BACKGROUND We tested the hypothesis, that intramyocardial injection of mononuclear bone marrow cells combined with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery improves tissue viability or function in infarct regions with non-viable myocardium as assessed by nuclear imaging techniques. METHODS Thus far, 7 patients (60 +/- 10 [SD] years) undergoing elective CABG surgery after a myocardial in...

Accurate assessment of coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO) lesion is essential to design an appropriate procedural strategy before revascularization. The present study aims to evaluate the significance of a single multislice computed tomography (MSCT) examination in patients with CTO lesion. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 23 CTO lesions in twenty patients underwent computed...

UNLABELLED We have developed a completely automatic algorithm to quantitatively measure left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) from gated 99mTc-sestamibi myocardial perfusion SPECT images. METHODS The algorithm operates in the three-dimensional space and uses gated short-axis image volumes. It segments the left ventricle (LV), estimates and displays endocardial and epicardial surfaces for ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The dynamics of leukocyte infiltration in human cerebral ischemia were studied using technetium-99m hexamethylpropyleneamine oxime (99mTc HMPAO)-labeled leukocyte brain single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). METHODS Twenty-two patients diagnosed as having hemispheric ischemic stroke were examined with 99mTc HMPAO brain SPECT for cerebral blood flow study an...

PURPOSE We compared signal change on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with fat suppression and bone scan activity of lumbar facet joints to determine if these two imaging findings are correlated. METHODS We retrospectively identified all patients who underwent imaging of the lumbar spine for pain evaluation using both technetium-99m methylene disphosphonate single-photon emission computed tom...

UNLABELLED We investigated the reproducibility of an automatic quantitative algorithm for measuring regional myocardial wall motion and systolic thickening. METHODS 99mTc-sestamibi gated myocardial SPECT with dipyridamole stress was performed twice consecutively on 31 patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease, with the patients in the same position for each scan. With AutoQUANT...

BACKGROUND Our study aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of using the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) to monitor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF165) expression in vivo. METHODS We constructed a recombinant lentivirus plasmid with the MLC-2v promoter driving the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) reporter gene linked to the VEGF165 gene. Expression of NIS and VEGF gene were identified by We...

PURPOSE Despite recommendations for 99mTc-tetrofosmin dual tracer imaging for hyperparathyroidism in current guidelines, no report was published on dual-isotope 99mTc-tetrofosmin and 123I sodium iodide single-photon-emission-computed-tomography (SPECT). We evaluated diagnostic accuracy and the impact of preoperative SPECT on the surgical procedures and disease outcomes. METHODS Analysis of 70...