Sentinel-Lymph-Node Multicenter Trials.

Well executed multicenter clinical trials often provide significant evidence and support for, or against, foundational aspects of clinical procedures perceived to improve clinical management of a medical condition. In this review, discussed are reports of multicenter clinical trials designed to investigate sentinel lymph node biopsy procedures in seven types of cancer: breast, melanoma, head and neck, gastric, colon, uterine, and vulvar-with focus on the most recent reports of the hypotheses, objectives, parameters, data, results, implications, and impacts of the included trials. Such trials generally enroll more subjects, in shorter time periods, than do single-center studies.

Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Procedures.

Accurate staging of many cancers with no clinical evidence of lymph node involvement is often a critical component of the management of such cancers and is generally and historically accomplished by accurate pathological assessment of multiple nodes. Unfortunately, such assessment usually involves excision of the multiple nodes and can result in significant morbidities. Over the past half century, and particularly over the last quarter century, investigators have defined and refined the "sentinel lymph node(s)" concept and have developed and investigated sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) procedures.

Harmonic subtraction for evaluating right ventricle ejection fraction from planar equilibrium radionuclide angiography.

We report an initial investigation of a subtraction-based method to estimate right ventricle ejection fraction (RVEF) from ECG-gated planar equilibrium radionuclide angiography (ERNA) data. Twenty-six consecutive patients referred for scintigraphic evaluation of cardiac function prior to chemotherapy had ECG-gated first-pass (FP) imaging and ERNA imaging performed following the same radiotracer injection. RVEF was computed from FP images (RVEF) and separately from ERNA images (RVEF).

Sodium 18F-Fluoride Bone Scintigraphy in Deep Ocean Diver.

Sodium ¹⁸F-fluoride (NaF) is a diagnostic marker for new bone formation in bone scintigraphy that was approved by US FDA in 1972 but discontinued in 1984. We report a case of a US naval officer who spent time living and working in an oceanic lab, 205 feet below the surface. Plain skeletal films of femurs 4 years later demonstrate bilateral bone infarcts.