The ASP of primary NSCLCs on FDG PET images is associated with tumour dimensions and molecular markers of proliferation and angiogenesis.

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• DTPI did not improve accuracy of PET-based LN staging in NSCLC. • Analyzed SUV ratios were not superior to LN SUVmax or SUVmean. • A four-step visual score may allow highly accurate, standardized LN assessment.

The proper interpretation of animal experiments on particulate materials i s essential in order to properly identify the relative risk associated with human exposure to these materials. This article reviews the pathology of experimental dust-induced pulmonary lesions, discusses factors necessary for the proper interpretation of these results, and makes recommendations for the design and conduct of future studies. In experimental studies, animals are often exposed to high concentrations of dusts that overwhelm normal lung clearance mechanisms, resulting in the somewhat poorly defined condition of "dust overload." The pulmonary response to this intra-alveolar dust loading is nonspecific and thus morphologically similar regardless of the dust type studied. In the rat, these lesions are characterized by alveolar macrophage accumulation, necrosis of pneumocytes, granuloma formation, fibrosis, and bronchiolarization and squamous metaplasia of alveoli. Depending on exposurz concentration and duration, bronchiolealveolar ademonas and adenocarcinomas and cystic keratinizing squamous lesions may occur. The squamous lesions appear to represent a response unique to the rat. The significance of studies using dust concentrations that produce these nonspecific lesions is questionable since such conditions, with extreme exception, do not occur in humans. Further, fibrogenic or carcinogenic properties that may be specific to a particular dust at exposure concentrations relevant to humans may actually be masked by the nonspecific response that occurs following dust overload. Studies with dust at concentrations that produce an interstitial dust loading but that are below the threshold for intra-alveolar dust overload are more relevant for human health hazard identification. This has been best demonstrated by the results of numerous studies with asbestos in rats where fibrosis and neoplasia, morphologically similar to that seen in humans, have been produced in the absence of the nonspecific lesions seen in dust overload. The interpretation of studies where dusts are administrated by nonconventional routes should also be undertaken with caution. for example, serosa tests bypass an important mechanistic step in fiber-induced mesothelioma, namely, the ability of a dust to reach the pleura surface following inhalation. In addition, such tests may produce diagnostic dilemmas since reactive changes on serosal surfaces, which are expected following application of any foreign substance, may be difficult to differentiate from a neoplastic response. Future studies to assess the human health hazards of fibrous and nonfibrous dusts should be conducted at concentrations that allow for the characterization of responses specific to a given dust and by exposure routes most representative of that experienced by humans.

Two hundred and thirty‐five cryoprecipitates were sampled and assayed for Factor VIII activity. Two hundred and twenty‐five of these were given to 11 patients with hemophilia on 53 occasions. The patients' Factor VIII levels were measured just before and 15 minutes after infusion. The rise in Factor VIII activity averaged 97 per cent of the expected rise calculated from the cryoprecipitate assays and plasma volume estimates. The mean Factor VIII content per bag of cryoprecipitate was 61 units. There is a highly significant probability that the smallest volume cryoprecipitates had significantly less Factor VIII than average and that the largest volume cryoprecipitates had significantly more Factor VIII than the average.