background: the presence of small intestine in the radiation field during pelvic cancers treatment causes an interruption in radiotherapy. a non-invasive method was developed to exclude small intestine during conventional radiotherapy. materials and methods: the incidence of the radiation therapy interruption is highly dependent upon the area of the small intestine included in the portals and i...

abstract   background: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (copd) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, and is an important health economic problem. since 1960, there has been an increase in mortality associated with copd, especially in men. acute exacerbations form a major component of the socioeconomic burden of copd which mainly results in long-term hospitalization. despite the high...

Seventy asthmatic patients newly referred to a hospital outpatient clinic have been studied. In one-third of the patients the diagnosis of asthma had not been considered. Eight patients presented with an FEV1 of one litre or less. Acute severe asthma is commonly believed to precede death from asthma, but patients with more chronic symptoms may have equally severe airways obstruction without app...