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The Korean Society of Nuclear Medicine (KSNM) is celebrating its 60th anniversary in honor of the nuclear medicine professionals who have dedicated their efforts towards research, academics, and the more comprehensive clinical applications and uses of nuclear imaging modalities. Nuclear cardiology in Korea was at its prime time in the 1990s, but its growth was interrupted by a long pause. Despite the academic and practical challenges, nuclear cardiology in Korea now meets the second leap, attributed to the growth in molecular imaging tailored for many non-coronary diseases and the genuine values of nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging. In this review, we describe the trends, achievements, challenges, and perspectives of nuclear cardiology throughout the 60-year history of the KSNM.
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Objective Multidector computed tomography (MDCT) is now commonly used for the evaluation of coronary artery disease. Because MDCT images include many non-cardiac organs and the patient population evaluated is highly susceptible to extracardiac diseases, this study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of extracardiac findings in the MDCT evaluation of ischemic heart disease. Methods From March 2007 to March 2008, a total of six-hundred twenty patients, who underwent 64-slice MDCT evaluations for chest pain, or dyspnea, were enrolled in this study. Cardiac and non-cardiac findings were comprehensively evaluated by a radiologist. Results Enrolled patients included 306 men (49.4%), with a mean age of 66 years. Significant coronary artery stenosis was found in 41.6%of the patients. A total of 158 extracardiac findings were observed in 110 (17.7%) patients. Commonly involved extracardiac organs were lung (36.7%), hepatobiliary system (21.5%), thyroid (19.6%), kidney (10.8%), spine (9.7%) and breast (0.6%). Of those 110 patients, 50 (45.5%) patients underwent further diagnostic investigations. Malignant disease was detected in three (2.7%) patients (lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and thyroid cancer). Conclusions Extracardiac findings are frequently present and should be a concern in the MDCT evaluation of chest pain syndrome.
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BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes using 99mTC-ECD SPECT (Ethylene Cysteine Diethylester Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) and contemporary clinical responses such as cognitive and psychiatric symptoms and activities of daily living (ADL) after cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI) treatment. METHODS: The subjects were eight probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (four males and four females, mean age 69.63 years) who were recruited from the department of Neurology, at Yeungnam University Medical Center, between August 2000 and April 2002. The clinical diagnosis of AD was based on the DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA criteria. Hachinski ischemic scores of all the patients were below 1. The mean treatment duration was 30.38 weeks which ranged from 24 to 44 weeks. Four patients received Rivastigmine (Exelon(r)) 12 mg after titration, and three patients received Donepezil (Aricept(r)) 10 mg during the whole period and only one patient had Donepezil 10 mg after the initial 5 mg for three weeks. The base line and follow up 99mTC-ECD SPECT studies were done on an average 6 days before the ChEI treatment and 4 days after finishing the study. RESULTS: The most significant increase in blood flow occurred in the bilateral parietal lobes (p<0.05). Reduction in the rCBF is more profound on the left hemisphere in the base line (p<0.05) and it achieved significant increase of rCBF after ChEI treatment compared with the right hemisphere (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with ChEI for 30.38 weeks increased rCBF and overall increased in global cognitive functions including K-MMSE, ADAS-cog, CDR, CDR-SB, GDS, and NPI and ADCS-ADL scores.