[en] This book is designed to aid in the interpretation of nuclear medicine scans. The authors purpose is to help practitioners recognize artifacts and variants on nuclear medicine scans and thereby avoid misdiagnoses. It contains 70 pages of cases, including sections on SPECT and PET

[en] Intrathoracic, extracardiac abnormalities were detected in 12 of 210 patients who underwent Tc-99m red blood cell gated cardiac blood pool (GCBP) study. The abnormalities include absent pulmonary perfusion due to tumor mass, compression in five, pleural effusion in four, pneumothorax in two, and left lung mass attenuation in one. These abnormal findings were confirmed with concurrent or subsequent chest radiography or chest CT. Patients with intrathoracic great vessel abnormality (such as aneurysm), pericardial effusion, and a splenomegaly were excluded. Although pulmonary or thoracic wall lesions are not frequently seen, the incidental finding during GCBP study shall lead to further study for such clinically unsuspected lesions, which may benefit the patient's care

[en] Efficacy of /sup 99m/Tc and ¹²³I for thyroid imaging was studied in 122 subjects with a variety of thyroid abnormalities. Both agents produced images that were equivalent in quality in 51 subjects, the image with ¹²³I was in better quality in 22, and the /sup 99m/Tc image was better in 9. In the remaining 40 cases, discordant findings existed between the ¹²³I image and /sup 99m/Tc image. In the majority of cases, i.e., 32 or 40, the discrepancy was caused by hot or warm lesions on the /sup 99m/Tc image that became cold or normal (nonvisualization) on the ¹²³I image. Advantages with /sup 99m/Tc appeared to be (1) the saving of time and cost for patients and physicians and (2) superior sensitivity in detecting thyroid lesions, whereas the advantages with ¹²³I appeared to be better quality of thyroid images and accurate representation of function of thyroid nodules

[en] Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are common eating disorders that are frequently associated with symptoms of bloating, belching, nausea, and vomiting. The authors currently studying this population with Tc-99m TETA to determine the gastric emptying time (ET) and response to metoclopramide. The authors' findings to date show that the majority (80%) of anorexics have a normal ET; the remainder are delayed. The bulimics demonstrate a normal ET in 34%, delayed in 45%, and rapid in 21%. The response to metoclopramide was good in the delayed anorexic patients and in 71% of bulimic patients treated. The extent of rapidity or delay in ET is being compared with the clinical data including age, weight/height, length and degree of disorder, diet, degree of symptoms, and response to drug and diet therapy. This correlation will help determine the incidence and severity of ET abnormality, the relation of disease and symptom severity to ET, and the effect of different treatments based on the ET

[en] Unusual results were obtained from a cerebral blood flow study and a brain scan performed on a patient with an uncommon, nonvascular scalp tumor eventually identified as a proliferating trichilemmal cyst with acanthosis. The tumor accumulated the radionuclide during the early phase of the cerebral flow study, and the increased radioactivity was persistent, being prominently observable in a scan made 3 min and 2 hr after the radionuclide injection. This unusual, positive finding in a cerebral blood flow study of a nonvascular tumor was thought to be a consequance of the higher counting efficiency resulting from the lack of shielding by the skull and from the larger volume of the tumor tissue. (U.S.)

[en] One hundred and eight cases of thyroid cancer have been discovered as a result of screening 1712 individuals from a well defined population known to be at high risk because of prior head or neck irradiation for benign conditions. Of these 198 cancers, 43 (39.8%) were palpable, 27 (25.0%) were detectable by means of thyroid scintigraphy alone, and 38 (35.2%), referred to as incidental carcinomas, were found when the patients were operated on for lesions which approved to be benign. The most striking feature of these cancers was the high frequency of multicentricity (55%) and bilaterality (36%). This high frequency was found in clinically apparent as well as incidental cancers, and could not be accounted for by the operative pathologic techniques of investigation. Of 42 subjects reevaluated at our institution after a mean time of 38 months, 2 had definite and 2 had probable recurrent or residual thyroid disease. The postoperative thyroglobulin levels in subjects with thyroid cancer were proportional to the amount of thyroid tissue remaining. Follow-up evaluation of the entire group did not disclose any differences in the behavior of these thyroid cancers compared to those not associated with radiation

[en] This book is limited neither to the peripheral vascular system nor to diagnostic imaging techniques. Its 18 chapters cover nonimaging blood-flow techniques (Doppler ultrasound, plethysmography) as well as noninvasive and invasive imaging techniques (ultrasound, computed tomography, radionuclide digital-subtraction angiography, and contrast angiography). These are applied not only to the peripheral vascular system but also to the aorta and vena cava

[en] The quantitative measurement of regional ventilation and perfusion distribution is simply and reliably accomplished by using routinely available radioactive gas and perfusion lung scanning agents, and a large field-of-view gamma camera with an on-line computer. The preoperative prediction of postsurgical loss in lung function can be made accurately by using the quantitative ventilation-perfusion lung scan technique. Either a regional ventilation study or perfusion study may be used for the prediction, but analysis of regional ventilation distribution appears to be a better parameter than that of perfusion distribution for the prediction of postoperative loss of FEV1. In the rare case of a patient with a marked ventilation-perfusion deficit, quantitative distribution of both ventilation and perfusion may be needed for an accurate assessment of postsurgical lung function. 18 references

No abstract available

[en] SPECT and planar images of 35 patients with stroke were compared with images of 26 patients with Alzheimer disease, two with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and one with schizoaffective disorder. Transtentorial diaschisis (TTD) with decreased cerebellar activity was shown in 18 patients with large infarcts of middle cerebral artery (MCA) territory and in four patients with internal capsule and basal ganglia infarcts. No TTD was shown in the 29 patients without stroke and those with small infarcts. Decreased cerebral activity contralateral to cerebral infarct due to interruption of cerebellar flow in TTD was hypothesized. The authors concluded that TTD occurs exclusively in an extensive cerebral infarct of the MCA territory, and an absent cortical perfusion abnormality with presence of TTD may indicate basal ganglia and/or internal capsule infarct