Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C E Webber.
The applicability of 25 keV neutrons to the in vivo activation analysis of spinal calcium is examined both theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the use of this energy results in an increase in sensitivity over higher energy neutrons so that patient dose may be significantly reduced.
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The effects of multiple photon scattering and the assumption of infinitesimal beam geometry on the results obtained with a clinical lung densitometer were investigated. In phantom materials, it was possible to account almost completely for the multiple scatter contribution by measurement of transmission for the 170Tm source. A theoretical analysis based on a simplified model showed that the influence of finite geometry was small. Measurements in six normal volunteers showed that lung density is a function of the fractional air content of the lung. To relate density to fractional water content of the lung, measurements must be made at a fixed lung volume. The height in the lung at which measurements are made appears to be unimportant. The results of these experiments enable predictions to be made concerning the clinical usefulness of lung density measurements.
The sensitivity of a technique for the measurement of trabecular bone mineral concentration has been examined theoretically and experimentally. The technique is based on coherent gamma ray scattering and corrections for attenuation are obtained from transmitted photons rather than Compton scattered photons. For an incident photon energy of 60 keV, the minimum detectable bone mineral difference is practically independent of scattering angle while for an incident energy of 100 or 122 keV the scattering angle must be less than 70 degrees to optimize the minimum detectable difference.
A method based on the measurement of fluorescent and transmitted photons has been developed for the quantitative determination of stable iodine concentrations in tissues. The results are independent of the thickness of the material surrounding the measuring site. The method yields an accuracy of better than 3% for both Ge semiconductor and NaI(TI)detector arrangements.
Lean body mass (LBM), total body bone mineral mass (BMC), total body bone areal density (BMD), and body fat mass (FM) were measured in rats by dual photon absorptiometry (DXA), using two different instruments. The coefficients of variation for repeated measurements of LBM and FM were about 0.4 and 2.5%, respectively, over an animal body weight range of 150 to 600 g. For BMC and BMD, the coefficients of variation were less than 2%. The correlation coefficients for LBM, FM, BMC, and BMD measured on the two densitometers were all greater than 0.94. The slope of the regression line relating LBM measured by DXA and LBM measured by carcass analysis was 0.999, and the correlation coefficient was 0.99. For FM the slope was 1.05, and the correlation coefficient was 0.98. BMC measures by DXA were falsely low in small animals. For larger animals, the correlation between BMC and ash weight was 0.93, but the slope of the regression line was 0.78. DXA measures of LBM and FM were accurate and reproducible for rats weighing between 150 and 600 g. There was a size-dependent error in BMC, which will be significant in longitudinal measurements of bone mass.