We established a model to calculate radioactive waste from sewage disposal tank of hospitals to optimize the number of patients receiving inpatient radioiodine therapy within the safety guideline in our country. According to this model and calculation of radioactivity concentration using the number of patients per week, the treatment dose of radioiodine, the capacity and the number of sewage tanks and the daily amount of water waste per patient, estimated concentration of radioactivity in sewage waste upon disposal from disposal tanks after longterm retention were within the safety guideline (30 Bq/L) in all the hospitals examined. In addition to the fact that we could increase the number of patients in two thirds of hospitals, we found that the daily amount of waste water was the most important variable to allow the increase of the number of patients within the safety margin of disposed radioactivity. We propose that saving the water amount be led to increase the number of patients and they allow two patients in an already furnished hospital inpatient room to meet the increasing need of inpatient radioiodine treatment for thyroid cancer.
Humans ; Inpatients ; Korea ; Radioactive Waste ; Radioactivity ; Retention (Psychology) ; Sewage ; Thyroid Gland ; Waste Water

Aquatic fungi from four brackish water lakes; Edku, Burullus and Manzala lakes which are located at the northern region of Egypt and Qarun lake that located in El-Fayoum city are reported in this manuscript. Twenty-nine fungal species which belong to 19 genera of aquatic fungi were recovered from water samples collected from the studied lakes. The most frequently isolated fungal species were Chytridium conferrop, Allomyces throughout and Rhizoclosmatium globosum. Thraustochytrium amoeboidum and Leptolegniella exoosporus have a moderately occurrence frequency. The maximum fungal count of recovered aquatic fungi was recorded in Burrullus lake followed by EdKu, Manzala and Qarun lakes. This study was extended to test the ability of six selected aquatic fungi (Brevilegniella keratinophila, Blastocladiella cystogena, Chytridium conferrop, Entophlyctis variabilis, Schizochytrium mangrovei and Thraustochytrium rosii), to uptake the radionuclide from their culture medium as a step to biologically treat the waste water or solution with radio-cesium and radio-cobalt. Fifty seven % of Cs-137 and 35% of Co-60 could be removed from liquid waste by the selected aquatic fungi.
Allomyces ; Blastocladiella ; Colony Count, Microbial ; Egypt ; Fungi* ; Lakes* ; Radioactive Waste* ; Waste Water ; Water

BACKGROUND: It takes long time to cultivate Mycobacterium tuberculosis on solid media from clinical specimens. Although there is progress in the detection of tuberculosis using liquid media, Ogawa media is broadly used in Korea. In the 1990s, the BACTEC 460 system (Becton Dickinson, Sparks, MD, USA) was used in some laboratories in Korea, but at present, it is not used because of the accumulation of radioactive waste and the risk of cross-contamination. The BACTEC MGIT 960 system (Becton Dickinson, Sparks, MD, USA) is one of the new systems using liquid media. MGIT system uses oxygen-quenching fluorescence sensor technology instead of radioactive material. We evaluated MGIT for the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by comparison with Ogawa media. METHODS: A total of 232 sputum specimens were collected from patients admitted to the hospital. All specimens were processed by 4% NaOH and 0.5% NALC. After inoculation of MGIT with 0.5 mL and Ogawa with 0.3 mL of the processed specimen, the media were observed every 3 days until 6 weeks and 8 weeks, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 99 isolates of mycobacteria were recovered from 232 specimens. Ninety nine isolates were detected with MGIT, as contrasted with 64 detected with Ogawa media. The mean times to detection of the Mycobacterium species were 12.6 days for MGIT, 23.7 days for Ogawa media. Contamination rates were 5.1% for MGIT, 5.6% for Ogawa media. CONCLUSION: From our study, we conclude that MGIT is a superior method for recovery rate and time to detection of Mycobacteria to Ogawa media.
Diagnosis ; Fluorescence ; Humans ; Korea ; Mycobacterium ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Radioactive Waste ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Sputum ; Tuberculosis

The purpose or this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) in prostate disease with Tandem-E method. The advantages of this immunoenzymatic assay (Tandem-E) are that no radioactive material must be handled by laboratory personnel, no radioactive waste products must be disposed of in a meticulous manner and it is markedly less expensive to establish a laboratory capable of performing the immunoenzymatic as apposed to the immunoradiometric assay. And the performance characteristics of the Tandem-E PSA were similar to those of the Tandem-R PSA assay. Serum PSA was measured in 30 healthy men without prostate disease as control and 90 prostate disease patients (Chronic prostatitis: 20, Benign prostate hyperplasia(BPH) 40 and Prostate cancer: 30) with Tandem-E & Tandem-R methods. Chronic prostatitis patients were divided into two subgroups(group I: 10 patients with bacterial prostatitis, group II 10 patients with nonbacterial prostatitis), and BPH patients were divided into three subgroups(group A(10): Prostate volume: <25cm3, group B(20) : prostate volume: 26-50cms, group C(10) prostate volume; >51cm 3). Mean(+/-SD) serum PSA(Tandem-E) in control group was 1.88+/-0.85 ng/ml. In chronic prostatic, BPH and prostate cancer group, they were 2.10+/-1.22, 6.64+/-2.85 and 51.21+/-34.05 ng/ml. There was no significant difference between chronic prostatitis and control group(p>0.05), but not in BPH group(p<0.05). The benign prostatic hyperplastic tissue elevated the serum PSA level according to the prostate volume(group A: 4.24+/-1.64, group B: 6.68+/-1.58, group C: 8.79+/-2.27). Mean(+/-SD) serum PSA(Tandem-E) in prostate cancer group was significantly elevated than that of control and BPH group(p<0.05) There was a direct correlation between the serum PSA concentration and clinical stage in prostate cancer group, but PSA is not sufficiently reliable to determine the clinical stage in individual basis. However, if combined with prostate volume, PSA(Tandem-E) may become a vital part of any early detection program. In this study, the results of Tandem-E PSA assay were similar to those of Tandem-R PSA assay in control and prostate disease patients.
Humans ; Immunoradiometric Assay ; Laboratory Personnel ; Male ; Prostate* ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; Prostatitis ; Radioactive Waste