Wilhelm Stenstrom

Elimination of Radioactive Elements by Patients and Rabbits after Injection of Thorotrast

Since thorotrast has been found useful as a contrast medium, it is of considerable interest to find out how thorium and its products are distributed in the body and to what extent these radioactive elements are eliminated. The danger from the continued exposure of the tissues to the emitted alpha, beta, and gamma rays makes such information still more important. It is well known that thorotrast is absorbed rapidly by the reticulo-endothelial system and deposited for the most part in the liver and spleen. Previous studies by other investigators have contributed much information and have proved that the thorium remains long in these tissues. Pohle and Ritchie (1) report that the roentgen ray shadows cast by livers of rabbits, in which thorotrast was deposited, decreased slightly after considerable periods of time. Rigler (2) states that in man there is a noticeable decrease in the density of livers containing thorotrast after intervals of several years. This may be due to a redistribution of the thorium, as...

Carcinoma of the Ovary

CARCINOMA of the ovary being one of the most radiosensitive epithelial tumors, it is highly important to know what results are obtained by radiation treatment of this disease. While practically every patient in the series here presented had some surgical procedure—ranging from laparotomy and biopsy to attempted excision—it was not felt that the probability of cure was good in any of the cases if surgery alone was used; in many of them, since the primary tumor was not removed, the only benefit traceable to surgery was that a definite diagnosis was made available. Consequently, we feel that the principal treatment in these patients was with radiation. This is made more explicit when we state that of the 15 patients now living (for various periods), eight had definite metastases at the time of the first irradiation, while the other seven had none mentioned in the available records (but it is not known with certainty that they did not have metastases). Exact evaluation of the original clinical condition is no...

The Correlation Between Roentgen Dosage and Lymphoid Cell Migration in Tissue Cultures

Cultures of fibroblasts have been used by Strangeways and Oakley (1923), Strangeways and Hop wood (1926), Canti and Donaldson (1926), Canti and Spear (1927), Laser and Halberstaedter (1929), Canti (1929), Spear (1931, 1932), Cox (1931), Faber (1935), Lasnitzki and Lea (1940), and others, to study the effects of radiation. Inhibition of growth rate and the rate of mitosis have been taken by these investigators as an index of the effects of radiation. Stenstrom and King (1934, 1937) and King and Stenstrom (1937) have used the migration of lymphocytes from mammalian lymph nodes in vitro to determine the effects of spaced dosage of x-rays and to test the Bunsen-Roscoe law for roentgen rays. The present investigation was undertaken to determine the effects of a wide range of x-ray dosages on the activity of lymphoid cells in vitro. For this study, fragments of adult rabbit mesenteric lymph nodes were employed exclusively. The lymph node for each series of cultures was taken from the same animal from which the ...

Elimination of Radioactive Elements in Patients Who Have Received Thorotrast Intravenously

Summary No excretion of thorium has thus far been discovered. Certain radioactive elements in the thorium series have, however, been found in the feces, urine and breath. Thorium × has been identified as the predominant element excreted in the feces, and thoron is definitely exhaled, as thorium B has been identified in the radioactive deposit from the breath. Such excretion of thorium × and thoron leads to reduced radioactivity in the body even if the thorium itself remains. As most of the γ-rays are emitted by disintegration products of thoron it is evident that the amount of thorium remaining in the tissues of a patient can not be determined with satisfactory accuracy by measurements of the γ-rays emitted from the patient (liver and spleen). During the disintegration process of some of the radioactive atoms such a displacement must take place that the newly formed atoms can escape.

Color Changes Produced by Roentgen Rays in Some Aqueous Solutions

CHEMICAL effects produced by roentgen radiation have been studied during the past years by several investigators. Changes have been produced in a number of compounds, as has been pointed out in a recent article by Clark and Pickett (1). As a rule, very minute quantities are changed chemically by the roentgen dose which can be applied in a reasonable length of time. It is, therefore, not surprising that some of the substances irradiated seem to have been unaffected. Whether no change at all took place, or whether the methods for detecting the change were not delicate enough, remains to be determined. The studies to be described here may lead to a delicate method for detecting chemical effects of the radiation and a method which may perhaps be applied to a great number of substances. Our investigations were at first aimed mainly at finding a simple method for measuring roentgen-ray dosage. Considering that some color change might be found that would be satisfactory for this purpose, we started to investigat...

Effect of Cholesterol exposed to Roentgen Rays on Rachitic Rats.

