10205 results about "After treatment" patented technology

A system and method of obtaining serial biochemical, anatomical or physiological in vivo measurements of disease from one or more medical images of a patient before, during and after treatment, and measuring extent and severity of the disease is provided. First anatomical and functional image data sets are acquired, and form a first co-registered composite image data set. At least a volume of interest (ROI) within the first co-registered composite image data set is identified. The first co-registered composite image data set including the ROI is qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed to determine extent and severity of the disease. Second anatomical and functional image data sets are acquired, and form a second co-registered composite image data set. A global, rigid registration is performed on the first and second anatomical image data sets, such that the first and second functional image data sets are also globally registered. At least a ROI within the globally registered image data set using the identified ROI within the first co-registered composite image data set is identified. A local, non-rigid registration is performed on the ROI within the first co-registered composite image data set and the ROI within the globally registered image data set, thereby producing a first co-registered serial image data set. The first co-registered serial image data set including the ROIs is qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed to determine severity of the disease and / or response to treatment of the patient.

Method for assessing the patency of a patient's blood vessel, advantageously during or after treatment of that vessel by an invasive procedure, comprising administering a fluorescent dye to the patient; obtaining at least one angiographic image of the vessel portion; and evaluating the at least one angiographic image to assess the patency of the vessel portion. Other related methods are contemplated, including methods for assessing perfusion in selected body tissue, methods for evaluating the potential of vessels for use in creation of AV fistulas, methods for determining the diameter of a vessel, and methods for locating a vessel located below the surface of a tissue.

This invention provides articles and methods for drug delivery including a hydrogel containing one or more drugs for the treatment of a posterior segment disease and / or dry eye conditions. Exemplary drugs are anti-angiogenesis compounds for the treatment of macular degeneration. Allowing passive transference of this drug from a dilute solution into the hydrogel produces the delivery system. The hydrogel, when placed in contact with the eye, delivers the drug. The delivery of the drug is sustained over an extended period of time, which is of particular utility in the eye, which is periodically flushed with tears. This sustained delivery accelerates the treatment process while avoiding potential damaging effects of localized delivery of high concentrations of compounds, e.g., from eye drops.

Well treatment is disclosed that includes injecting a well treatment fluid with insoluble polyol polymer such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) dispersed therein, depositing the insoluble polymer in the wellbore or an adjacent formation, and thereafter dissolving the polymer by reducing salinity and / or increasing temperature conditions in the environment of the polymer deposit. The method is disclosed for filter cake formation, fluid loss control, drilling, hydraulic fracturing and fiber assisted transport, where removal of the polyol at the end of treatment or after treatment is desired. The method is also disclosed for providing dissolved polyol as a delayed breaker in crosslinked polymer viscosified systems and viscoelastic surfactant systems. Also disclosed are well treatment fluids containing insoluble amorphous or at least partially crystalline polyol, and a PVOH fiber composition wherein the fibers are stabilized from dissolution by salinity.

A compression garment for selective application for treatment of lymphedema and prevention of local ischemia of tissues at various locations of the body. The garment includes a pair or series of layers of hermetically sealed material, that can capture pressurized air, when applied therein, and is formed through the patterned sealing of the layers of the garment together, at select locations, to form air pockets that can selectively apply isolated points of pressure to the patient's affected area, without disrupting normal vascular and lymphatic functioning. The garment is design cut, for application to various segments of the body, and applies encompassing pressure over the entire affected area, and includes valves that can allow for the injection of measurable air, to the desired pressure points, or its deflation, after treatment. The compression device of this invention may also be formed as a segmented pad or mat, into which pneumatic pressurized air may be applied, at various segments, so as to regulate the amount of pressure applied to the surface of the body that is in contact with the pad or mat of this invention.

Nicotine dependency is treated by administration of an opioid antagonist. In some embodiments, rapid or ultra rapid detoxification techniques include using a combination of an effective amount of an opioid antagonist such as nalmefene, naloxone or naltrexone or a mixture of any one of these, and either clonidine or related compounds either while awake, or while under sedation or anesthesia, followed by continued administration of an effective amount of an opioid antagonist with or without agents that enhance nicotine dependency treatment. Persons are also treated for nicotine dependency with more gradual detoxification methods using administration of a combination of an effective amount of an opioid antagonist such as nalmefene, naloxone, naltrexone, or a mixture of any of these, and an effective amount of agents used to treat nicotine withdrawal including nicotine, such as that delivered by a nicotine patch, nicotine chewing gum, nicotine inhaler or other methods for delivering nicotine, antidepressants and antianxiety agents, and / or clonidine and related compounds. Administration of an effective amount of an opioid antagonist to prevent relapse, attenuate craving, and reduce weight gain during and after treatment for nicotine dependency is continued in some embodiments.

