The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of aminoguanidine (AG) on slowing of motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) of the sciatic nerve in streptozocin-induced diabetic rats and to assess its mechanism of action. The MNCV of the sciatic nerve was measured electrophysiologically in diabetic rats treated with and without AG for 16 weeks. To elucidate the action of AG, morphological lesion and abnormality of polyol pathway metabolism in the nerve were examined and tissue levels of advanced glycosylation end-products (AGE) were determined as an indicator of AGE accumulation in tissue. Diabetic rats were treated with AG at three doses of 10, 25 and 50 mg/kg for 16 weeks. Myelinated fiber morphometry and nerve Na+,K(-)-ATPase activity were determined. The AGE levels in renal cortex were measured by a specific ELISA. Aminoguanidine dose-dependently ameliorated slowing of MNCV 16 weeks after the treatment without changing body weight or blood glucose levels. No difference in myelinated fiber morphometry or Na+,K(+)-ATPase activity with or without AG treatment was detected in diabetic rats. Diabetes increased the AGE level in the renal cortex by six times compared to non-diabetic rats, and AG reduced the rise in the AGE level by 40%. The MNCV was inversely correlated with the AGE levels. We conclude that improvement of conduction slowing by AG in experimental diabetes may be through decreasing the AGE level in the peripheral tissues. Aminoguanidine may have a therapeutic potential in controlling diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

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This study aimed to propose a patient positioning assistive technique using computed tomography (CT) scout images. A total of 210 patients who underwent CT scans in a single center, including on the upper abdomen, were divided into a study set of 127 patients for regression and 83 patients for verification. Linear regression analysis was performed to determine the R 2 coefficient and the linear equation related to the mean pixel value of the scout image and ideal table height (THideal). The average pixel values of the scout image were substituted into the regression equation to estimate the THideal. To verify the accuracy of this method, the distance between the estimated table height (THest) and THideal was measured. The medians of age (in years), gender (male/female), height (in centimeters), and body weight (in kilograms) for the regression and verification groups were 68 versus 70, 85/42 versus 55/28, 163.8 versus 163.0, and 59.9 versus 61.9, respectively. Linear regression analysis indicated a high coefficient of determination (R 2 = 0.91) between the mean pixel value of the scout image and THideal. The correlation coefficient between THideal and THest was 0.95 (95% confidence interval, 0.92–0.97; P < 0.0001), systematic bias was 0.2 mm, and the limits of agreement were −5.4 to 5.9 (P = 0.78). The offset of the table height with THest was 2.8 ± 2.1 mm. The proposed estimation method using scout images could improve the automatic optimization of table height in CT, and it can be used as a general-purpose automatic positioning technique.