Hess and Weinstock 1 state that cholesterol, which has been irradiated with roentgen rays, does not cure rickets, and also that the absorption spectrum in the ultra violet of cholesterol is not changed by this kind of radiation. On the other hand, Reinhard and Buchwald 2 found that a definite change takes place in the absorption if cholesterol is irradiated in chloroform solution. This change in the absorption was similar to the change that is produced by irradiation with ultra violet. If commercial cholesterol is exposed for a short time to ultra violet radiation from a mercury arc, it obtains a curative effect on rickets and there seems to be a correlation between the activity and the change in the absorption. It seems, therefore, that cholesterol in a chloroform solution might obtain anti-rachitic properties by being exposed to roentgen radiation. After some preliminary tests with the production of rickets in rats, the following experiment was carried out. Through the courtesy of Dr. Cornelia Kennedy a litter of 8 rats was obtained after weaning, at the age of 28 days. The mother rat had been fed on Steenbocks diet 3 which is poor in vitamine A. The eight rats were put on Steenbock and Nelsons diet No. 2966 4 free from vitamine D. Rats C and D were on this diet alone; A and B received 0.2 cc. of codliver oil per day; E and F received unirradiated cholesterol, and G and H received cholesterol which had been exposed to roentgen rays while dissolved in chloroform. The codliver oil was fed by means of a pipette. The cholesterol was administered by pouring 1 cc. of a solution of 0.6 gr. of Kahlbaums cholesterol in 100 cc. chloroform on the days ration and the chloroform evaporated off at room temperature. Any food remaining was added to the next ration.

The Bunsen-Roscoe Law Tested for Roentgen Rays on Mammalian Lymphoid Cells:

Conclusion Within the limits studied the Bunsen-Roscoe Law applied.

Effect of Spaced Radiations on Lymphoid Cells in Tissue Culture

Conclusion Spaced radiation was found to be slightly more effective in inhibiting the migration rate of lymphoid cells when the interval between the radiations was 3 hours. Limited data at the indicated shorter intervals failed to reveal this difference.

A Semi-Automatic Implant-Cutter

TECHNICIANS who collect and handle radium emanation are inevitably exposed to some radiation. The accumulation of the effect from such exposures may easily exceed the safe limit, with serious consequences. It is necessary, therefore, to take certain precautions, and it is, of course, best to reduce the exposure as much as possible. An automatic implant-cutter is one of the most helpful devices to reduce the time required to handle implants and to minimize the exposure. Immediately after a piece of gold tubing has been filled with radon on the emanation plant, it sends out only a negligible amount of gamma rays. This radiation increases rapidly with time, to reach its maximum value after about five hours. After one hour the value exceeds 50 per cent of the maximum, and it is evident, therefore, that a person handling this tubing for more than a few minutes would be exposed to a fair amount of radiation. The whole tubing can be cut off from the emanation plant immediately after it has been filled. It then h...

Fading of Methylene Blue-Acetone Solutions by Ultra-Violet Light

Summary 1. The quantity of methylene blue in acetone solutions faded by ultra-violet from a mercury arc lamp decreases when the shorter wavelengths are absorbed by filters. 2. Addition of acetone to aqueous methylene blue solutions increases the effectiveness of the rays up to 300 mμ. 3. An aqueous solution of methylene blue and 30% acetone is not suitable for measurements of physiologically active ultra-violet radiation from an arc unless a suitable filter is used which reduces the intensity below 280 mμ 4. Methylene blue acetone solutions undergo a color change from blue to green to yellow which reverses direction when the solutions are removed from the irradiation beam. Recently Nurnberger and Arnow 1 found that solutions of methylene blue in water irradiated under a mercury-arc therapy lamp had their absorption spectra changed quantitatively when the rays from the lamp were filtered through quartz. If, however, the rays shorter than 270 millimicrons were absorbed by a suitable filter, then practically no change in the absorption spectrum, either in the visible or ultra-violet, occurred for exposures 2 hours in length. It was, therefore, concluded that the fading of methylene blue in water is not a satisfactory indication of ultra-violet ray intensity in general. Leonard Hill 2 and Webster, Hill and Eidinow 3 used the fading of methylene blue in acetone solutions when exposed to ultra-violet light to measure the intensity of the “physiologically active” part of the spectrum of sun light. Hill found his solutions to be most sensitive to wave lengths shorter than 320 mμ. In this respect, methylene blue in acetone and methylene blue in water behave alike, though it seemed indicated that the sensitivity of the former solution extended to longer rays. Accurate intensity measurements require knowledge about the response of the indicator to the different wave lengths of the light used. The usual and essential procedure in the use of bolometers, thermopiles, photoelectric cells and other instruments used to measure intensity of radiation is to determine beforehand their sensitivity to different spectral regions. The same care, however, is not commonly observed when colored solutions are used, and therefore, the results are only approximate and are unsatisfactory for ultraviolet therapy. Colored solution indicators with known spectral sensitivity have, however, some advantages over the instruments mentioned. Particularly, the simplicity of the experimental apparatus gives to the method a more extensive usage than can be had with more costly equipment.