Fully automated 3D basal ganglia activity measurement in dopamine transporter scintigraphy (Spectalyzer).

Objectives: Semiquantitative evaluation of tracer uptake in basal ganglia is superior to visual assessment of images in dopamine transporter (DAT) scintigraphy especially in follow-up of the patients. Manual drawing of regions of interest (ROIs) in two-dimensional (2D) transaxial slices of the single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) datasets leads to a large inter- and intra-reader variability, while being time consuming. Our aim was to investigate a technique that extracts 3D ROIs in a fully automated fashion and thus might provide reproducible user-independent results allowing better follow-up control and large-scale clinical studies.

Uptake of In-111 pentetreotide by pleural plaques.

Somatostatin receptor imaging with In-111 pentetreotide has been validated for the diagnosis and staging of chest tumors with neuroendocrine differentiation such as bronchial carcinoid and small cell lung cancer. In-111 pentetreotide uptake is not specific for neuroendocrine tumors because somatostatin receptors are also expressed by white blood cells, leading to the in vivo visualization sites of infection sites or active inflammation. Pleural plaques may be due to asbestos exposure or tuberculosis.

99mTc-labelled immunoglobulin scintigraphy in arthritis: an analysis of synovial fluid activity.

The distribution of 99mTc-labelled human polyclonal non-specific immunoglobulin G (HIG) in the synovial fluid was studied in 14 patients with rheumatoid and non-rheumatoid arthritides. Analysis included the determination of the total activity per ml synovial fluid 6 h post-injection (p.i.

Additional myeloablation with 52Fe before bone marrow transplantation.

For many hematological malignancies, high-dose chemoradiotherapy followed by bone marrow transplantation offers the best and sometimes the only chance for cure. However, the main causes of failure of this therapy are relapse and toxicity. In order to selectively deliver higher doses of radiotherapy to the bone marrow and to spare normal organs, we explored 52Fe therapy before a conventional BMT conditioning regimen.

Indium-111-pentetreotide uptake in endocrine tumors and lymphoma.

Unlabelled: The biodistribution of 111In-pentetreotide was assessed in patients with gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) neuroendocrine tumors or lymphoma and in control patients and analyzed as a function of scanning time, presence or absence of tumor uptake, tumor type and previous octreotide treatment.

Methods: Patients underwent imaging 4 and 24 hr after injection of approximately 200 MBq 111In-pentetreotide. The frequency of organ visualization was assessed on planar views.