Increased Gastric Activity on Myocardial Perfusion Imaging.

UNLABELLED: We anecdotally observed an increased accumulation of (99m)Tc-tetrofosmin in the stomach of myocardial perfusion patients when their uptake phase coincided with preparation of hamburgers in an adjacent room for gastric emptying studies on other patients. The potential for a scent-stimulated alteration of gastric biodistribution required further investigation. METHODS: An experimental group and a control group were enrolled (20 patients per group). The experimental group could smell food being prepared during the uptake phase. Stomach, heart, and background regions were drawn in multiple projections, and the resulting data were evaluated. RESULTS: The experimental and control groups did not significantly differ in stomach counts per pixel, background-corrected counts per pixel, or heart-to-stomach ratio. Further analysis of the data revealed that women had a significantly higher increase in stomach counts (P = 0.022) and background-corrected stomach counts (P = 0.018) than men. CONCLUSION: Women had a greater increase in gastric (99m)Tc-tetrofosmin activity than men during the radiopharmaceutical uptake phase, but there was no causal relationship between an increase in activity and olfactory stimulation from the cooking of food.

The Value of Single-photon Emission Computed Tomography/Computed Tomography in the Evaluation of Herniation Pits.

The potential role of the nuclear medicine diagnostic bone scan in identifying herniation pits of the femoral neck is yet to be adequately described. The following cases show incidental findings of subcortical cavities of the femoral neck detected on bone scans. These findings highlight the potential role of the bone scan as a useful imaging modality in identifying and stratifying herniation pits based on physiology, particularly with the addition of single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography to the armamentarium.