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There is scarce evidence regarding the use of iron chelators in patients with hereditary hemochromatosis who are intolerant of phlebotomy or erythrocytapheresis. A 52-year-old man with genetically confirmed HFEhemochromatosis presented with liver disease and heart failure with severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Because of anemia after initial treatment, we added intravenous deferoxamine followed by oral deferiprone to less frequent erythrocytapheresis, which normalized systolic function within 1 year. Repeated cardiac magnetic resonance imaging revealed improvement of the T2* relaxation time. This report illustrates the beneficial effect of iron chelators in individuals with HFEhemochromatosis and poor tolerance of erythrocytapheresis.

In this study, we aimed to investigate whether peroneal electrical Transcutaneous Neuromodulation invented for overactive bladder (OAB) treatment elicits activation in brain regions involved in neural regulation of the lower urinary tract.

Objective: To evaluate geometric and dosimetric inaccuracies in the irradiation of the rat brain with the Leksell Gamma Knife. Materials and Methods: Altogether three types of dosimeters were employed for these measurements: (a) a thermoluminescent dosimeter, (b) a semiconductor detector and (c) a polymer gel dosimeter. The thermoluminescent dosimeter and the semiconductor detector were calibrated using an ion chamber and then implanted in the brain of a rat cadaver and used for absolute dose determination. A special glass phantom mimicking exactly the shape of the rat body filled with the polymer gel was used for measurements of the relative dose distribution and evaluation of geometric inaccuracies during the stereotactic irradiation in the rat brain. Results:Both thermoluminescent and semiconductor detectors, due to their size, measured mean doses. The observed results demonstrated that the Leksell GammaPlan can be employed for the calculation of absorbed doses in irradiation of experimental animals. In our case, it was necessary to apply a correction factor of 1.078 for the absolute absorbed dose to obtain reliable results. A comparison of calculated dose profiles using the treatment planning system in all three axes with those measured by the polymer gel dosimeter demonstrated a very good geometric agreement with the mean deviation in profile position of 0.5 mm. Conclusion: The results indicate that this technique can effectively check the geometric and dosimetric accuracy of stereotactic irradiation in the rat brain. The Leksell GammaPlan can be employed for the calculation of absorbed doses, but the correction factor of 1.078 had to be applied for the absolute dose calculations in our irradiation geometry.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed in patients with Parkinson's disease during deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (three patients) and during deep brain stimulation of the ventral intermedius nucleus of the thalamus (one patient). All showed an increase in blood oxygenation level‐dependent signal in the subcortical regions ipsilateral to the stimulated nucleus. This effect cannot be simply explained by a mechanism of depolarization blockade; rather, it is caused by overstimulation of the target nucleus, resulting in the suppression of its spontaneous activity. We confirm that fMRI during deep brain stimulation is a safe method with considerable potential for elucidating the functional connectivity of the stimulated nuclei. © 2001 Movement Disorder Society.