[New medico-nuclear applications in the postoperative study of kidney transplant]. / Moderne applicazioni medico-nucleari nello studio postoperatorio del trapianto renale.

Isotope nephrography is nowadays widely applied to the study of renal transplants. Major advantages of this technique have been obtained for the prognostic evaluation of transplant rejection and in the differential diagnosis of oliguria and anuria. The authors report on 14 cases of renal transplant recipients examined with renal scintigraphy 3-4 days after surgery. In agreement with literature data, the authors wish to stress the importance of the correct use of different tracers (DTPA, MAG3) for renal scintigraphy and nephrography. Problems and complications in renal transplants are studied with the simultaneous use of these tracers. The evaluation of renal blood flow and vascular complications requires radiopharmaceutical DTPA, which is excreted only by glomerular filtration. In contrast to 99mTc-DTPA, 99mTc-MAG3 is now the tracer of choice in the evaluation of tubular function. Some problems are still to be solved regarding patients management, such as the necessary chronologic relationship between surgical phases and nephrographic/scintigraphic examinations and early and late follow-up of renal transplant recipients.

Multicompartmental analysis of triiodothyronine (T3) distribution and metabolism in clinically euthyroid obese individuals.

Triiodothyronine (T3) kinetic studies were performed on ten clinically non-fasting euthyroid obese individuals and on eight normal subjects. Kinetic analysis was carried out according to a three-pool model whose basic approach involved the acquisition of data from both vascular and extravascular sources. The former were represented by the plasma disappearance curves of iv injected radiolabeled T3. The latter included fecal and urinary losses and liver, kidney and thigh uptake. A detailed comparison of the T3 kinetics of obese and normal individuals did not uncover many differences between these two groups in the way the hormone is distributed, metabolized and excreted. The mean value for the plasma equivalent distribution volume of T3(VD3) in obese individuals (27.05 L) was not significantly different from that in controls (24.60 L) nor were significant differences observed between the mean value for the plasma appearance rate of the hormone (PAR3) in obese subjects (29.80 micrograms/day) and that in controls (30.05 micrograms/day). The mean value for the size of the slow pool (Qc), including fatty tissue as well as skeletal muscle, was unchanged in obese individuals when compared with controls, although in the obese subjects the mean value for the mass of fatty tissue was about 5 times greater. In addition, in obese individuals, the mean value for the fractional rate transfer from plasma to the slow pool (Kca), which was 9.06 day-1, did not significantly differ from that in controls (9.22 day-1).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)