Radiation May Help With Brain Defect

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



Radiation May Help With Brain Defect

House Expands Inquiry Into Fraud at Lab

Korean A-bomb survivor seeks public support in trial

North Korea could re-open nuclear plant in weeks

==============================



diation May Help With Brain Defect



DENVER (AP) Dec 16  - With the zap of a beam, 5-year-old Whitney 

Boyce took a leap toward possible recovery from a brain defect that 

has tyrannically worked to deprive other parts of her body of blood 

since she was born.



Doctors at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center used a 

relatively new surgical device to precisely focus a high 

concentration of radiation on the congenital birth defect made up of 

a tangle of veins and arteries in a small portion of Whitney's brain.



With the procedure, Whitney joined a handful of patients in Colorado 

treated with the Novalis Shaped Beam Surgery device, which uses beams 

of photon energy aimed from several directions to target tumors or 

other growths that can be stopped with radiation.



With help from computer-generated images and a system that precisely 

positions the patient using grids, the radiation beams are molded to 

mirror the shape and size of the growth.



``In your mind, when you hear it's radiation, it's scary. But I think 

this was the best option,'' Theresa Boyce said.



The device - slightly larger than a refrigerator with a giant arm - 

gave doctors the best tool available to treat Whitney's life-

threatening brain defect as well as a host of other ailments, 

including brain tumors.



It could be two years before they know if the procedure worked.



Success would dramatically alter the life of the plucky kindergartner 

- and ultimately may even save it.



Whitney underwent the procedure at the university's Health Sciences 

Center in November.



As a newborn, she was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation, a 

golfball-sized cluster of veins and arteries. The engorged knot 

hogged blood from parts of her body, turning her blue and sending her 

into congestive heart failure.



Doctors ultimately were able to pull Whitney out of heart failure, 

but a new problem emerged: She went through a brief spell of 

suffering seizures. The next several years were punctuated by 

frequent trips to doctors and specialists who helped Whitney escape 

major developmental problems. Many times it meant traveling 100 miles 

to Denver from the family's home in Akron.



Much of the medical work was done by Dr. David Kumpe, director of 

interventional radiology and interventional neuroradiology at the 

Health Sciences Center. Kumpe, Whitney's longtime physician, has 

treated the malformation with a series of non-invasive procedures in 

which glue and coils were used to stem blood flow into the knot of 

veins and arteries.



The work helped reduce the influence of the mass, but Kumpe said 

there was a small kidney-bean sized portion remaining in a very 

sensitive area. He didn't want to risk another procedure in that part 

of the brain so he turned to Shaped Beam surgery.



It is designed to focus radiation and destroy blood vessels in 

diseased tissue while leaving surrounding healthy tissue untouched - 

a critical factor when treating the brain or other sensitive parts of 

the body.



Unlike traditional open skull surgery, no incisions are made for the 

Shaped Beam procedure and the treatment can be administered in just 

one dose for many patients.



Experts say similar radiosurgery devices have been available for 

years, but the Shaped Beam system may provide the most versatility.



``It's the best, the newest and most accurate and applicable to the 

most treatment sites (on the body),'' said Timothy Solberg, director 

of the medical physics division at the David Geffen School of 

Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, where the 

first patient was treated with the system in 1998.



``Up until the point of the Novalis, we couldn't shape the radiation 

beam. You had to make some compromises, all of which were less than 

ideal.''



``It's the first time that I've come across something in the medical 

environment that's actually easier to use, but most importantly is 

also better for the patient,'' he added.



Eighteen hospitals nationwide already use the device. Solberg said 

UCLA alone has used the system to treat more than 1,400 brain tumor 

cases.



Unlike the older Gamma Knife - which uses a super-concentrated beam 

of radiation - the Shaped Beam system does not have a radioactive 

source that has to be replaced. It uses electricity.



``I think it's the future for radiosurgery because it can be used for 

many purposes,'' said Dr. Laurie Gaspar, chair of the department of 

radiation oncology at the Health Sciences Center.



If left untreated, the malformation afflicting Whitney has a 95 

percent mortality rate.



With the Shaped Beam surgery, Whitney's prognosis is very good, Kumpe 

said, adding that he hoped most of the mass had dried up.



``If we do an angiogram in two years, it may show that she may need 

to get more treatment,'' he said.



Within two days of the procedure, Whitney was home, demanding to be 

allowed to attend her kindergarten, insisting her presence was 

required because it was her day to bring classmates a snack.



On the Net:



http://www.uch.edu



http://www.brainlab.com

-----------------



House Expands Inquiry Into Fraud at Lab



WASHINGTON (AP) - A House committee is expanding its inquiry into 

allegations of fraud and credit card abuse at Los Alamos National 

Laboratory. A letter from the committee said abuse appears more 

widespread than thought.



