OP primarily takes place in non-compressive trabecular region.Femoral neck fracture cannot be prevented though the bone microstructure do not loss in the primary compressive trabecular region.Tb.Th.in the femoral head could be an interesting parameter which is closely related to the femoral neck fracture. Key words: Osteoporosis; Femoral head; Tomography,X-ray computed

Iceberg-cube computation with PC clusters

In this paper, we investigate the approach of using low cost PC cluster to parallelize the computation of iceberg-cube queries. We concentrate on techniques directed towards online querying of large, high-dimensional datasets where it is assumed that the total cube has net been precomputed. The algorithmic space we explore considers trade-offs between parallelism, computation and I/0. Our main contribution is the development and a comprehensive evaluation of various novel, parallel algorithms. Specifically: (1) Algorithm RP is a straightforward parallel version of BUC [BR99]; (2) Algorithm BPP attempts to reduce I/0 by outputting results in a more efficient way; (3) Algorithm ASL, which maintains cells in a cuboid in a skiplist, is designed to put the utmost priority on load balancing; and (4) alternatively, Algorithm PT load-balances by using binary partitioning to divide the cube lattice as evenly as possible. We present a thorough performance evaluation on all these algorithms on a variety of parameters, including the dimensionality of the cube, the sparseness of the cube, the selectivity of the constraints, the number of processors, and the size of the dataset. A key finding is that it is not a one-algorithm-fit-all situation. We recommend a “recipe” which uses PT as the default algorithm, but may also deploy ASL under specific circumstances.