SHU-555-A will increase the detectability of HCC and its liver metastases. T1W- and T2*W-GRE sequences would be the sequences of choice.

No abstract

A 31-year-old male having familial amyloid polyneuropathy underwent a Tc-99m(V)-DMSA study to evaluate the myocardial involvement. The patient also underwent T1-201, I-123-BMIPP and I-123-MIBG myocardial SPECT studies to evaluate blood perfusion, fatty acid metabolism and sympathetic function of the heart, respectively. Tc-99m(V)-DMSA SPECT showed uptake to the myocardium indicating myocardial involvement of amyloidosis. Both T1-201 and I-123-BMIPP studies showed normal uptake indicating normal blood perfusion and fatty acid metabolism but I-123-MIBG SPECT showed no uptake to the heart, indicating severe impairment of sympathetic function.

The aim of this study was to compare cerebral perfusion images and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) of SPECT study with the images and regional intensity of relative cerebral blood flow (CBF) images acquired by contrast-enhanced perfusion MR imaging (pMRI) and flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery (FAIR). Twelve patients with various cerebral diseases were underwent I-123-IMP SPECT, pMRI, and FAIR studies to measure rCBF. A total of 12 regions of interest (ROI) were created over cerebrum and cerebellum to acquire the corresponding rCBF from I-123-IMP study and regional average signal intensity from CBF images of pMRI and FAIR studies. Left-to-right (L/R) and cerebral-to-cerebellar (CCR) ratios were created from the rCBF of I-123-IMP and signal intensity of CBF images of pMRI and FAIR. Image quality of FAIR was the poorest among all; however, CBF images of pMRI and FAIR images show comparatively decreased intensity at the corresponding site of decreased perfusion on I-123-IMP images. Both FAIR and pMRI images showed high intensity along the sinuses, choroid plexus, and large vessels in sulci. No significant correlation was found among all imaging modalities. But L/R ratio of I-123-IMP showed significant correlation with those of pMRI and FAIR, but for CCR, significant correlation was observed only between I-123-IMP and FAIR. Perfusion images of both pMRI and FAIR may produce images comparable to SPECT study. But to calculate absolute CBF more easy-to-apply and accurate algorithms are needed to overcome the artifacts from large vessels.

Tc-99m-tetrofosmin SPECT was performed on 6 occasions in 4 patients with hypopharyngeal carcinoma, lung carcinoma, esophageal carcinoma and maxillary plasmocytoma and compared with Tl-201 SPECT. All lesions accumulated both Tc-99m-tetrofosmin and Tl-201. Early uptake ratios of Tc-99m-tetrofosmin were about 2 but those of Tl-201 were much higher (more than 3). Washout rates of Tc-99m-tetrofosmin were higher than those of Tl-201. There was a good positive correlation between the early uptake ratio of Tc-99m-tetrofosmin and that of Tl-201. The delayed uptake ratio and washout rate showed poor correlation. In conclusion, early uptakes of both the agents were similar but their retention patterns were different. Tc-99m-tetrofosmin may be used for tumor imaging though more studies are required to evaluate diagnostic accuracy and the significance of delayed images.