Objective: This work aims to define patient doses and factors which influence them for all critical groups of patients in routine mammography. Methods: A level of risks and benefits of screening mammography is under constant scrutiny. The size which best describes the amount of risk for glandular tissue caused by application of radiation in mammography is called mean glandular dose. One hundred and five patients from 40 to 78 years of age were included in this study from the Department of Radiology of the University Clinical Center Tuzla. Clinical data were collected from 400 mammograms taken from 105 women from routine mammographic screening. The exposure conditions of each mammogram were recorded. The mean glandular dose was calculated based on measuring ESAK, half value layer, kVp, mAs, breast thickness and clinical spectrum. Results: Mean MGD for women between 40 and 49 was 1.22 ± 0.47 mGy, for the group between 50 and 64 mean MGD was 1.24 ± 0.45 mGy and 1.23 ± 0.40 mGy for the group between 65 and 78. According to the correlation analysis, there was significant statistical significance between the MGD and a CBT (r = 0.709, p < 0.01). Conclusion: Values of MGD doses ranged within acceptable limits and were somewhat higher due to the extremely high value of compressed breast thickness.

The optimal treatment for appendiceal mass formed after appendiceal rupture due to acute appendicitis is surrounded with controversy. The treatment strategy ranges from open surgery (emergency or interval appendectomy), laparoscopic appendectomy, and image-guided drainage, to conservative treatment with or without antibiotics. Nonsurgical treatment (including conservative and drainage treatment), followed by interval appendectomy to prevent recurrence, is the traditional management of these patients. The need for interval appendectomy after a successful conservative or/and image-guided drainage treatment, has recently been questioned as the risk of recurrence is relatively small. Several authors consider that even in cases involving only ambulatory follow-up observation, without interval surgery after conservative management, the recurrence rate and risks of missing underlying pathologies were not high. This article evaluates the minimally invasive treatment modalities in the management of appendiceal mass, risk of undetected serious disease, and the need for interval appendectomy to prevent recurrence.

Dear Editor, Patients with communication between pancreatic pseudocysts (PPC) and pancreatic duct (PD) require a longer duration of drainage, due to the short-term drainage resulting in very high recurrence rates. However, with prolonged drainage period, the risk of septic complications is also potentially increased.1-3 The aim of the study was to evaluate the results of prolonged percutaneous catheter drainage (PCD) in the treatment of recurrent PPC with PPC-PD communication, including its outcome and complications.

A pancreatic pseudocyst (PPC) is typically a complication of acute and chronic pancreatitis, trauma or pancreatic duct obstruction. The diagnosis of PPC can be made if an acute fluid collection persists for 4 to 6 wk and is enveloped by a distinct wall. Most PPCs regress spontaneously and require no treatment, whereas some may persist and progress until complications occur. The decision whether to treat a patient who has a PPC, as well as when and with what treatment modalities, is a difficult one. PPCs can be treated with a variety of methods: percutaneous catheter drainage (PCD), endoscopic transpapillary or transmural drainage, laparoscopic surgery, or open pseudocystoenterostomy. The recent trend in the management of symptomatic PPC has moved toward less invasive approaches such as endoscopic- and image-guided PCD. The endoscopic approach is suitable because most PPCs lie adjacent to the stomach. The major advantage of the endoscopic approach is that it creates a permanent pseudocysto-gastric track with no spillage of pancreatic enzymes. However, given the drainage problems, the monitoring, catheter manipulation and the analysis of cystic content are very difficult or impossible to perform endoscopically, unlike in the PCD approach. Several conditions must be met to achieve the complete obliteration of the cyst cavity. Pancreatic duct anatomy is an important factor in the prognosis of the treatment outcome, and the recovery of disrupted pancreatic ducts is the main prognostic factor for successful treatment of PPC, regardless of the treatment method used. In this article, we review and evaluate the minimally invasive approaches in the management of PPCs.

This document refers to the non-stationary heat conduction through transparent thermal insulators. Non-stationary heat transfer means that temperature varies in time, in all points of the thermal field. Temporal and spatial distributions of the temperature inside of the sample are experimentally determined.

This paper explains passive collection of solar radiation energy using transparent thermal insulators. Transparent thermal insulators are transparent for sunlight, at the same time those are very good thermal insulators. Transparent thermal insulators can be placed instead of standard conventional thermal insulators and additionally transparent insulators can capture solar radiation, transform it into heat and save heat just as standard insulators. Using transparent insulators would lead to reduce in usage of fossil fuels and would help protection of an environment and reduce effects of global warming, etc.

The management of liver abscess (LA) has shifted toward intravenous broad‐spectrum antibiotics and image‐guided percutaneous needle aspiration (PNA) or percutaneous catheter drainage (PCD).

