Therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma with iodine-131-lipiodol. Results in a large German cohort.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of iodine-131-lipiodol ((131)I-lipiodol) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in German long term patients and comparison with medically treated controls.

Patients, Methods: 38 courses of intra-arterial (131)I-lipiodol therapy with a total activity up to 6.7 GBq were performed in 18 patients with HCC (6 with portal vein thrombosis).

[Prediction of the splenectomy efficacy in chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura].

The aim of this investigation was to estimate the possibility of predicting the splenectomy response in patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). The patients' age, sex, megakaryocytes abundance, platelet blood count, production, life span, sequestration/destruction site were considered as possible predictive factors. Thirty-four ITP patients (23 female and 11 male) aged from five to 83 years were investigated.

[Initial 111In-platelet kinetics: indicator of platelet sequestration/destruction site or quality control of platelet labelling?].

Taking into consideration the existing disagreement in the literature, the aim of this paper was to estimate the value of the initial kinetics of autologous platelets labelled with 111In-oxinate, performed during the first 20 minutes after their intravenous injection. Two hypothesis were tested: 1. Initial 111In-platelet kinetics indicates the platelet sequestration site (in patients with normal mean platelet life span)/destruction site (in patients with shortened mean platelet life span), 2.

[Scintigraphic diagnosis of inflammation and infection].

Nuclear medicine, diagnostic and therapeutic application of open sources of ionizing radiation in medicine, has wide range of possibilities for non-invasive infection and inflammation detection. The broad spectrum of methods, some of which are already in routine use while the others are still in the phase of investigation, improvement, or clinical trials, is presented. Most of the methods in routine use are capable of detection and localisation of both inflammation and infection.

[Methods for the quantification of left ventricular volumes assessed by radionuclide ventriculography (first part)].

The purpose of this study was to point out the existing methods and to describe and evaluate the accuracy of new, original, "Geometric-count-based" (GCB) method, based on radionuclide ventriculography, for the measurement of left ventricular volumes compaired to the contrast ventriculography. By having done this, the aim was to compare the accuracy of GCB method and other two radionuclide methods available for left ventricular volume measurements: Count-bases Massardo method and gated blood pool SPECT method. In GCB method count based data from radionuclide ventriculography were combined with geometric ones assuming a prolate ellipsoid left ventricular's shape with identical short axes.

Clinical significance of optimal red cell mass and plasma volume estimation methods.

Background: The aim of this study was to present and compare the results of proposed methods for optimal red cell mass and plasma volume (RCM&PV) estimation, and their influence on the interpretation of obtained results.

Material And Methods: In 120/280 patients with polycythaemia rubra vera, subjected to RCM&PV determination with autologous erythrocytes in vitro labelled with 51Cr-sodium chromate, optimal volumes were determined using: 1. traditional ml/kg of: --the real body weight method (ml/kg RBW); --the optimal body weight method (ml/kg OBW).

Therapy of hepatocellular cancer with iodine-131-Lipiodol.

Most patients with hepatocellular carcinoma are not eligible for surgery at the time of primary diagnosis. Portal vein thrombosis is frequent and represents a contraindication for transarterial chemoembolisation. Transarterial therapy with iodine-131-Lipiodol is superior to systemic therapy in tumours up to diameters of 5 cm and may be performed even in cases with portal vein thrombosis.

111In-platelets dynamic study in chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura.

Background: The aim of this work was to estimate the significance of a dynamic study performed during the first 20 minutes after autologous (111)In-oxinate-platelets injection in patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). Two hypotheses were tested: a) dynamic study indicates the place of platelet sequestration; b) dynamic study reflects the quality of platelet separation and labelling procedure.

Material And Methods: Thirty-nine persons were investigated: 25 with shortened platelet life span (ITP), and 14 with normal platelet life span (6 healthy subjects and eight patients with myelodysplastic syndrome--MDS).

[Novel approach to parathyroid adenoma: minimally invasive, focused, scan guided parathyroidectomy--experience from the first 100 cases].

Background: Traditionally, the surgical approach to parathyroid adenoma included formal bilateral neck exploration, inspection and evaluation of all four glands. Recently, following progress in the precision of pre-operative localization by sonography and scintigraphy and the availability of a real time PTH assay, focused, minimally invasive approaches to the removal of a single adenoma were proposed. We review our experience in the first 100 cases.