A gastrointestinal implant device is positioned in a patient's small intestine or rectum and produces an outward force that itself produces a distension signal which is a therapeutically useful neural or humoral signal that evokes satiogenic or weight loss effects by itself. The device may advantageously be placed in the duodenum adjacent the pylorus or in the jejunum, ileum or rectum. The distension signals may amplify chemosensory or mechanosensory signals such as enteroendocrine secretions within the patient. The device may be a mesh and include a low material density that allows for unrestricted chyme absorption within the small intestine and unrestricted chyme flow through the gastrointestinal system. A method includes inserting the device into the patient then either retrieving the device after treatment is complete or allowing a device formed of a biodegradable material to degrade in time after treatment is complete.

Biological samples including cell-free DNA fragments are analyzed to identify imbalances in chromosomal regions, e.g., due to deletions and / or amplifications in a tumor. Multiple loci are used for each chromosomal region. Such imbalances can then be used to diagnose (screen) a patient for cancer, as well as prognosticate a patient with cancer, or to detect the presence or to monitor the progress of a premalignant condition in a patient. The severity of an imbalance as well as the number of regions exhibiting an imbalance can be used. A systematic analysis of non-overlapping segments of a genome can provide a general screening tool for a sample. Additionally, a patient can be tested over time to track severity of each of one or more chromosomal regions and a number of chromosomal regions to enable screening and prognosticating, as well as monitoring of progress (e.g. after treatment).

The present invention provides methods for improving the performance of a consumer wrinkle control composition by making the composition available to the consumer and providing information to the consumer concerning the use of the composition to control wrinkles in fabrics without the application of heat. Information may be provided by teaching educational elements and disseminating educational elements to consumers in an efficient, effective, and affordable manner as well as techniques for heightening consumer awareness of the product. The information that is provided to the consumer may concerns the use of the composition to remove or control wrinkles in fabrics without the application of heat, instructions for the proper use of the product, the product's effectiveness, the appearance of the fabric in the finished state after treatment, how the product can be incorporated into the consumer's everyday habits and lifestyles, additional non-wrinkle related benefits that may be achieved with the product and how the composition can be effectively and safely used by most members of the consumer's household. Also provided are methods for prolonging or extending the useful life of fabric items that require frequent and repeated laundering processes and that are prone to cause incremental damage to fabric fibers. The useful life of such fabric items is prolonged by enabling the item to be revitalized or renewed for rewear without laundering, thus reducing the number of launderings and the resulting damage to fabric fibers over a given period of time.

A compression garment for selective application for treatment of lymphedema and related illnesses manifested at various locations of the body. The garment includes a pair or series of layers of hermetically sealed material, that can capture pressurized air, when applied therein, and is formed through the patterned sealing of the layers of the garment together, at select locations, to form air pockets that can selectively apply isolated points of pressure to the patient's affected area, without disrupting normal vascular and lymphatic functioning. The garment is design cut, for application to various segments of the body, and applies encompassing pressure over the entire affected area, and includes valves that can allow for the injection of measurable air, to the desired pressure points, or its deflation, after treatment.

In one embodiment, a system may include a gas turbine system. the gas turbine system includes a gas turbine, an after-treatment system that may receive exhaust gases from the gas turbine system, and a controller that may receive inputs and model operational behavior of an industrial plant based on the inputs. The industrial plant may include the gas turbine and the after-treatment system. The controller may also determine one or more operational parameter setpoints for the industrial plant, select the one or more operational parameter setpoints that reduce an output of a cost function, and apply the one or more operational parameter setpoints to control the industrial plant.

The invention relates to an electrosurgical instrument comprising two limbs that have an articulated connection and that can be actuated in the manner of a cutting or a clamping tool. The instrument also comprises opposing electrode parts with coagulation surfaces on distal ends of its limbs for holding a vessel or tissue and for passing a current through said vessel or tissue to cause it to coagulate. At least one electrode part has an open region that acts as a guide gap for a cutting instrument, so that the electrode part(s) is / are divided into at least two areas and the cutting instrument can be applied to the clamped vessel or tissue to execute a cutting operation. In addition, current supply devices supply the coagulation current from a high-frequency generator to the electrode parts. The improved configuration of said electrosurgical instrument allows the open region on the electrode part(s) to afford optimal guidance of a cutting instrument, whereby said open region can be easily prepared for additional cutting operations and / or be subjected to an after-treatment. To achieve this, the two or more open regions of the electrode part(s) comprise respective opposing separation surfaces that taper in the direction of the coagulation surfaces.

