[Esophageal motility in systemic sclerosis and primary Raynaud' phenomenon by esophageal scintigraphy with semisolid meal].

Background: Esophageal transit scintigraphy seems to be a valid methodology to assess impaired esophageal motility, also in the early stages of disease.

Aim: To discriminate patients with primary Raynaud's phenomenon (RPh and patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) from healthy subjects, by esophageal scintigraphy with a semisolid meal.

Methods: Thirty-two patients with primary RPh, 18 patients with SSc and 13 healthy subjects have been studied.

Geometry and bone mass in primary hyperparathyroidism assessed by peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT).

Purpose: Non-invasive measurement by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) of bone geometry, biomechanics, and mineral content in patients (pts) with primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT).

Materials And Methods: Total, trabecular and cortical mineral density (totBMD, cortBMD, trab BMD), bone geometrical properties (total area, trabecular area, cortical area, cortical/total area) and cortical thickness as biomechanical parameters, were assessed by pQCT at distal radius in 38 (32 F; 6 M) consecutive patients with PHPT (mean age: 62 yrs; range: 30-77). In a subgroup of 12 patients, bone mineral density (BMD) was also measured by means of dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) at the lumbar spine (L2-L4).

Cardiac and pulmonary calcification in a hemodialysis patient: partial regression 4 years after parathyroidectomy.

Aims: The reversibility of extraskeletal calcifications in dialysis patients is an important and unresolved issue. Although periarticular calcifications have been shown to be reversible, little data are available on vascular or parenchymal calcifications.

Case History: A patient on maintenance hemodialysis with severe hyperparathyroidism, hypercalcemia and hyperphosphatemia was admitted to undergo parathyroidectomy.

Peripheral quantitative Computed Tomography (PQCT) in the evaluation of bone geometry, biomechanics and mineral density in postmenopausal women.

Aim: Non-invasive assessment of bone geometry, biomechanics, and mineral content in postmenopausal women by peripheral quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT).

Material And Methods: Total, trabecular and cortical mineral density (totBMD, cortBMD, trabBMD), and the geometrical (total area, trabecular area, cortical area) and biomechanical properties of bone (strength-strain index, cortical thickness) were assessed in 93 consecutive post-menopausal women (mean age: 63+/-7 yrs; age at menopause: 49+/-6 yrs; years since menopause: 14+/-9 yrs) by pQCT at the ultradistal radius of non-dominant forearm.

Results: Compared with 50 healthy women at peak of bone mass, volumetric total, trabecular and cortical bone densities were significantly reduced in postmenopausal subjects (TotBMD: 318+/-106 mg/cm3 vs ctr 442+/-100, -28%, p<0.

Post-stress end-systolic left ventricular dilation: a marker of endocardial post-ischemic stunning.

Several studies have shown the accuracy of gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using thallium-201 and technetium tracers in the assessment of myocardial perfusion and function. Gated SPECT has been successfully utilized to detect post-stress left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) reduction resulting from post-ischemic stunning in patients with coronary obstruction. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the post-stress LVEF impairment could be related to the post-stress end-systolic ventricular dilation resulting from post-ischemic endocardial stunning.

[Radioiodine treatment of hyperthyroidism using a simplified dosimetric approach. Clinical results].

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a simplified dosimetric approach to the iodine-131 treatment of hyperthyroidism due to Graves' disease or uninodular and multinodular toxic goiter.

Material And Methods: We enrolled 189 patients with biochemically confirmed hyperthyroidism and performed thyroid ultrasonography and scintigraphy obtaining the diagnosis of Graves' disease in 43 patients, uninodular toxic goiter in 57 patients and multinodular toxic goiter in 89 patients. In 28 patients we found cold thyroid nodules and performed fine-needle aspiration with negative cytology for thyroid malignancy in all cases.

Labelled leukocytes for diagnosis of infectious diseases. Our experience in labelling and clinical usefulness.

Background: To review our experience in infectious diseases diagnosis, using a simple labelling technique.

Methods: We made 101 scans in 91 patients with suspected infectious diseases confirmed by clinical, histologic or cultural specimens; a clinical or instrumental follow-up was available for every patient. Patients were divided into four subgroups: A: Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; B: Septic Syndromes; C: Bone diseases; D: Others.

[Detection and assessment of myocardial stunning with perfusion tomographic scintigraphy using gated SPECT].

Background: Gated-SPECT using 99mTc-labeled flow tracers provides the simultaneous assessment of global and regional myocardial perfusion and function. The aim of this study was to identify patients with stress-induced postischemic stunning, among those with reversible stress perfusion defects, and patients with artifactual defects among those with fixed defects, in order to assess the value of the functional data provided by gated acquisition of perfusion imaging in the characterization of ischemia.

Methods: We studied 221 consecutive patients who underwent conventional diagnostic dual day stress/rest gated-SPECT following injection of 925 MBq of 99mTc-tetrofosmin using a dual head SPECT camera, 115 of whom (52%) showed reversible perfusion defects, and 66 (30%) fixed defects.

99mTc-sulfur colloid gastroesophageal scintigraphy with late lung imaging to evaluate patients with posterior laryngitis.

