Nuclear medicine communications
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The aim of the study was to assess the potential interest of combining a low-dose computed tomography (ldCT) to ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE). We addressed three main questions: Could ldCT be used in substitution to ventilation SPECT? Could ldCT improve the diagnostic performance of V/Q SPECT? Could ldCT provide alternative diagnoses to PE? ⋯ For PE diagnosis with lung SPECT, the use of ldCT in substitution to ventilation SPECT is associated with a high risk of overdiagnosis. The diagnostic value of ldCT in addition to V/Q SPECT remains unclear. Further studies are needed to determine its potential role in PE diagnosis.
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Neonatal cholestasis is a common cause of jaundice among newborns. Hepatobiliary scintigraphy plays an important role in the diagnosis of neonatal cholestasis by ruling out extrahepatic biliary atresia, which is one of the common causes. Phenobarbitone and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) have been used to improve the specificity of hepatobiliary scintigraphy in ruling out obstructive causes of neonatal cholestasis syndrome (NCS). The present study was undertaken to compare the utility of phenobarbitone and UDCA in augmenting hepatobiliary scintigraphy in the evaluation of NCS. ⋯ Out of 50 patients who were evaluated with drug-augmented hepatobiliary scintigraphy two patients from the phenobarbitone group and one patient each from UDCA and placebo groups showed a change in excretory pattern from the baseline scan. However, these results were statistically nonsignificant (P=1.00). In the present study, drug-augmented (phenobarbitone or UDCA) hepatobiliary scintigraphy did not seem to improve the results (negative predictive value) for ruling out an obstructive cause of neonatal cholestasis.
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Three-phase bone scintigraphy using technetium-99m-methylene diphosphonate is used to diagnose skeletal lesions, whereas single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) improves the diagnostic accuracy of bone disease. We investigated the usefulness of SPECT/CT combined with three-phase bone scintigraphy over three-phase bone scintigraphy alone in assessing suspected bone tumors in patients with no malignant history. ⋯ Compared with three-phase bone scintigraphy, the diagnostic accuracy of SPECT/CT combined with three-phase bone scintigraphy was higher. SPECT/CT combined with three-phase bone scintigraphy is beneficial over three-phase bone scintigraphy for the differential diagnosis of suspected bone tumors in patients with no malignant history.