The committee issued a sweeping demand for new documents, including 

reports on the alleged irregularities to lab director John C. Browne 

and a breakdown of whether computers missing from the nuclear lab 

contained classified information.



Ken Johnson, the committee spokesman, said three investigators were 

being sent to the lab and will begin work on Monday.



``It is apparent that the amount of fraud and abuse at LANL is much 

more extensive and includes many more employees than we had 

originally at first believed,'' said the letter, signed by the 

committee chairman, Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., and other senior 

committee members.



The letter to Richard Atkinson, president of the University of 

California, which runs the lab, expressed frustration at ``the 

apparent failure of the University of California and LANL to 

sufficiently address these issues over the past several years.''



The letter was sent Tuesday and distributed Friday.



It requested documents regarding the departure of two investigators 

fired after blowing the whistle on the lab's management practices and 

also demanded materials from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the lab's 

auditor.



Johnson said the expanded request for documents was a result of 

questions raised by papers received from an earlier committee 

request, press reports and information from Los Alamos employees 

``suggesting that the problems are more prevalent than first 

reported.''



Danielle Brian, executive director of the Washington-based watchdog 

group Project on Government Oversight, which has worked with Los 

Alamos whistle-blowers, said the letter was an encouraging sign.



``We think it's a great start. It's obviously a serious 

investigation,'' she said.



The Los Alamos lab grew out of the Manhattan Project that developed 

the atomic bomb during World War II and has been a vital part of the 

country's nuclear energy and weapons programs since.



The FBI, the Energy Department's inspector general and the Senate 

Finance Committee also are investigating the allegations of fraud, 

theft and cover-up at the nuclear weapons lab. Three lab employees 

are on administrative leave following initial phases of the 

investigation.



Two investigators, Glenn Walp and Steven Doran, who reported misuse 

of credit cards and missing equipment - some from sensitive areas of 

the lab - were fired.



Walp submitted a report to Los Alamos authorities in March that 

listed 263 computers as missing since 1999, many presumed stolen. In 

all, about $2.7 million worth of equipment is unaccounted for, 

according to Walp's reports.



On Oct. 31, FBI agents carrying search warrants scoured the homes of 

Los Alamos employees Peter Bussolini and Scott Alexander and found 

thousands of dollars worth of goods that may have been acquired by 

abusing lab purchase orders.



A third employee may have used her government credit card to buy a 

Ford Mustang with custom equipment.



On the Net: Los Alamos National Laboratory: http://www.lanl.gov



House Energy and Commerce Committee: http://www.house.gov/commerce/

----------------



Korean A-bomb survivor seeks public support in trial



HIROSHIMA, Dec. 14 (Kyodo) - A Korean survivor of the 1945 U.S. 

atomic bombing of Hiroshima who won a healthcare damages suit in a 

Dec. 5 high court ruling on Saturday asked for public support in 

trying to persuade the government not to appeal to the Supreme Court.



''I think the ruling coalition is moving in the right direction of 

giving up appealing,'' Kwak Kwi Hoon, 78, told a news conference in 

the city of Hiroshima. ''Hiroshima is a central place for A-bomb 

survivor issues. Please exert strong influence.''



The Osaka High Court rejected the state's appeal of the June 2001 

Osaka District Court ruling and ordered the central and Osaka 

prefectural governments to pay Kwak compensation, including 

retroactive payments.



''The reasoning of bureaucrats was completely turned down in the high 

court ruling. There is no more legitimate reason and it is unlikely 

that they can win in similar trials,'' Kwak said. ''If they have 

common sense, they will not appeal.''



Kwak has stayed in Japan since the ruling to call on the government 

to give up appealing to the Supreme Court.



It was the first high court ruling in Japan to recognize that atomic 

bomb survivors who have received an A-bomb survivor's health card but 

live abroad are eligible to receive the allowance based on the Atomic 

Bomb Victims Relief law on the same terms as those living in Japan.



Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota has suggested she will accept the high court 

ruling, while Health minister Chikara Sakaguchi hinted Friday he does 

not intend to appeal.



According to the high court ruling, Kwak was drafted by the Imperial 

Japanese Army in September 1944 and was serving in Hiroshima when the 

United States dropped the atomic bomb on it Aug. 6, 1945.



After World War II, he went to South Korea, but returned to Japan in 

1998 to receive medical treatment. He received 34,000 yen per month 

in medical allowances for two months that year, but the Osaka 

prefectural government stopped payments after he returned to South 

Korea in July in 1998.



