BACKGROUND There is wide interest in the use of intravascular irradiation to control restenosis following balloon angioplasty. Part of the mechanism of restenosis appears to be the proliferation of smooth muscle cells (SMCs), triggered to divide by the damage caused by the angioplasty, and this proliferation can be inhibited by irradiation with y-rays or beta-rays. METHODS In vitro data for t...

Iodine-131 is successfully used in the treatment of hyperthyroidism and differentiated thyroid cancer. Thyroid is the critical organ for iodine. Iodine is taken up by the thyroid follicular cells. Radioactive isotope iodine-131 simultaneously emits two types of radiation: radiation beta minus (β-) used for the treatment and gamma (γ) used for diagnosis. Due to the penetration of beta particles ...

PURPOSE There is great recent interest in the potential value of using pentoxifylline (3,7-dimethyl-1(5-oxyhexyl)-xanthine, PTX) as an inhibitor of radiation-induced late normal tissue damage. The effects of PTX on the radiobiological parameters (alpha/beta ratio, repair half time T(1/2)) of radiation myelopathy were studied in a rat model. MATERIALS AND METHODS Anesthetized Sprague-Dawley ra...