Patients with long dialysis vintage have low cardiac output for various reasons. Although kidney transplantation is known to improve cardiac mortality, patients are sometimes evaluated as contraindicated for transplantation because of cardiac risk. We successfully performed kidney transplantation for a patient with a long dialysis vintage and dilated cardiomyopathy. Sequential (123)I-metaiodobe...

A 48-year-old male patient was admitted to our hospital with dyspnea accompanied by orthopnea. Chest x-rays showed a cardiothoracic ratio of 68% and pulmonary congestion. He was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. Beta-Blocker (carvedilol) therapy was initiated on Day 22 of the disease using a small initial dose. He was followed up based on BNP levels and MIBG scintigraphy. The H/M ratio and...

UNLABELLED In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic yield of somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS), I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scintigraphy, and morphologic imaging (CT or MRI) in patients with head and neck paragangliomas. METHODS In a university hospital setting, patients considered to have head and neck paraganglioma were referred to the outpatient endocrinology department and u...

13-cis-retinoic acid (13-cis-RA) treatment is used as a second-line treatment for residual or recurrent neuroblastoma. However, determining the duration of 13-cis-RA treatment for residual and recurrent neuroblastoma can be a problem because it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment.We performed 13-cis-RA treatment to remove residual active neuroblastoma cells in an 8-year-...

UNLABELLED Although (123)I-MIBG has been in clinical use for the imaging of pheochromocytoma for many years, a large multicenter evaluation of this agent has never been performed. The present study was designed to provide a prospective confirmation of the performance of (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy for the evaluation of patients with known or suspected primary or metastatic pheochromocytoma or para...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relation between regional myocardial sympathetic nerve activity and the electrocardiographic and cardiac functional changes in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. DESIGN A retrospective study to compare the findings of myocardial scintigraphy with iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) and the serial electrocardiographic changes. SETTING Myocardial scintigraphy was ...

OBJECTIVE Short-acting loop diuretics are known to enhance cardiac sympathetic nerve activity (CSNA) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). The effects of two loop diuretics-long-acting azosemide and short-acting furosemide-on CSNA were evaluated using (123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scintigraphy in patients with CHF. METHODS The present study was a subanalysis of our previously ...

Pheochromocytomas are rare tumors arising from chromaffin cells of adrenal medullary or extra-adrenal paraganglionic tissue. These tumors are characterized by synthesis, storage, metabolism and secretion of catecholamines. Similar to the sympathetic nervous system, pheochromocytomas express cellular norepinephrine transporters (NET) through which catecholamines can enter pheochromocytoma cells ...

BACKGROUND Many studies have shown that cardiac sympathetic nerve activity evaluated by [(123)I]m-iodobenzylguanidine ([(123)I]MIBG) scintigraphic study during a stable period is useful for determining the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure. OBJECTIVE To examine whether results of this imaging method performed 3 weeks after the onset of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction...