Quantitative (99m)Tc DTPA renal transplant scintigraphic parameters: assessment of interobserver agreement and correlation with graft pathologies.

Various (99m)Tc DTPA scintigraphic quantitative parameters for renal graft function assessment have been recommended, but none is universally accepted. In this study, 439 dynamic renal transplant scintigraphies (DRTS) were retrospectively analysed. In the first set of studies, four observers analysed the 47 random DRTS and interobserver agreement of eleven derived parameters was assessed.

A comparison of single-photon emission CT lung scintigraphy and CT pulmonary angiography for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.

Background: This study compared single-photon emission CT (SPECT) ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) scintigraphy with multislice CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA).

Methods: In a prospective, observational study, 100 patients who were >or= 50 years of age were recruited. Seventy-nine patients underwent both diagnostic 16-detector CTPA, and planar and SPECT V/Q scintigraphy.

Modulation of adenovirus infection in vitro by antisense oligodeoxynucleotides.

Objective: Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) may represent a novel, airway directed approach to the treatment of adenovirus infection of the lung, for which no specific therapy exists. This study assessed the efficacy of antisense ODNs in modulating adenovirus infection in vitro.

Methodology: A biological assay, which quantified viral plaque formation by wild type adenovirus 5 in a lung epithelial cell line (A549), was used to evaluate the inhibitory effect of a number of antisense ODNs targeted to the early (E) 1 A and protein IX genes of adenovirus 5.