Calcineurin-inhibitor induced pain syndrome (CIPS): a severe disabling complication after organ transplantation.

Bone pain after transplantation is a frequent complication that can be caused by several diseases. Treatment strategies depend on the correct diagnosis of the pain. Nine patients with severe pain in their feet, which was registered after transplantation, were investigated. Bone scans showed an increased tracer uptake of the foot bones. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated bone marrow oedema in the painful bones. Pain was not explained by other diseases causing foot pain, like reflex sympathetic dystrophy, polyneuropathy, Morton's neuralgia, gout, osteoporosis, avascular necrosis, intermittent claudication, orthopaedic foot deformities, stress fractures, and hyperparathyroidism. The reduction of cyclosporine- or tacrolimus trough levels and the administration of calcium channel blockers led to relief of pain. The Calcineurin-inhibitor Induced Pain Syndrome (CIPS) is a rare but severe side effect of cyclosporine or tacrolimus and is accurately diagnosed by its typical presentation, magnetic resonance imaging and bone scans. Incorrect diagnosis of the syndrome will lead to a significant reduction of life quality in patients suffering from CIPS.

Metastatic lymph nodes in patients with cervical cancer: detection with MR imaging and FDG PET.

PURPOSE: To compare the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with that of positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-[fluorine 18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) for detecting metastatic lymph nodes in patients with cervical cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Before radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy in 35 patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage IB or II cervical cancer, abdominal FDG-PET and MR imaging were performed. Malignancy criteria were a lymph node diameter of 1 cm or more at MR imaging and a focally increased FDG uptake at PET. The findings of FDG-PET and MR imaging were compared with histologic findings. RESULTS: Histologic examination revealed pN0-stage cancer in 24 patients and pN1-stage cancer in 11 patients. On a patient basis, node staging resulted in sensitivities of 0.91 with FDG-PET and 0.73 with MR imaging and specificities of 1.00 with FDG-PET and 0.83 with MR imaging. The positive predictive value (PPV) of FDG-PET was 1.00 and that of MR imaging, 0.67 (not significant). The metastatic involvement of lymph node sites was identified at FDG-PET with a PPV of 0.90; at MR imaging, 0.64 (P <.05, Fisher exact test). CONCLUSION: Metabolic imaging with FDG-PET is an alternative to morphologic MR imaging for detecting metastatic lymph nodes in patients with cervical cancer.

Scintigraphic differentiation between two forms of primary dysautonomia early after onset of autonomic dysfunction: value of cardiac and pulmonary iodine-123 MIBG uptake.

Primary dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system can be observed in patients with Parkinson's disease and those with multiple system atrophy. However, the fate of the two diseases differs considerably and leads to different strategies for patient management. Differentiation of the two diseases currently requires a combination of several clinical and electrophysiological tests. First studies of myocardial innervation using iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) indicated a possible role of scintigraphy for this purpose. An increase in the pulmonary uptake of 123I-MIBG has been reported in secondary dysautonomias. Whether sympathetic innervation of the lung is affected in primary dysautonomias is currently unknown. Therefore, cardiac and pulmonary uptake of 123I-MIBG was studied in 21 patients with Parkinson's disease, 7 patients with multiple system atrophy and 13 age- and sex-matched controls. Thoracic images were obtained in the anterior view 4 h after intravenous injection of 185 MBq 123I-MIBG, at which time the maximum neuronal uptake is reached. All patients with Parkinson's disease had significantly lower cardiac uptake of 123I-MIBG than patients with multiple system atrophy and controls. Sympathetic innervation of the lung was not affected in either disease. It is concluded that scintigraphy with 123I-MIBG appears to be a useful tool for differentiation between Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy early after onset of autonomic dysfunction.

Measuring quality of life in back patients: comparison of Health Status Questionnaire 2.0 and Quality of Life Inventory.

This paper is a reliability and validity test of the Health Status Questionnaire (HSQ) 2.0. In addition, the Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI) is compared with the HSQ 2.0 to assess concurrent validity. The study is unique because these instruments are assessed for the first time using a sample of chronic back patients. Practitioners will therefore now be able to evaluate important quality of life issues and treatment changes in this population. The HSQ 2.0 was generally found to be valid for these patients. However, two scale domains were not differentiated due to unique characteristics of spinal disease patients. The QOLI, due to the limitation of measuring only psychological well-being, did not measure problems specific to back patients.