The invention relates generally to systems and devices for material delivery, energy delivery, and / or monitoring electrophysiological activity, and method of use thereof. In particular, the present invention provides devices and systems, and methods of use thereof, configured to deliver therapeutic compositions, to provide electroporation and / or sonoporation to increase therapeutic efficiency, and to monitor electrophysiological activity, for example, before and after treatment.

Computer-implemented methods to plan, display and evaluate orthodontic treatment plans. A plurality of teeth in a representation on a computer display may be moved simultaneously in accordance with a mathematically defined pattern. Software tools available to generate the treatment path may include adjusting the smile teeth, moving teeth along a curve fit to points in the mandible, individually moving a tooth, cross sectioning to check for interference and simulations of occlusal points, highlighting teeth that have moved from their original position, making notations on the teeth, and generating and saving animation sequences of before and after treatment tooth positions.

A modified starch material for biocompatible hemostasis, biocompatible adhesion prevention, tissue healing promotion, absorbable surgical wound sealing and tissue bonding, when applied as a biocompatible modified starch to the tissue of animals. The modified starch material produces hemostasis, reduces bleeding of the wound, extravasation of blood and tissue exudation, preserves the wound surface or the wound in relative wetness or dryness, inhibits the growth of bacteria and inflammatory response, minimizes tissue inflammation, and relieves patient pain. Any excess modified starch not involved in hemostatic activity is readily dissolved and rinsed away through saline irrigation during operation. After treatment of surgical wounds, combat wounds, trauma and emergency wounds, the modified starch hemostatic material is rapidly absorbed by the body without the complications associated with gauze and bandage removal.

The invention provides a method for resourceful treatment of restaurant garbage, which is characterized in that the restaurant garbage is completely degraded after treatment with the working procedures of oil separating, preliminary selecting, mechanical crushing, hydraulic pulping, slurry blending, anaerobic fermentation and oxygen-control composting, finally the marsh gas is decomposed via anaerobic digestion and is utilized as energy after desulfurization treatment; the high-quality organic manure is produced from the biogas residues via oxygen-control composting; the separated oil can be recycled as the regenerated industrial raw oil; the wastewater generated in the treatment process can be recycled, and finally the redundant wastewater reaching the standard is discharged after biochemical treatment; and the odor generated by the garbage in the treatment process is directly discharged after reaching the standard via biofiltration treatment, thus the restaurant garbage can be transformed into the clean regenerated energy of electric power and the pollution-free organic manure to completely realize resourceful treatment of restaurant garbage. The resourceful treatment of restaurant garbage has the advantages of innocuity, no peculiar smell, no secondary pollution during the treatment process and realization of harmless and resourceful treatment of restaurant garbage.

The present invention provides a method for exchanging catheters while containing emboli within a blood vessel such as a saphenous vein graft, coronary artery, carotid artery, or other similar vessels. A guidewire is inserted through the vasculature of a patient until it reaches a desired treatment site. A therapy catheter is then inserted over the guidewire until the distal end of the therapy catheter reaches the treatment site. The guidewire has a distally mounted balloon which is inflated to occlude the blood vessel. Then, the therapy catheter provides means for treating the vessel at the treatment site. After treatment, the therapy catheter is removed from the guidewire and exchanged with an aspiration catheter which rides over the guidewire until the distal end of the aspiration catheter reaches the treatment site. The aspiration catheter applies negative pressure to remove any emboli formed by the treatment procedure.

Improved methods for treatment of cancer which involve the targeting of slow-growing, relatively mutationally-spared cancer stem line are provided. These methods are an improvement over previous cancer therapeutic methods because they provide for very early cancer treatment and reduce the likelihood of clinical relapse after treatment.

