Diagnostic tools assessment systems

For serum corticosterone, preferably a stimulation test with ACTH after low dose dexamethasone blockage of spontaneous secretion may be included. Rats are injected with 0.5 mg/kg oft dexamethasone 18 hours before the stimulation test. The test is then performed by a injection of synthetic ACTH (1-24), which is readily available as a clinical diagnostic tool. The clinical test procedures have been reviewed (Weiss and Patel 2002). Extended investigations are the assessment of effects on other steroid secreting organs (gonadal system), and the assessment of hypothalamic-pituitary changes at the end of the treatment period. Determination of pituitary ACTH content may be particularly useful in case of inhibitory effects on adrenal steroid biosynthesis. 

Thus measuring the SLR time as a function of temperature gives a simple diagnostic tool for assessing, whether the hyperfine relaxation is dominant in the system. Similarly, the plot of relaxation rate (1/Ti) as a function of Larmor frequency (a>) gives information about the dimensionality of conduction. 

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one of the most powerful diagnostic tools available for high resolution biomedical imaging it is thus considered the preferred imaging method for a number of soft tissues, e.g. the central nervous system, for assessing cardiac functions, and for tumour detection. MRI contrast... 

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