Exercise release of cardiac natriuretic peptides is markedly enhanced when patients with coronary artery disease are treated medically by beta-blockers.

Objectives: This study sought to identify determinants of the exercise rise in plasma levels of cardiac natriuretic peptides (NPs) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).

Background: During stress, there is a variable rise in the plasma level of NPs, but this rise frequently reaches levels that are known to lower the cardiac load and that thus might be beneficial to CAD patients.

Methods: Plasma venous concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) were determined at rest and peak exercise in 104 patients with chronic CAD who were referred to exercise thallium-201 ((201)Tl) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and radionuclide angiography.

Ictal SPECT in a case of pure musicogenic epilepsy.

A 39-year-old, right-handed woman had seizures for two years which were always triggered by exposure to various types of music: the first occurred while she listened to a tune she particularly liked, Con Te Partiro, by Andrea Boccelli. Other triggering factors were various types of music such as supermarket background music and polyphonic singing or instrumental music played by family members. The seizures had a stereotyped course: she felt anxious, tearful, then occurred slight obtundation, during which she smacked her lips and moved restlessly.

Nonvisualization of axillary sentinel node during lymphoscintigraphy: is there a pathologic significance in breast cancer?

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to define the factors associated with nonvisualization of a sentinel node (SN) in the axilla area during preoperative lymphoscintigraphy.

Methods: We retrospectively studied 332 women with T0, T1, or T2 <3-cm, N0 invasive breast cancer who underwent a sentinel lymph node biopsy procedure. All patients had intradermal and intraparenchymal injection of 37 MBq (99m)Tc-sulfur colloid in a total volume of 4 x 0.

Value of (99m)Tc-ECD SPET for the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies.

Despite improved diagnostic accuracy, differentiation of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) on the basis of clinical findings remains problematic. The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the utility of technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD) single-photon emission tomography (SPET) as a potential tool for the diagnosis of DLB and discrimination from AD. Cerebral perfusion patterns detected by (99m)Tc-ECD SPET were compared in patients presenting with a probable diagnosis of DLB ( n=34) or AD ( n=28).