Low whole-body insulin sensitivity in patients with ischaemic heart disease is associated with impaired myocardial glucose uptake predictive of poor outcome after revascularisation.

We tested the hypothesis that low whole-body insulin sensitivity in patients with ischaemic heart disease and impaired left ventricular (LV) function is associated with abnormalities of insulin-mediated myocardial glucose uptake affecting outcome after coronary bypass surgery (CABG). We studied 29 patients with ischaemic heart disease and impaired LV ejection fraction (EF) and age-matched healthy volunteers ( n = 30). As assessed by euglycaemic glucose-insulin clamp, 15 patients had a low and 14 a normal whole-body insulin sensitivity.

Use of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in the detection of silent metastases from malignant melanoma.

Correct staging is crucial for the management and prognosis of patients with malignant melanoma. The aim of this prospective study was to compare staging by whole-body positron emission tomography using fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) with staging by conventional methods. Thirty-eight patients with malignant melanoma of clinical stage II (local recurrence, in-transit and regional lymph node metastases) or III (metastases to other sites than in stage II) were included in the study.

The value of scintigraphy in hips with slipped capital femoral epiphysis and the value of radiography and MRI after 10 years.

Preoperative bone scintigraphy of the femoral head in 33 hips with slipped capital femoral epiphysis, showed no relation to duration of symptoms or degree of slip. The preoperative uptake was always normal or increased. Two hips had postoperative femoral head uptake below normal, both had complications affecting the vascular supply, resulting in necrosis of the femoral head and severe arthrosis.

Bronchial artery perfusion scintigraphy to assess bronchial artery blood flow after lung transplantation.

Unlabelled: The bronchial arterial system is inevitably interrupted in transplanted lungs when removing the organs from the donor, but it can be reestablished by direct bronchial artery revascularization (BAR) during implantation. The purpose of this study was to visualize and quantify the distribution of bronchial artery perfusion after en bloc double lung transplantation with BAR, by injecting radiolabeled macroaggregated albumin directly into the bronchial artery system.

Methods: BAR was performed using the internal mammary artery as conduit.

Bone scintigraphy of human temporomandibular joints during Herbst treatment: a case report.

Bone scintigraphy results were compared with changes shown on orthopantomographic radiographs in a patient with facial asymmetry, before, during, and after Herbst treatment, and followed up with control of growth activity in the temporomandibular joints (TMJs) after long-term retention. The present study showed that new bone formation (modelling) was initiated asymmetrically in TMJs during treatment. The results indicate that late development of right/left asymmetry in the occlusion can be corrected and normalized using the Herbst appliance therapy, stimulating a differentiated 'catch up' growth (modelling) in the TMJ with condyles.

Scintigraphic assessment of focal platelet accumulations following infrainguinal bypass surgery in humans.

Enothelial injury is assumed to be of pathogenetic significance in the development of graft stenoses, which remain a major cause of failure of peripheral bypasses. The aim of this study was to assess endothelial injury related to infrainguinal bypass surgery by indium-111 platelet scintigraphy. In 28 patients undergoing in situ vein (n = 24), composite vein-polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) (n = 1) or PTFE (n = 3) bypass surgery, assumed vascular injuries were recorded intraoperatively.

Restricted postexercise pulmonary diffusion capacity and central blood volume depletion.

Pulmonary diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO), regional electrical impedance (Z0), and the distribution of technetium-99m-labeled erythrocytes together with concentration of plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) were determined before and after a 6-min "all-out" row in nine oarsmen and in six control subjects. Two and one-half hours after exercise in the upright seated position, DLCO was reduced by 6 (-2 to 21; median and range) %, the thoracic-to-thigh electrical impedance ratio (Z0 thorax/Z0 thigh) rose by 14 (-1 to 29) %, paralleled by a 7 (-3 to 11) % decrease and a 3 (-5 to 12) % increase in the thoracic and thigh blood volume, respectively. These responses were associated with a decrease in the plasma ANP concentration from 15 (13-31) to 12 (9-27) pmol/l (P < 0.

Myocardial sestamibi single-photon emission tomography: variations in reference values with gender, age and rest versus stress?

Reference data files support the evaluation of myocardial perfusion single-photon emission tomography (SPET). The aim of this study was to create a large reference data base for technetium-99m sestamibi SPET, age and gender matched to the general patient population. One hundred and twenty-eight healthy volunteers (76 males and 52 females) with a likelihood of coronary artery disease of less than 5% underwent rest and maximal exercise 99mTc-sestamibi SPET with a 2-day protocol and 180 degrees elliptical rotation.

The occurrence of false-positive technetium-99m sestamibi bull's eye defects in different reference databases. A study of an age- and gender-stratified healthy population.

Myocardial perfusion single-photon emission tomographic (SPET) imaging has been shown to be sensitive in the detection of coronary artery disease (CAD), whereas its specificity has been suboptimal. The aim of the present study was to study the frequency of abnormal bull's eye perfusion defects in a large age-stratified group of healthy subjects undergoing myocardial SPET assessed by comparison with two existing commercially available reference databases. One hundred and twenty-eight healthy volunteers (76 males and 52 females) with a less than 5% likelihood of CAD underwent rest and exercise technetium-99m sestamibi SPET.

Follow-up of prenatally diagnosed unilateral hydronephrosis.

Based on previous experience with prenatally diagnosed unilateral hydronephrosis, we found that the primary indications for surgical intervention should be symptoms or functional impairment of the hydronephrotic kidney. Nonoperative management of neonates without symptoms and with normal function of the affected kidney was proposed. However, the strategy of treatment after prenatally diagnosed hydronephrosis is still controversial.

