[en] HLA-B27 is a transplantation antigen found in a high proportion of patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Recently, an association has been shown to exist between HLA-B27 and acute uveitis, even in the absence of ankylosing spondylitis. We have examined the HLA antigen profile of 45 patients with acute nongranulomatous anterior uveitis and have confirmed this relation. In addition, using 90m technetium stannous pyrophosphate we have been able to demonstrate abnormal bone scan in 19 of 30 patients studied. Such abnormalities are limited to the sacroiliac joints but are otherwise the same as those seen in overt ankylosing spondylitis. Seven of the 19 patients did not have HLA-B27. These factors suggest that acute anterior uveitis may often represent a manifestation of a spondylitic diathesis even in the complete absence of any suggestive symptomatic or radiologic change and, in some cases, even through the antigenic marker HLA-B27 may be absent

[en] Mastocytosis (urticaria pigmentosa) was proven in a patient suffering from severe back pain. A bone scan showed diffusely increased bone activity. Count rates were also abnormally elevated over several areas of the skeleton. Radiographs were consistent with mastocytosis in bone

[en] Bone scintigraphs obtained with both technetium-99m polyphosphate and technetium-99m pyrophosphate have been abnormal at the sacroiliac joints of 44 patients with definite ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Because of the normal registration of the sacroiliac joints on bone scintigraphy, it has been necessary to develop a profile-scan technique to quantify the abnormality that proves to be significantly different from the normal finding. In 17 patients with a strong clinical suspicion of AS but normal radiographs, the sacroiliac joints have frequently been abnormal. This finding is meaningful because there is a common occurrence in this group of the histocompatibility antigen HL A-B27, known to be a marker of AS. We also note the frequency of abnormal sacroiliac scintigrams in 26 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and in a group of other diseases--Crohn's disease, uveitis, psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, and Reiters' disease--all of which share some of the manifestations of AS

[en] In a prospective study of the value of gallium-67 scintigraphy in cases of multisystem malignant melanoma, 69 scans were obtained for 36 patients. No abnormality was found in 18 scans; in only 3 was there other evidence of disease. Of 54 sites of disease demonstrated by scintigraphy, 40 were correlated with other investigations: biopsy (5), surgery (7), autopsy (7), radiographic (13), or clinical (8). Metastatic melanoma was found in 37 (69 percent) of the sites; no such disease was found in 3 (5.7 percent). The life expectancy of patients with an abnormal scan was shorter than that of patients with a normal scan. Gallium studies reliably indicated the extent of multisystem melanoma, and are of value in clinical management

[en] A prospective study of bone scintigraphic findings has been carried out in 63 patients, firmly diagnosed as having ankylosing spondylitis. In addition to abnormal uptake of the radiotracer at the sacroiliac joints, a peripheral arthropathy has been a common finding, particularly in the proximal joints, occurring in up to 50 percent of patients. Increased uptake of radiotracer in the spine has also been found both diffusely and focally. Focal increases have been noted at the apophyseal joints in 40 percent of patients and in three patients with a sterile intervertebral diskitis, an unusual complication of this disease only diagnosed in two patients after bone scintigraphy

No abstract available

[en] Several unusual complications of I-131 therapy for thyroid carcinoma are known. Two patients who developed a further unusual event that consisted of a palpable mass and cystic degeneration are described