On Saturday in the city of Fukuoka, Byong Yong Ok, vice chairman of a 

South Korean association for atomic bombing survivors, also called on 

the government not to appeal.



Speaking at a lecture, Byong said, ''The number of atomic survivors 

is falling every year as they are getting old. They were bombed as 

Japanese citizens. It isn't too late. Please save them.''



Byong was exposed to radiation when he was 10 in Hiroshima. Byong, 

who returned to South Korea, was the first A-bomb survivor abroad to 

receive medical treatment at a Japanese hospital in 1975.



Byong was invited to Japan by a Fukuoka theater group that has 

organized plays related to A-bomb survivors.

------------------



North Korea could re-open nuclear plant in weeks



SEOUL, Dec 13 (Reuters) - North Korea could crank up a mothballed 

nuclear plant at the centre of a suspected arms programme in a couple 

of months, but it would do little to solve the communist state's fuel 

crisis, analysts said on Friday.



Pyongyang said on Thursday it was reactivating a Soviet-built nuclear 

energy research complex at Yongbyon, raising the stakes in a stand-

off at the world's last Cold War flashpoint.



The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said North Korea had 

asked it to unseal and remove surveillance cameras from the plant, 

closed in 1994 after Pyongyang agreed with Washington to freeze its 

nuclear programme in exchange for free energy.



Facing another harsh winter, a North Korean Foreign Ministry 

spokesman said the country had no choice but to revive the Yongbyon 

complex for critically needed power after Washington and its allies 

cut off free oil shipments for North Korea last month.



But the decision to fire up a tiny five-megawatt reactor is hardly a 

solution to the reclusive communist state's energy shortage that has 

shut down factories and condemned most of its 22 million people to 

huddling in dark, cold homes this winter.



"It's almost nothing," said Chang Sun-sup, South Korea's chief 

representative to the Korea Energy Development Organisation, charged 

with implementing the 1994 "Agreed Framework." He said it would take 

"about one to two months' to restart the plant.



SYMBOLIC REOPENING



"It's a symbolic reopening," Chang told Reuters. "But if they operate 

the reactor, they can burn uranium and extract spent fuel from the 

reactor."



That's what North Korea did on at least three occasions between 1989 

and 1991, according to the IAEA. Western intelligence agencies 

suspect North Korea reprocessed enough plutonium for one or two 

atomic bombs.



In October this year North Korea finally acknowledged a programme to 

produce highly enriched uranium, a key ingredient in nuclear weapons. 

That admission prompted the United States and its allies to suspend 

the fuel oil shipments in a bid to force Pyongyang to abandon its 

nuclear arms programme.



The North was promised a $5 billion package under the 1994 deal, 

including two "safe" light water reactors and 500,000 tonnes annually 

of heavy fuel oil to power its creaking Soviet-built factories.



The shipments accounted for 15 percent of the total power output in 

North Korea, where power plants are only operating at 20-30 percent 

capacity, South Korean officials said.



The light water reactors are still under construction.



"Obviously they have a huge energy crisis," said a Beijing-based aid 

worker who visits North Korea frequently. "You drive through the 

countryside there after dark, through huge cities beyond Pyongyang, 

and you don't see a bulb."



The Yongbyon complex, near the northwest city of Taechon, also 

includes a partially completed 50-megawatt plant whose construction 

was halted under the 1994 pact. An IAEA official once described the 

plant as "extremely primitive" and far from ready to produce 

plutonium on an industrial scale.



NEGOTIATING PLOY



Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, said it would take 

about a year of running the five-megawatt reactor before it can 

produce spent fuel that can be processed into plutonium.



"So there is no sense of urgency," he said.



"My guess is this is a ploy to get us back to the table or to 

frighten others to pressure us to return to negotiations, which also 

indicates that they are feeling the pressure from the international 

community," Cossa said.



The Yongbyon complex also contains three nuclear waste storage sites, 

including one designated "Building 500" by the CIA that became 

operational in 1990 and is one of North Korea's suspect undeclared 

nuclear facilities, according to the Center for Nonproliferation 

Studies in Northern California.



North Korea is also believed to be conducting uranium enrichment 

tests at three other sites, South Korea media have reported.



The head of the Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in 

North Korea, Per Gunnar Jenssen, told Reuters by telephone from 

Pyongyang he had seen a slight improvement in the electricity crisis 

earlier this year.



"My observation is that there have been more trucks on the roads this 

autumn than the autumn before, and there has been more trains moving 

around with coal for instance, and this has led to some improvements 

which the Koreans I have spoken to are fearing could be reversed 

again."



-------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle

Director, Technical

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100  Extension 2306

Fax:(714) 668-3149



E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net

E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com



Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/



************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/