An apparatus and method for treating and reusing the wastewater discharged from agricultural animal farms. The apparatus and method of the present invention is designed to be a zero discharge system in which no wastewater will be discharged or spray irrigated. The wastewater effluent is first passed through a mechanical screen were bulk solids are separated and partially de-watered. The screened effluent is then directed to a primary plastic-lined earthen lagoon where it undergoes aerobic digestion utilizing specially selected bacteria. After treatment in the primary lagoon, the wastewater effluent is used to wash the floors of the hog houses or undergoes a purification phase including solids separation / denitrification, filtration and sterilization. The solids separation / denitrification phase (clarification) preferably takes place in an anoxic environment in preferably above-ground tanks where suspended solids removal will occur as well as denitrification for nitrate reduction. The clarification process may be facilitated through use of polymer addition. The majority of solids will be sent to a plurality of drying beds for de-watering and subsequent removal.

The present invention provide a lubricating oil composition suitable for internal combustion engines, which composition is excellent in thermal / oxidation stability and can inhibit the increases of the viscosity and acid number even in the presence of NOx and can be used for a long period of time or provide a lubricating oil composition particularly suitable for diesel or direct injection engines equipped with an exhaust-gas after-treatment device such as DPF or various catalysts, which composition is excellent in high-temperature detergency and base number retention properties and further can achieve the effect of inhibit wear caused by soot contamination in the oil occurring significantly when the content of phosphorus compounds such as ZnDTP is decreased, at a high level and can inhibit the exhaust-gas after-treatment device from being adversely affected. The lubricating oil composition comprises a lubricating base oil containing, a specific amount of a base oil with specific properties, and two or more types of additives selected from specific additives.

The invention discloses a preparation method of a catalytic wet oxidation catalyst and a treatment method of organic wastewater. The preparation method comprises the following steps of: (1) taking a porous inert material as a carrier, and performing pre-impregnation treatment on the carrier by adopting an organic acid solution; and (2) preparing an impregnating solution with a water-soluble compound containing transition metal elements and a water-soluble compound containing auxiliary elements, impregnating the carrier after treatment in the step (1) with the impregnating solution, drying in shade for 12-48 hours in air at appropriate humidity, then drying and roasting to obtain a final catalyst. When the catalyst prepared by the method disclosed by the invention is used for high-concentration organic wastewater, the characteristics of high activity, good stability and the like are realized, and the energy consumption and the investment can be reduced.

A compression garment or pad for selective application for treatment of lymphedema evidenced at various locations of the body. The pad includes a pair or series of layers of hermetically sealed material, that can capture pressurized air, when applied therein, and is formed through the patterned sealing of the layers of the pad together, at select locations, to form air pockets that can selectively apply isolated points of pressure to the patient's affected area, without disrupting normal vascular and lymphatic functioning. The pad is design cut, for either use in that matter, or for application as a garment to various segments of the body and can apply pressure over the entire affected area. The pad includes valves that allows for injection of measurable air, to the desired pressure points, or its deflation, after treatment.

The invention surprisingly finds that when a suitable binder including a suitable filler is used during the high temperature treatment of a curing process, the coating materials of the invention change in such a manner that electrically conducting reactive layers are formed that allow welding and especially spot welding together with the metal substrate even after treatment at temperatures of more than 800 DEG C.

The present disclosure relates to nanoparticle-containing implantable and preferably biodegradable medical products and their use for the thermotherapeutic after-treatment after surgical removal of tumors and cancerous ulcers.

The invention discloses a method for preparation of a columnar jointed rock mass similar material sample by a 3D printing technology. The method includes: preparing powdered 3D printing raw materials: powder, columnar jointed column powder, joint needed powder and cementing bonding powder; loading the powdered materials into a 3D printer; establishing a columnar jointed sample three-dimensional model, and inputting the model into the 3D printer to conduct 3D printing; and carrying out after-treatment on the sample at the end of printing. The method provided by the invention applies the 3D printing technology into rock mechanical test for the first time, uses a similar material to simulate the basic characteristics of a columnar jointed rock mass in actual engineering, and has the advantages of simple preparation process, higher production efficiency than artificial sample preparation, and high yield, etc.

The present application is to a method of sequentially drilling a number of frac sleeves in a down hole well. The design enables the removal of fracture sleeve pistons from between treatment zones without requiring drilling or milling of the sleeve while allowing for full flow of fluids after treatment. A number of plugs or pistons having sequentially smaller central bores allows for balls to sequentially be inserted through the tool to selectively close off the pistons to isolate one zone from another. A release tool may inserted into the tool to engage and unthread the plugs to open up the inner diameter of the tool to allow greater production flow through the tool. The plugs may have mating tabs and holes so that as each plug is unthreaded it falls to the next plug and engages so that each plug may sequentially be unthreaded from the sleeve.