Influence of urinary iodine excretion on thyroid technetium-99m pertechnetate uptake with and without TSH suppression: what happens when iodine supply increases?

This study examines how thyroid pertechnetate uptake with and without thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) suppression changes as a function of increasing iodine supply. This is of special interest in countries at the threshold of sufficient iodine supply, where thyroid scintigraphy plays a key role in thyroid examination, especially for the diagnosis of Plummer's disease. From 1995 to 1997, a total of 1069 patients with euthyroid goitre, Plummer's disease or Graves' disease were included in the study. All patients underwent thyroid examination including sonography, scintigraphy with technetium-99m pertechnetate, and determination of free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, TSH and urinary iodine excretion. Iodine excretion in the range from 0 to 500 microg iodine/g creatinine showed an inverse correlation with thyroid pertechnetate uptake, but no correlation with TSH was observed. There was no correlation between thyroid pertechnetate uptake and iodine excretion when TSH stimulation was eliminated, with two exceptions: thyroid pertechnetate uptake was significantly increased for iodine excretion values below 50 and 100 microg iodine/g creatinine in patients with Graves' and Plummer's disease, respectively. When iodine excretion exceeded 500 microg iodine/g creatinine, pertechnetate uptake was reduced to a basal level independent of the TSH. In conclusion, the influence of TSH on the thyroid pertechnetate uptake seems to be secondary compared with the influence of the iodine supply. It can be concluded further that the reference range of thyroid pertechnetate uptake under TSH suppression will not change significantly when the iodine supply increases from conditions of mild iodine deficiency to iodine sufficiency. Thyroid pertechnetate uptake with and without TSH suppression cannot be reliably interpreted beyond an iodine excretion of 500 microg iodine/g creatinine.

[Change of 99m technetium-pertechnetate uptake by the thyroid under suppression (TcTus) induced by optimization of iodine supply in Germany]. / Anderung des 99mTechnetium-Pertechnetat-Uptakes der Schilddrüse unter Suppression (TcTUs) bei Verbesserung der Iodversorgung in Deutschland.

AIM: The present study deals with the change of the 99mTechnetium-pertechnetate thyroid uptake under suppression (TcTUs) in dependence on the urinary iodine excretion. METHODS: The study collective comprises 510 patients with euthyroid goiter (N = 91), with functional thyroid autonomy (N = 361) and with Graves, disease (N = 58), who were examined in the own thyroid ambulance between January 1995 and February 1997 and who presented with endogeneous or exogeneous TSH suppression. All patients received a quantitative thyroid scintigraphy with 99mTechnetium-pertechnetate and a measurement of the urinary iodine excretion. RESULTS: The TcTUs from the whole collective shows an inverse correlation to the urinary iodine excretion for the range of 0 to 500 micrograms iodine/g creatinine. The TcTUs remains constant on a low basal level for iodine excretion values over 500 micrograms iodine/g creatinine. Significant differences occur in dependence on the underlying disease. TcTUs is constantly low in patients with euthyroid goiter, independent of the iodine excretion value. The TcTUs is significantly increased in patients with functional thyroid autonomy or Graves' disease when iodine excretion is below 100 or 50 micrograms iodine/g creatinine respectively, but shows only minor changes when iodine excretion rises up to 500 micrograms iodine/g creatinine. When iodine excretion exceeds 500 micrograms iodine/g creatinine, the TcTUs of patients with thyroid autonomy drops down to a low basal level. CONCLUSION: The reference range of TcTUs for assessing functional thyroid autonomy will not change significantly when the iodine supply in Germany improves. The TcTUs of patients with functional thyroid autonomy might be up to one third higher under conditions of iodine deficiency than in iodine sufficiency. This should be taken into account, when therapeutical consequences were derived from the TcTUs. The TcTUs cannot be interpreted for iodine excretion values over 500 micrograms iodine/g creatinine.