Clinical relevance of serum procalcitonin in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Cerebral vasospasm (CV), which is closely related to the prognosis of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH), is known to be related to an inflammatory reaction. The aim of the present study was to investigate predictable values of procalcitonin (PCT) for systemic infection and the development of CV in patients with aSAH. Patients who underwent endovascular treatment for aSAH were retrospectively enrolled. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to evaluate the predicable value of PCT for systemic infection and CV in patients with aSAH. To clarify the association of PCT and CV, additional subgroup analysis was performed for patients without systemic infection. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore the associations of PCT and the development of CV. A total of 374 patients with aSAH were enrolled. Of them, 164 (43.9%) had systemic infection. Optimal cutoff value of PCT for systemic infection was 0.21 ng/ml (P<0.001). In subgroup analysis of 210 patients without infection, 0.09 ng/ml of PCT level was defined as the optimal cutoff value for predicting CV after aSAH (P<0.001). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, PCT was a significant predicting factor for CV (odds ratio, 1.82; 95% confidence interval, 1.42-2.96; P=0.015). Overall, PCT had predictable value for systemic infection and the development of CV in patients who underwent endovascular treatment for aSAH. Further studies are needed to validate our results and establish its clinical applicability.

Chylothorax Associated with Substernal Goiter in Graves' Disease Treated with Radioactive Iodine.

INTRODUCTION: We present a rare case of chylothorax associated with an intrathoracic goiter in Graves' disease that was treated with radioactive iodine. CASE REPORT: A 23-year-old woman with Graves' disease was referred to our clinic with a pleural effusion, dyspnea, characteristic bilateral proptosis, and a diffuse goiter. The pleural fluid biochemistry was consistent with chylothorax. However, the chylothorax did not decrease with conservative therapy. Therefore, RAI was administered. Subsequently, the chylothorax and goiter improved more quickly than expected. CONCLUSIONS: This case illustrates that chylothorax associated with a substernal goiter in Graves' disease can be treated successfully with radioactive iodine instead of surgery.

Comparison of 2D, 3D high dose and 3D low dose gated myocardial 82Rb PET imaging.

BACKGROUND: We compared 2D, 3D high dose (HD) and 3D low dose (LD) gated myocardial Rb-82 PET imaging in 16 normal human studies. The main goal in the paper is to evaluate whether the images obtained by a 3D LD studies are still of comparable clinical quality to the images obtained with the 2D HD or 3D HD studies. METHODS: All 2D and 3D HD studies were performed with 2220 MBq of Rb-82. The 3D LD were performed with 740 MBq of Rb-82. A GE Advance PET system was used for acquisition. Polar maps were created and used to calculate noise among (NAS) and within (NWS) the segments in the noise analysis. In addition, the contrast between left ventricular (LV) wall and LV cavity was also analysed. For 13 subjects, ejection fraction (EF) on 2D and 3D studies was calculated using QGS program. RESULTS: For the H20 reconstruction filter, the mean contrast in mid-ventricular short-axis slice was 0.33 +/- 0.06 for 2D studies. The same contrast for the 3D HD studies was 0.38 +/- 0.07 and for 3D LD, it was 0.34 +/- 0.08. For the 6 volunteers where 3D HD was used, NAS was 3.64*10-4 and NWS was 1.79*10-2 for 2D studies, and NAS was 3.70*10-4 and NWS was 1.85*10-2 for 3D HD studies, respectively. For the other 10 volunteers where 3D LD was used, NAS was 3.85*10-4 and NWS was 1.82*10-2 for the 2D studies, and NAS was 5.58*10-4 and NWS was 1.91*10-2 for the 3D LD studies, respectively. For the sharper H13 filter, the data followed the same pattern, with slightly higher values of contrast and noise. EF values in 2D and 3D were close. The Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.90. The average difference from 13 subjects was 8.3%. CONCLUSION: 2D and 3D HD gating Rb-82 PET cardiac studies have similar contrast, ejection fractions and noise levels. 3D LD gating imaging, gave comparable results in terms of contrast, EF and noise to either 2D or 3D HD gating PET imaging. 3D LD PET gated imaging can make Rb-82 PET cardiac imaging more affordable with significantly less radiation exposure to the patients.