Multi-centre calibration of an adaptive thresholding method for PET-based delineation of tumour volumes in radiotherapy planning of lung cancer.

Purpose: To evaluate the calibration of an adaptive thresholding algorithm (contrast-oriented algorithm) for FDG PET-based delineation of tumour volumes in eleven centres with respect to scanner types and image data processing by phantom measurements.

Methods: A cylindrical phantom with spheres of different diameters was filled with FDG realizing different signal-to-background ratios and scanned using 5 Siemens Biograph PET/CT scanners, 5 Philips Gemini PET/CT scanners, and one Siemens ECAT-ART PET scanner. All scans were analysed by the contrast-oriented algorithm implemented in two different software packages.

[5 years quality assurance in accordance with the roentgen regulation. Benefits, costs, necessary innovations].

Guidelines and standards supplementing the German "Röntgenverordnung" initiated a complex system of quality control in diagnostic radiology. Cost and profit are analysed for two hospitals of comparable size (Klinikum Buch and Klinikum Nürberg). The considerable expenses that must be incurred for measuring devices, equipment, working time and extra charges on the one hand, are the items that are opposed to achieving a higher image quality and dose reduction on the other.

[Reoperations in primary hyperparathyroidism].

We report on 14 patients suffering from persistent (n = 13) and truly recurrent (n = 1) primary hyperparathyroidism. Reoperations were successful in 13 cases. Cervical reexploration was only required for 5 patients who had previous operations by unexperienced surgeons in other clinics.

[The problem of intensive care of premature and newborn infants (author's transl)].

Today there is a controversy about the demand for the preservation of human life at any price. Special difficult problems result from intensive care of premature and newborn infants. The clinical criterions of cerebral death are different to those of adults, special investigations are restricted in their application.

Short-term response of testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, 5 alpha-androstane-3 beta, 17 beta-diol, testosterone-glucosiduronate and estradiol-17 beta as measured in the spermatic vein of human male subjects after infusion of gonadotropins.

In 8 male subjects with normal testicular function, blood was drawn from the left spermatic vein and from the right cubital vein before and during an infusion of 4,000 IU human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) (preceded by a bolus of 1,000 IU) or of 500 IU hCG plus human menopausal gonadotropin (hMG), respectively, within 30 min. Testosterone levels in the spermatic vein blood increased rapidly up to 518 or 215%, respectively. An increase of estradiol-17 beta and of 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone concentrations in spermatic vein blood was observed only in 1 and 2 subjects, respectively.

Isolation of highly purified sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG): evidence for microheterogeneity.

Highly purified sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) was isolated in milligram amounts from a human serum fraction (Cohn IV-4). The final preparation was homogeneous by the criteria of polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. Immunological evidence for purity could be given by double diffusion according to Ouchterlony.

Terminal Ph1-positive monocytic crisis in chronic myeloid leukemia providing evidence for the promyelocytic origin of monocytes.

A case of Ph1-positive chronic granulocytic leukemia in described in which a terminal monocytic crisis developed. The case still was Ph1-positive at the time of the monocyte crisis. Bone marrow smears contained promyelocytes and early granulocytes, but most of the cells belonged to the monocyte series as cytochemistry disclosed.

[The value of ultra-sound examinations for tumours and hyperplasia of the adrenals (author's transl)].

The results of ultrasound examination of the adrenals in 76 patients are described. In ten patients, tumours were found and in five there was bilateral hyperplasia of the adrenals due to Cushing's syndrome; these were confirmed at operation or by autopsy or angiography. Two false positive and two false negative findings were corrected at operation.