The subject of this study was a total of 48 epileptic falls or drop attacks in 15 children, captured by a self-tracking video monitoring system. A fall was defined as a complete loss of the maintenance of either standing or sitting posture, which took place within 1 s. The patients with epileptic falling attacks thus defined fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Through precise analysis of the ongoing sequence from the onset to the completion of the fall, it was possible to classify them into the following four types: (a) tonic type, 9 falls in five patients; (b) flexor spasms type, 25 falls in eight patients; (c) myoclonic-atonic type, 12 falls in three patients; and (d) atonic type, 2 falls in one patient. In contrast to the generally accepted view, it was found that atonic or myoclonic-atonic falls were rather exceptional. Seven of eight children whose falls were categorized as the flexor spasms type, which is reminiscent of infantile spasms in terms of clinical as well as EEG expressions, in fact experienced in their individual history West syndrome before it evolved to Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. In particular, the extreme pathophysiological complexity of epileptic falls or drop attacks is stressed.
We constructed a laboratory-size three-dimensional water window x-ray microscope that combines wide-field transmission x-ray microscopy with tomographic reconstruction techniques, and observed bio-medical samples to evaluate its applicability to life science research fields. It consists of a condenser and an objective grazing incidence Wolter type I mirror, an electron-impact type oxygen Kα x-ray source, and a back-illuminated CCD for x-ray imaging. A spatial resolution limit of around 1.0 line pairs per micrometer was obtained for two-dimensional transmission images, and 1-μm scale three-dimensional fine structures were resolved.
With an environmental chamber (wet cell) using polypropylene foils as windows, wet specimens were observed at a wavelength of 4.6 nm with a zone plate imaging X-ray microscope installed at the beamline 8 A of UVSOR (synchrotron radiation facility at Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki, Japan). Images of spicule of trepang, human blood cells and cultured protoplast of plant cell stained by methyl mercury were observed with good contrast.
We developed a laboratory-size three-dimensional water-window x-ray microscope using condenser and objective grazing incidence Wolter type I mirrors, an electron-impact-type x-ray source, and a back-illuminated CCD. The imaging system was improved for practical applications in life science research fields. Using a new objective mirror with reduced figure errors, a resolution limit of 3.1 line pairs/μm was achieved for two-dimensional transmission images and sub-micrometer-scale three-dimensional structures were resolved. Incorporating a cryogenic stage into the x-ray microscope, we observed biological samples embedded in ice to evaluate the usefulness of observation in the water-window region and multi-energy observation was demonstrated using an x-ray source with multiple x-ray tubes.
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