The importance of the clinical phenotype of multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) is emphasized. Neither conduction block (CB) nor antibody status is a reliable predictor of treatment responsiveness. Over-reliance upon consensus CB criteria can deny IVIg to patients with MMN who are treatment responsive.

Thermal imaging at early and later times after caesarean birth is feasible and acceptable. Women reported potential benefits of the technique for future wound infection screening. Thermal intensity profiling and HCS for pixel cluster dissimilarity between scar and adjacent healthy skin has potential as a method for the development of techniques targeted to early infection surveillance in women after caesarean section.

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Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a selective loss of dopamine in the striatum. Problems remain in the accurate diagnosis of PD. The diagnosis of idiopathic PD is based on the interpretation of clinical signs and symptoms could be incorrect at the time of initial presentation. In vivo imaging of the dopaminergic system has the potential to improve the diagnosis of PD in its early stages. The imaging of dopamine transporter (DAT) with 99mTc-labeled tropane derivative (TRODAT-1) single photon emission computer tomography/computer tomography (SPECT/CT) has been proposed to be a valuable and feasible means of assessment of the integrity of dopamine neurons. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential usefulness of 99mTc-TRODAT-1 imaging in the evaluation of patients with PD and classify into different stages of the disease. SPECT imaging with 99mTc-TRODAT-1 was conducted in 16 consecutive PD patients (9 men; 7 women) and in 6 age matched healthy volunteers (4 men; 2 women). The images were obtained 3 h after the intra-venous injection of the tracer. Specific uptake in the striatum and its sub-regions, including the putamen and caudate nucleus was calculated and the ratios of specific striatal binding to nonspecific occipital binding were calculated. ANOVA with Dunnett C post-hoc analysis was conducted using SPSS 20. A stepwise reduction in specific striatal uptake of 99mTc-TRODAT-1 with increasing disease severity between healthy control versus Stage I versus Stage II versus Stage III was found in PD patients (i.e., 3.77 vs. 2.56 vs. 1.57 vs. 0.63, P < 0.05). The changes were magnified by measurement of specific putaminal uptake (1.43 vs. 0.79 vs. 0.54 vs. 0.19, P < 0.05) and specific caudate uptake (1.90 vs. 1.47 vs. 0.73 vs. 0.27, P < 0.05). No remarkable adverse reactions were found in either healthy volunteers or PD patients during or after imaging. 99mTc-TRODAT-1 is accurate and widely available for the assessment of DAT activity, which might shed light on the integrity of the presynaptic nigrostriatal function. Our preliminary study results confirm the potential of using 99mTc-TRODAT-1 for DAT measurement, which is clinically important for the staging of PD.