Preliminary results of the CeraflexTM PDA occluder and device behaviour during releasing

Introduction:The CeraFlexTM PDA occluder is a new flexible device with a unique delivery system that may be beneficial with regard to not changing the device position after releasing. We prospectively evaluate the efficacy of the device and also the device behaviour patterns during release.Methods:The study included 21 patients. Their median age was 1.2 years (from 6 months to 28 years) and weight was 9.6 kg (from 5.4 to 82 kg). All of the ducts were conical except one atypical ductus. Median ductal diameter at the pulmonary end was 3.8 mm (from 2.2 to 8.2 mm). The ductus was closed using an antegrade approach, but special attention was paid to the patterns of device behaviour during and just after releasing.Results:Three different modes of device behaviour were observed during and just after releasing: (1) Neither difficulty nor change of position in 13 patients (62%), (2) a little difficulty in releasing but no change of position in 6 (29%), and (3) change of the device position in 2 (9%). There was no residual shunt on the next day except in one patient, in whom late device embolisation occurred. The device was retrieved and another, bigger device implanted.Conclusion:The CeraFlexTM PDA occlude device seems to be safe and efficacious for patent ductus arteriosus closure. Its unique delivery system generally fixes the device in a stable position that does not change after release (91%). Minor difficulty in releasing is not uncommon; however, the major disadvantage is the need for larger sheaths for delivery.

Tungsten in the Godthåb area, West Greenland

The tungsten mineral scheelite has not previously been reported from the Godthåb area in West Greenland. The first indications of its presence were found in heavy mineral concentrates from a stream on Storø in Godthåbsfjord. Exploration for scheelite in Greenland is difficult. A systematic stream-sediment programme cannot be undertaken before mid-June because many of the streams are frozen or covered with snow until then. Examination in ultra-violet light must be carried out in darkness so scheelite cannot be looked for before the end of August because of the midnight sun and the work must be finished by early September when snow covers the ground. A minor difficulty in this context is the abundance of lichens with bluish white fluorescence which cover the rock surfaces. The following report is based on field observations only. Laboratory work was limited to X-ray identification ofscheelite in two heavy mineral concentrates and in two rock samples.

Conjectures in Polygnotus' Troy

Pausanias x. 26. 2: γεγραμμέναι δὲ ἐπι κλίνης ὑπὲρ ταύτας Δηινόμη τε καὶ Μητιόχη καὶ Πεῖσίς ἐστι καὶ Κλεοδίκη. ‘Painted on a couch above these are Deinome and Metioche and Peisis too and Kleodike.’In Polygnotus’ Troy Taken, painted in the Lesche of the Cnidians at Delphi, this group formed part of the Trojan prisoners, shown between the wall of the city and the sea. ταύτας refers to another group (Klymene, Kreousa, Aristomache, and Xenodike) who are described as being above the women between Aithra and Nestor: Andromache with her child, Medesikaste, and Polyxena. These were certainly at the bottom of the picture; Deinome, Metioche, Peisis, and Kleodike certainly at the top. ἐπὶ κλίνης is unconvincing in the context. Most editors and translators accept it without comment, but Frazer's translation, ‘sitting on a couch’ underlines a minor difficulty: four on a couch is hard to envisage in terms of Greek life or art; and though the σχῆμα Πινδαρικόν does not make for clarity, it seems impossible to confine the phrase to the first one or two names. The reading, however, is unacceptable on other grounds, as Carl Robert has shown: this is the open air and these are prisoners of war; a κλίνη is entirely out of place. Polygnotan art was certainly not fully naturalistic, and included much that had a symbolic not a literal reference; but a couch is as improper in this context symbolically as naturally. In Polygnotus' other picture in the Lesche, the Underworld, Theseus and Peirithoos, and in another part Pelias, were shown seated on θρόνοι, while other figures sat on rocks or hillocks or leaned against trees; but the spatial and temporal setting of the Underworld was certainly (and naturally) less defined than that of the Troy. Robert tentatively suggests ἐπικλινής, translating ‘in gebückter Haltung’, but admits that the word has poor authority as applied to persons, and that to force it on this author in this sense is hardly justified.