We present the design parameters, production process, and in-flight performance of the X-ray telescope (XRT) onboard Suzaku. The imaging capability is significantly improved over the ASCA XRT, which had half-power diameters of ${3\rlap {.}{}^{\mathrm {\prime }}6}$, to ${1\rlap {.}{}^{\mathrm {\prime }}8}$–${2\rlap {.}{}^{\mathrm {\prime }}3}$ for all four XRT-I modules. The optical axes are found to be distributed within a radius of ${1\rlap {.}{}^{\mathrm {\prime }}3}$, which makes the observation efficiency of all the XRTs more than 97% at the XIS-default observing position. The vignetting over the XIS field of view predicted via ray-tracing coincides with that measured for observations of the Crab Nebula to within $\sim 10\%$. Contemporaneous fits of a power law to all of the XIS spectra of the Crab Nebula taken at the two standard observing positions (XIS/HXD-default positions) gives a flux consistent with that obtained by Toor and Seward (1974, AJ, 79, 995) to within $\sim 2\%$. The pre-collimator on the top of each XRT module successfully reduces the intensity of the stray light from the $20'$ and $50'$-off directions down to the level of pre-flight expectations.

High resolution spectroscopy of AE Aquarii with the XMM-Newton RGS has enabled us to measure the electron number density of the X-ray-emitting hot plasma to be ∼ 10 11 cm −3 by means of intensity ratios of the He-like triplet of Nitrogen and Oxygen. Incorporating with the emission measure evaluated by the EPIC cameras, we have also found a linear scale of the plasma to be ≃ 5×10 10 cm. Both these values, obtained model-independently, are incompatible with a standard post-shock accretion column of a magnetized white dwarf, but are naturally interpreted as the plasma being formed through interaction between an accretion flow and the magnetosphere of the white dwarf. Our results provide another piece of evidence of the magnetic propeller effect being at work in AE Aqr.

The CB method with immunostaining showed a higher diagnostic yield than smear cytology in patients who had undergone EUS-FNA without rapid on-site cytology.

Noriyuki Kojima1YojiMaetani1 Toshiya Shibata1 Junji Konishi1 OBJECTIVE.We compared early-phase CT with late-phase CT in the evaluation of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. MATERIALS

We herein report a patient with strictures of the hepatic hilar and intrapancreatic bile duct associated with autoimmune pancreatitis, who responded well to corticosteroid therapy. Although this bile duct lesion resembled primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) morphologically,its dramatic response to corticosteroid therapy seems to indicate that it is a different entity. A review of the literature revealed 13 patients with multiple biliary strictures and chronic pancreatitis successfully treated with corticosteroid therapy. From the clinical point of view, knowledge of the existence of a patient group with autoimmune pancreatitis with morphology similar to that of PSC and which responds well to corticosteroid therapy is important.

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The aim of this preliminary study was to retrospectively evaluate the usefulness of high b-value diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) in the detection of gallbladder carcinoma. Fifteen patients with gallbladder carcinoma and 14 other patients were included in this study. All patients and subjects underwent DWI, and images were evaluated by two radiologists. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurement, sensitivity and specificity were calculated. An AUC yielded 0.980 (95% CI, 0.850-0.999) and 0.941 (95% CI, 0.791-0.990) for the two radiologists. The mean sensitivity and specificity were 83.3% and 100%, respectively. The mean ADC value of gallbladder carcinoma was (1.28 +/- 0.41)x10(-3) mm(2)/s and that of control gallbladder lesions was (1.92 +/- 0.21)x10(-3) mm(2)/s (P < 0.01). According to the results of our preliminary study, high b-value DWI might be a useful tool for detecting gallbladder carcinoma by measuring the ADC value and direct visual assessment.

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