Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Quantitative Yttrium-90 Bremsstrahlung Spect/Ct And Pet/Ct Study For 3d Dosimetry In Radiomicrosphere Therapy, Senait Aknaw Debebe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Liver cancer ranks the third most common cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. Radiomicrosphere therapy (RMT), a form of radiation therapy, involves administration of Yttrium-90 (90Y) microspheres to the liver via the hepatic artery. 90Y microspheres bremsstrahlung SPECT/CT or PET/CT imaging could potentially identify an extrahepatic uptake. An early detection of such an uptake, thus, could initiate preventative measures early on. However, the quantitative accuracy of bremsstrahlung SPECT/CT images is limited by the wide and continuous energy spectrum of 90Y bremsstrahlung photons. 90Y PET/CT imaging is also possible but limited by the extremely small internal pair production decay. These limitation …

Hydrodynamic Assessment Of A Porcine Small Intestinal Sub-Mucosa Bioscaffold Valve For Pediatric Mitral Valve Replacement, Omkar V. Mankame

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Valve replacement for critical heart valve diseases is in many cases not an option. Our clinical experience in pediatric compassionate care has shown robust function of porcine small intestinal submucosa (PSIS) valves. We assessed functional effectiveness of 4ply (~320µm) and 2ply (~166µm) PSIS mitral valves under pediatric-relevant hemodynamic pulsatile conditions. Key conclusions: (i)PSIS valves demonstrated statistically similar acute functionality in comparison to a commercially available valve. (ii)Energy losses were similar (p>0.05) under pediatric conditions which was not the case under adult aortic conditions. (iii)2ply valves were observed to be superior to 4ply, based on the robust hydrodynamic data, the …

Thermally-Assisted Acoustofluidic Separation For Bioanalytical Applications, Ata Dolatmoradi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Changes in the biomechanical properties of cells accompanying the development of various pathological conditions have been increasingly reported as biomarkers for various diseases and as a predictor of disease progression stages. For instance, cancer cells have been found to be less stiff compared to their healthy counterparts due to the proteomic and lipidomic dysregulations conferred by the underlying pathology. The separation and selective recovery of cells or extracellular vesicles secreted from such cells that have undergone these changes have been suggested to be of diagnostic and prognostic value.

This dissertation first describes the implementation of a stiffness-based separation of phosphatidylcholine-based …

The Effect Of Hyperthermia On Doxorubicin Therapy And Nanoparticle Penetration In Multicellular Ovarian Cancer Spheroids, Abhignyan Nagesetti

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The efficient treatment of cancer with chemotherapy is challenged by the limited penetration of drugs into the tumor. Nanoparticles (10 – 100 nanometers) have emerged as a logical choice to specifically deliver chemotherapeutics to tumors, however, their transport into the tumor is also impeded owing to their bigger size compared to free drug moieties. Currently, monolayer cell cultures, as models for drug testing, cannot recapitulate the structural and functional complexity of in-vivo tumors. Furthermore, strategies to improve drug distribution in tumor tissues are also required. In this study, we hypothesized that hyperthermia (43°C) will improve the distribution of silica nanoparticles …