Measurement of 90Sr in bone ash.

Bone is a critical organ for the accumulation of many radionuclides, including 90Sr. A bone ash has been prepared by NIST to become a standard reference material and the assaying of the 90Sr activity concentration is reported. A radiochemical procedure, based on extraction chromatography using a crown ether, has been developed to separate Sr from the bone ash. The natural Sr content of the bone ash has been determined by isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The 90Sr activity concentration has been measured by low-level liquid scintillation counting.

Chronic acalculous gallbladder disease: a clinical variant.

A review of 228 cholecystectomies done over a two-year period revealed 15 cases (6.6%) in which gallstones were absent. These 15 patients were all characterized by colicky abdominal pain in the right upper quadrant, with a mean duration of eight months. Ultrasonographic examination was falsely positive for gallstones in one third (5/15) of the patients, and further diagnostic evaluation in the remaining two thirds (10/15) failed to define a clear-cut surgical problem. All 15 patients ultimately had operation on the basis of symptoms. Every patient reported resolution of preoperative symptoms at short-term follow-up (four to eight weeks). Seven patients available for long-term follow-up (ten to 27 months) reported complete symptomatic resolution. The postoperative outcome failed to correlate reliably with gallbladder histology, bile cultures, and results of diagnostic testing. There was no mortality, and morbidity was limited to three patients. This series confirms previous reports of a small set of relatively young, healthy patients having chronic disabling symptoms of gallbladder disease in the absence of gallstones. Our results suggest that the most reliable factor predicting a successful outcome of cholecystectomy in these patients was the presence of severe biliary colic.