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BackgroundPerinatal asphyxia and resulting hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is a major cause of death and long-term disability in term born neonates. Up to 20,000 infants each year are affected by HIE in Europe and even more in regions with lower level of perinatal care. The only established therapy to improve outcome in these infants is therapeutic hypothermia. Allopurinol is a xanthine oxidase inhibitor that reduces the production of oxygen radicals as superoxide, which contributes to secondary energy failure and apoptosis in neurons and glial cells after reperfusion of hypoxic brain tissue and may further improve outcome if administered in addition to therapeutic hypothermia.MethodsThis study on the effects of ALlopurinol in addition to hypothermia treatment for hypoxic-ischemic Brain Injury on Neurocognitive Outcome (ALBINO), is a European double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled parallel group multicenter trial (Phase III) to evaluate the effect of postnatal allopurinol administered in addition to standard of care (including therapeutic hypothermia if indicated) on the incidence of death and severe neurodevelopmental impairment at 24months of age in newborns with perinatal hypoxic-ischemic insult and signs of potentially evolving encephalopathy. Allopurinol or placebo will be given in addition to therapeutic hypothermia (where indicated) to infants with a gestational age36weeks and a birth weight2500g, with severe perinatal asphyxia and potentially evolving encephalopathy. The primary endpoint of this study will be death or severe neurodevelopmental impairment versus survival without severe neurodevelopmental impairment at the age of two years. Effects on brain injury by magnetic resonance imaging and cerebral ultrasound, electric brain activity, concentrations of peroxidation products and S100B, will also be studied along with effects on heart function and pharmacokinetics of allopurinol after iv-infusion.DiscussionThis trial will provide data to assess the efficacy and safety of early postnatal allopurinol in term infants with evolving hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. If proven efficacious and safe, allopurinol could become part of a neuroprotective pharmacological treatment strategy in addition to therapeutic hypothermia in children with perinatal asphyxia.Trial registrationNCT03162653, www.ClinicalTrials.gov, May 22, 2017.

The paper describes diagnostics of fast ion beams emitted from a large PF-1000 facility operated at 21…27 kV, 290…480 kJ. Those beams were measured with pinhole cameras and PM-355 nuclear track detectors, placed at different angles to the discharge axis. The measurements showed a complex spatial structure of the fast ion beams. Measurements behind an axial channel in the inner electrode have shown that some ion beams are emitted also in the upstream direction. The ion energy spectra were measured with a miniature Thomson-type spectrometer. Time-resolved measurements of ions were performed with miniature scintillation detectors placed behind a pinhole.

A spectral VUV and visible and a laser schlieren diagnostics were used for the discharge load from graphite for pencil of 1 cm length and 2 mm of diameter between two cooper conical electrodes. The electric discharge was initiated by a small capacitor bank of 20 kV voltage and a 1 F capacitos. The current reached its maximum at 40 kA during 360 ns after the increase of the current. The authors reported diagnostic results and the correlation of VUV emission with the explosion of the plasma corona.

A spectral VUV and visible and a laser schlieren diagnostics were used for the discharge load from graphite for pencil of 1 cm length and 2 mm of diameter between two cooper conical electrodes. The electric discharge was initiated by a small capacitor bank of 20 kV voltage and a 1 F capacitos. The current reached its maximum at 40 kA during 360 ns after the increase of the current. The authors reported diagnostic results and the correlation of VUV emission with the explosion of the plasma corona.

In the first part of this contribution the authors report the formation of an helical dense current tube around the graphite rod and an intensive generation of non-thermal radiation of 13-21 nm wavelength. VUV and visible spectral and laser schlieren diagnostics were used for the discharge load from graphite, for a pencil of 1 cm length and 2 mm of diameter between two cooper conical electrodes. The electric discharge was initiated by a small capacitor bank of 20 kV voltage and 1 mF capacitance. The current reached its maximum at 40 kA during 360 ns after the increase of the current. In the second part of contribution the parameters of the plasma corona and of the radiation of high energy z-pinch are studied in a situation, when the inner layer of the carbon rods and Cu fibers are in the solid phase for testing the possibility of non-thermal pumping of inverse population of levels, for a recombination scheme of lasing of higher z-elements.