Prenatal hydronephrosis caused by aberrant renal vessels: a follow-up challenge. Reports of two cases.

With routine use of obstetric ultrasonography, fetal low-grade hydronephrosis is commonly detected, but may resolve spontaneously after birth. Two cases are presented to illustrate that in some cases such findings can express intermittent hydronephrosis caused by aberrant renal vessels. Renal deterioration later in childhood may be a consequence.

[Preoperative scintigraphic localization of hyperfunctioning parathyroid glands].

Preoperative identification of hyperfunctioning parathyroid glands was performed by 99m-Tc-sestamibi scintigrams in 29 patients with hyperparathyroidism. Out of 30 histopathologically proven diseased parathyroid glands 21 were identified by scintigraphy. The diagnostic specificity (PVpos) was 88%.

Relationship between small-intestinal transit rate and intestinal absorption of (14)C-labelled mannitol and (51)Cr-labelled ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid in healthy subjects.

Background: Although the small-intestinal transit rate is generally considered to influence the urinary excretion of markers of intestinal permeability, no study has until now formally addressed the importance of this influence in humans.

Methods: Ten healthy subjects ingested a test solution containing (99m)Tc-labelled diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid ((99)mTc-DTPA), (14)C-labelled mannitol ((14)C-mannitol), and (51)Cr-labelled ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid ((51)Cr-EDTA). After ingestion, the small-intestinal transit rate of (99)mTc-DTPA was measured with the gamma camera technique.

Planar 201Tl scintigraphy in ischaemic heart disease: a critical re-evaluation of qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

The aims of the present study were to examine the observer agreement of qualitative (visual) and quantitative (computer-assisted) analysis of planar 201Tl imaging and to compare the diagnostic values of these methods in the detection of infarcted and exercise-induced ischaemic myocardium. The study population comprised of 119 patients (aged 24-77 years) referred consecutively for stress thallium scintigraphy for either diagnostic reasons (n = 42, 35%) or for further evaluation of known coronary artery disease (CAD) (n = 77, 65%). The interobserver agreement was low with the qualitative method and significantly higher with the quantitative method: Kappa-values 0.

In vivo kinetics of 111indium-labelled autologous granulocytes following i.v. administration of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF).

Administration of both glycosylated and non-glycosylated recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) induces an immediate transient granulocytopenia of 1-3 hours' duration. In order to explore this phenomenon, granulocytes were labelled with 111Indium and the effect on the kinetics of granulocytes after administration of rhGM-CSF was studied in 10 previously untreated patients with malignant lymphoma. For both types and doses of rhGM-CSF, a significant and dramatic accumulation of the 111Indium-labelled granulocytes was observed in the lung within a few minutes after i.

Measurement of glomerular filtration rate in adults: accuracy of five single-sample plasma clearance methods.

After an intravenous injection of a tracer that is removed from the body solely by filtration in the kidneys, the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) can be determined from its plasma clearance. The method requires a great number of blood samples but collection of urine is not needed. In the present investigation the total plasma clearance of 51Cr-EDTA (ethylenediaminetetra-acetate) was assessed from 13 blood samples taken 5-300 min post-injection in 44 adult patients with GFR greater than 15 ml min-1.

Left ventricular performance in alcoholic patients without chronic liver disease.

Left ventricular performance was studied non-invasively in 24 chronic alcoholics without liver disease. Twelve patients who had abstained from drinking for at least one month (group A) and 12 sex and age matched patients who had ceased drinking during the preceding 24 hours (group B) were studied at rest and during 50% submaximal exercise. Cardiac output and stroke volume were measured by first passage and left ventricular ejection fraction by multigated radionuclide cardiography.

Haemodynamic response to exercise in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

Physical work capacity was evaluated by a multistage bicycle exercise test in 29 patients, 22 men and seven women aged 35-61 years (mean 49) with alcoholic liver cirrhosis and in a sex- and age-matched control group. The maximal work load was reduced in the patient group, mean 122 vs. 186 watts in men (P less than 0.

Background correction factors in renography with single probe detectors.

The background correction factor was determined with [131I]albumin, FA, in eighty-six patients with various nephro-urological diseases, with [131I]hippuran in eighty unilaterally nephrectomized patients (FH), and in twenty-five patients in whom the renogram showed background configuration, FH, B. FH was approximately the same on the left and the right side, the mean values being 1.39 and 1.

Total body and splanchnic thermogenesis in curarized man during a short exposure to cold.

To investigate thermoregulation independent of muscular contractions in adult man during a short period of exposure to cold, five examinations were carried out on four individuals who were unconscious due to persistent brain damage and who were totally curarized during the exposure. An increase was found in total body oxygen consumption of 0.043 mmol .

The use of an angiotensin II antagonist (saralasin) as an adjunct during renal vein catheterization.

Renal vein catheterization was performed in fifteen hypertensive patients with unilateral renal disease. Samples for measurement of plasma renin concentration were obtained from each of the two renal veins and from the femoral artery (or the inferior caval vein)-before and during saralasin infusion. Saralasin infusion induced a significant decrease in blood pressure.

Different secretion patterns of active and inactive renin in man.

1. In plasma samples from normal subjects and patients with untreated essential hypertension, the concentration of inactive renin (as measured after acidification) was on average 4-5 times higher than the concentration of active renin (as measured without acidification).2.