Unlabelled: The aim of this study was to use gastroesophageal and pulmonary scintigraphy to evaluate the prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux and airway involvement among patients with posterior laryngitis.

Methods: The study included a total of 201 patients (131 females, 70 males; age range, 15-77 y; mean age +/- SD, 49 +/- 16 y). All patients had posterior laryngitis documented by laryngoscopy and symptoms such as a dry cough, painful swallowing, and hoarseness.

[Osteoporosis and phytoestrogens: an assessment of bone mineral density via quantitative peripheral computed tomography in milk-egg-vegetarian women in the premenopause].

Purpose: Noninvasive assessment of bone mineral density, geometrical and biomechanical properties in premenopausal women with dietary intake of phytoestrogens and comparison of these parameters with those of age-matched female subjects with "Mediterranean" dietary intake lacking in these substances.

Material And Methods: Volumetric cortical, trabecular and total mineral density and bone geometrical properties were evaluated in 15 female subjects with phytoestrogens dietary intake. Peripheral quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT) was used to make measurements at the distal radius of the nondominant forearm.

Effects of infusion of glucose-insulin-potassium on myocardial function after a recent myocardial infarction.

Unlabelled: We studied the effects of glucose, insulin, and KCl infusion (GIK), on regional myocardial perfusion and function by 99m-Tc-tetrofosmin-gated SPECT.

Methods: We studied 21 male patients with their first uncomplicated acute myocardial infarction (AMI). All patients underwent a rest and submaximal stress before and after 24-hour infusion of GIK-solution (group A) or saline solution (group B).

Myocardial viability assessment after acute myocardial infarction: low-dose dobutamine echocardiography versus rest-redistribution thallium-201 SPECT.

Background: The presence of tissue viability is of great importance in the prognostic work-up of patients recovering from acute myocardial infarction. However, uncertainty still exists concerning the optimal tool for its assessment. The present study was undertaken in order to compare low-dose dobutamine echocardiography and rest-redistribution thallium SPECT for predicting late improvement of regional left ventricular function after acute myocardial infarction.

A rare case of polyostotic fibrous dysplasia assessed by bone scintigraphy with Tc-99m methylene diphosphonate (MDP).

A 66-year-old man affected by polyostotic form of fibrous dysplasia in consequence of worsening of lower extremity bone pain aggravated by walking and concomitant increase of serum alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin, was subjected first to a radionuclide study. Bone scan demonstrated a pathological uptake of the radiotracer in the craniofacial bones, right scapula, left and right posterior ribs, right hemipelvis and lower extremities confirming the diagnosis but establishing especially the extent of bone involvement, greater than expected on the basis of symptoms and X-ray findings, underlying the importance of nuclear medicine imaging in the assessment and follow-up of this rare disease.

[Assessment of geometric, biomechanical, and osteodensitometric properties of the ultradistal radius with peripheral quantitative computerized tomography in uremic patients with severe hyperparathyroidism].

Introduction: Bone integrity and mineral status were studied with a noninvasive method in uremic patients with severe secondary hyperparathyroidism undergoing maintenance hemodialysis.

Material And Methods: Volumetric cortical and trabecular mineral density (cBMD, tBMD) and bone geometrical properties were evaluated in 16 patients (11 women and 5 men) candidate to parathyroidectomy. Peripheral quantitative Computed Tomography (pQCT) was used to make measurements at the distal radius of the nondominant forearm.

[A comparison between attenuation-corrected and -uncorrected transmission-emission SPECT images obtained with Tl-201 in CAD patients].

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of attenuation correction (AC) on the diagnostic accuracy of conventional stress/red thallium SPECT studies.

Methods: We studied 60 consecutive patients (36 males) who underwent conventional diagnostic stress/red study with and without AC (NAC) using a dual-head SPECT camera (Vertex ADAC) with a 153Gd source. The mean age of these patients was 60 years (30-80) and 29 of the subjects had a history of MI.

[Improvement of the diagnostic value of synchronous myocardial tomoscintigraphy in the assessment of regional myocardial perfusion].

Introduction: Gated SPECT using 99mTc-labeled flow tracers provides simultaneous assessment of global and regional myocardial function.

Purpose: To investigate whether studying regional wall thickening after stress and at rest provides additional diagnostic information in coronary artery disease patients.

Methods: We examined 61 consecutive patients (40 men) who underwent conventional diagnostic dual day stress/rest Gated SPECT using a dual head SPECT camera, following injection of 925 MBq of 99mTc-Tetrofosmin.

[Myocardial scintigraphy by the gated SPECT method in coronary disease patients with postischemic stunning].

Unlabelled: Gated SPECT using Tc-99m-labeled flow tracers provides simultaneous assessment of global and regional myocardial perfusion and function. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether regional wall thickening (WT) obtained after stress and at rest makes it possible to identify and analyze a subgroup of post-ischemic stunned patients.

Methods: We studied 20 patients (18 males) who underwent conventional diagnostic dual-day stress/rest Gated SPECT following injection of 925 MBq of 99mTc-tetrofosmin using a dual-head SPECT camera (Vertex ADAC).