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed type of cancer nowadays and it is the leading cause of death caused by cancer in women (Jemal et al., 2011). It has become one of the main health problems both in developed and in developing countries. More than a million new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year all over the world (Ferlay et al., 2004). According to researches of the American Cancer Society (American Cancer Society, 2002), since 2002 breast cancer has been the second largest cause of death caused by cancer in women. According to a research conducted in 2007 in Korea, breast cancer was the second most frequently detected type of cancer in women (Kyu-Won et al., 2010). In 2008 there were 3, 2 million (Ferlay et al., 2010) new cases of cancer in Europe out of which 421, 000 (13,1%) (Ferlay et al., 2010) cases were breast cancers. According to the mentioned research, after colorectal cancer (436, 000 cases) breast cancer is the second most frequently registered cancer in Europe (Ferlay et al., 2010). In Bosnia and Herzegovina 1600 new cases of breast cancer are registered every year (Saric, 2009). Nowadays, mammography represents the best diagnostic way for detection of breast cancer. This diagnostic medical discipline applies a specially designed roentgen apparatus for breast examination. A good topographic position and a high degree of mobility of the breast (Fajdic, 2001) enable a great number of early diagnosed breast cancers detected with mammography. Ultrasound breast diagnostic is often used as an additional method to classic mammography for breast cancer detection, especially identification of cysts in the breast (Fajdic, 2001). Nowadays there are classic (film-screen) and digital mammography. While digital mammography enables a superior contrast resolution, its spatial resolution is somewhat lower in regard to the standard technique (Kuzmiak et al., 2005). Advantages and disadvantages of these two types of mammography were compared in more than ten studies (Rosselli Del Turco et al., 2007; Skaane, 2009). One of the main arguments for giving priority to digital mammography in regard to classic mammography was the fact that digital systems cause less radiation during an examination (Hermann et al., 2002; Moran et al., 2005). The newest study shows that digital mammography cannot guarantee significantly lower patient doses in regard to classic mammography (Hauge et al., 2011). The objective of most studies about mammography is to define benefits and risks caused by application of radiation in

Background: The study aimed to explore effects of dispersed radiation on radiosensitive organs during mammography. The thyroid and the gonads are determined as key organs for exploration of dispersed radiation: the first one due to its vicinity to the dispersion zone and the second ones due to their symmetrical position in regard to the thyroid, which enables an assessment of distribution of dispersed radiation in regard to a compression plate. Materials and Methods: Entrance skin doses were defined during diagnostic procedures, using thermoluminescent dosimeters attached to the skin surface above the thyroid and the gonads for the purpose of exploration of dispersed radiation effects. Results: Results obtained indicate that medium entrance skin doses on skin around the thyroid were 0, 211 ± 0, 107 mGy per woman and 0, 017 ± 0, 012 mGy per woman on skin around the gonads. Measuring confirms that there is a significant correlation between entrance skin doses for the thyroid and total applied mAs during mammography (r = 0, 802, p<0, 01). Conclusion: Measuring defined that most of dispersed radiation was directed towards the area above breasts and the thyroid and only a small amount covered the area under the breasts and went towards the gonads. Entering skin doses for the thyroid ranged from 0.10 to 0, 51 mGy while the dose received by the thyroid varied from 0, 7 % to 1, 6 % of the MGD dose. Entrance skin doses for the gonads can be 13 times less than the thyroid dose and cannot be concerned dangerous for the gonads.

An objective of mammographic screening is an early detection of breast cancer. At this moment there is no any known or published data about doses for women included into mammography screening in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hence, a potential risk of cancerogenesis caused by radiation in this procedure is increasing. The object of this research was to define a mean glandular dose (MGD) at mediolateral (MLO) and craniocaudal (CC) projection for every individual breast and a total dose for a whole mammographic examination at the Radiology Clinic (of the University of Sarajevo Clinics Centre) for two different age groups (age: 40 – 49 and 50 - 64). Dose estimates were made for 63 patients who were subdued to a routine mammographic examination and they involved corrections in regard to variations of age, breast thickness and applied clinical spectra. A mean MGD for women between 40 and 49 was 1, 64 mGy for a MLO screen and 1, 36 mGy for a CC screen. For a group between 50 and 64 mean MGD was 1, 74 mGy for a MLO screen and 1, 45 mGy for a CC screen. Differences of MGD at MLO and CC examination are caused by a huger thickness of a compressed breast at MLO projection, which is 9 - 11 % huger than on CC projection. According to a performed correlation analysis one defined a remarkable significance between MGD and thickness of a compressed breast for MLO and CC screens ; the first age group (MLO: r=0, 852 , p < 0, 01 ; CC : r = 0, 817, p < 0, 01) and the second age group (MLO : r = 0, 721, p < 0, 01 ; CC : r = 0, 674 , p < 0, 01). MGD for the whole mammographic examination was 3, 11 mGy and it was significantly connected to breast thickness (r= 0, 77 , p < 0, 01).

SUMMARY. In this paper we were investigate possibility of using neural network algorithms in prediction of mean glandular dose (MGD), based on the measurement of the compressed breast thickness (CBT) in patients population between 40 – 65 years. According to the available information’s this is the first time that is someone explored this possibility of using neural networks in prediction of MGD based on the information of CBT. The primary aim of this method is reducing unnecessary overdose of X–ray exposure to patients. The study population consisted of 63 patients (234 screens) from 40 to 64 year during routine mammographic control. The best results were achieved with Levenberg-Marquardt learning algorithm where correlation factor between neural network outputs and targets was R=0.845 (71.4%).