Rhinoscintigraphy: a simple radioisotope technique to study the mucociliary system.

Purpose: This was a radioisotope study of nasal mucociliary clearance of total and subtotal nasal obstruction.

Methods: Rhinoscintigraphy was performed by insufflating 1.85 MBq (69 mCi) Tc-99m MAA in 20 patients.

Nuclear medicine in primary bone tumors.

Introduction: Conventional radiography is the method of choice to diagnose a primary bone tumor but in many cases it is necessary to integrate it with nuclear medicine scintigraphy using several radionuclides, including 67Ga, 201Tl, 99mTc-MIBI and especially 99mTc-diphosphonates. Recently a new technique has been recently introduced, that is positron emission tomography with 2(18F) fluoro-2 deoxy-D-glucose as radiopharmaceutical.

Objective: The specific purpose of this work is to show that nuclear medicine bone scanning is a very important method in the detection and diagnostic management of primary bone tumors.

SPET monitoring of perfusion changes in auditory cortex following mono- and multi-frequency stimuli.

Aim: In order to assess the relationship between auditory cortex perfusion and the frequency of acoustic stimuli, twenty normally-hearing subjects underwent cerebral SPET.

Methods: In 10 patients a multi-frequency stimulus (250-4000 Hz at 40 dB SL) was delivered, while 10 subjects were stimulated with a 500 Hz pure tone at 40 dB SL. The prestimulation SPET was subtracted from poststimulation study and auditory cortex activation was expressed as percent increments.

Imaging methods in the study of urinary tract infections in children.

Unlabelled: When studying a child with urinary tract infection it is important to detect and localize any renal (scar) or urologic anomaly. Here we study the information obtained using: renal and vesical ultrasound (US), DMSA scan and radiologic or isotopic cystogram.

Methods: We studied 148 children with more than one urinary infection and/or pyelonephritis; their mean age was 35.

Nuclear medicine imaging in pediatric oncology.

Nuclear medicine imaging techniques, whether applied in the initial diagnosis or in assessing the response to therapy, are indispensable in the evaluation of malignant diseases that afflict infants and children. The major role of these techniques (bone, 67Ga and 201Tl scintigraphy, imaging with labeled leucocytes, immunoscintigraphy) is that of complementing, in an essential manner, other first choice diagnostic investigations (radiological, bioptic, etc.) such as in evaluating malignant skeletal tumors, soft tissue sarcomas, lymphomas, leukemia and histiocytosis X.

Thyrotoxicosis due to ectopic retrotracheal adenoma treated with radioiodine.

Ectopic thyroid tissue is rarely found in the cervical retrotracheal region and its functional autonomy with suppression of the normal gland can be considered unusual. We report a case of thyrotoxicosis in a patient who had no palpable goitre in the neck but was found to have a solitary toxic thyroid nodule behind the trachea. US and CT scanning confirmed that the nodule was retrotracheal and apparently was not continuous or contiguous with the normal thyroid gland.

Targeting of non-small cell lung cancer using HMFG1-99mTc monoclonal antibodies.

Anti HMFG1 monoclonal antibodies labeled with 99mTc were used for the detection of non-small cell lung cancers and their metastases in 18 patients (12 squamous cell cancers, 2 large cell lung cancers, 1 adenocarcinoma and 3 undifferentiated non-small cell lung cancer). According to performed therapy all patients were divided into three groups: group 1 consisted of 13 patients who had not received chemotherapy or radiotherapy before immunoscintigraphy (IS), group 2 included 3 patients who had undergone IS during external beam radiotherapy, and group 3 (two patients) who had received both chemotherapy and radiotherapy before IS. After antibody administration planar scintigraphy of the head and neck, chest in anterior and posterior projection, anterior abdomen, pelvis, thighs and calves was obtained at 10 minutes, 5 hours and 24 hours.

AFP, CEA, CA 19-9 and TPA in hepatocellular carcinoma.

The present study is based on the assay of four markers (AFP, CEA, TPA, Ca 19-9) using IRMA methods in 36 normal subjects, 44 cirrhosis and 66 HCC patients. Parametric and non parametric tests were used to test differences and correlations. ROC curves and discriminant functions were also elaborated.