Visualization of myocardial infarction 6 h after injection of 111In-antimyosin antibodies using a blood pool subtraction technique.

111In-antimyosin antibodies are capable of visualizing myocardial infarction (MI). Because of slow blood clearance, images are usually recorded 24 or 48 h postinjection. In this pilot study, a blood pool subtraction technique, which makes it possible to visualize MI 6 h postinjection, is validated. Twenty-five patients with proven MI (16 anterior, 9 inferior) were imaged a few minutes, 6 and 24 h after an injection of 111 MBq 111In-labelled antimyosin antibodies. Three planar views are obtained each time. Using software which performs the geometric registration, the grey level normalization and the subtraction of images, the blood pool image (obtained a few minutes postinjection) is subtracted from the 6 h image. The resulting image is the blood pool corrected 6 h image. The 24 h images and the blood pool corrected 6 h images were interpreted blindly and the number of correct, incorrect and impossible MI localizations was counted. The number of correct localizations is 19/25 for the standard 24 h images and 22/25 for the blood pool corrected 6 h images. Then, with this blood pool subtraction method, it is possible to visualize MI 6 h postinjection. This has to be taken into account when discussing the role of antimyosin scintigraphy in the management of patients with MI.     

Physiological neutrophilia of pregnancy is not associated with a rise in plasma granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)

A patient with neutropenia and life-threatening infections secondary to T-γ lymphoproliferative disease, who did not respond to treatment with recombinant human G-CSF (filgrastim), was treated with filgrastim plus cyclosporine A (CyA). The patient achieved a good response in the absolute neutrophil count and subsequently required a dose reduction in the filgrastim. The patient was eventually discontinued from the CyA but continues on filgrastim alone. While on therapy, the large granular lymphocytes disappeared from the circulation and the beta-TCR rearrangement, which was present prior to beginning therapy, became undetectable. The patient had no significant toxicity to the CyA or the filgrastim and he has not experienced any serious infections or required hospitalization. Filgrastim has proven to be relatively nontoxic and of some benefit to patients with this disease and should probably be utilized first when treatment is necessary. However, if improvement is not observed, these findings suggest that a trial of the combination of CyA plus filgrastim may be beneficial.     

Thiopental sodium by single bolus dose compared to infusion for cerebral protection during cardiopulmonary bypass

The authors previously demonstrated that thiopental sodium infused throughout cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) considerably reduced persistent but not transient neuropsychiatric complications after open-chamber cardiac operations. Based on the probability that emboli released at the time of aortic declamping cause most postoperative central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction, this study was designed to test whether administration of a single bolus dose of thiopental before aortic declamping provided cerebral protection equal to that of infusion throughout bypass as well as a decrease in unwanted side effects. One hundred adult patients undergoing open-chamber cardiac operations with CPB received either thiopental sodium by infusion throughout CPB (n = 52) or thiopental sodium 15 mg/kg by bolus before aortic declamping (n = 48). In 90% of the patients, thiopental sodium 15 mg/kg produced electroencephalographic (EEG) burst suppression, with more than 60 seconds between bursts. Postoperative CNS dysfunction occurred in 3 (6%) of the infusion group patients (thiopental sodium 36 +/- 10 mg/kg) and 2 (4%) of the bolus group patients (thiopental sodium 16 +/- 2 mg/kg). CNS dysfunction persisting to the tenth postoperative day occurred in only one patient, who was in the infusion group. Requirements for inotropic support on separation from CPB did not differ between groups, but average time to extubation was 2.7 hours shorter in the bolus group. The authors conclude that thiopental sodium 15 mg/kg given as a single bolus immediately before aortic declamping without the need for EEG monitoring provided the same brain protection as larger doses given by infusion titrated to burst suppression, but it did not reduce the need for inotropic support during separation from CPB.     

Diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic value of Doppler echocardiography in pulmonary embolism. Apropos of 41 cases

In 41 patients with acute or recent pulmonary embolus (PE), a prospective study was conducted with cardiac Doppler sonography (CDS). The test is performed first in all patients, then immediately following a treatment fibrinolytics in 10 of them. The PE is confirmed by pulmonary angiography in 39 patients and embolectomy for the 2 patients who presented a mobile thrombus in the right atrium. A tricuspid insufficiency (TI) is almost always recorded by continuous Doppler: the systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) is calculated from the maximum velocity of the regurgitating tricuspid flow, using Bernouilli's equation. The correlation between Doppler sPAP and sPAP obtained by catheterization is: r = 0.95 (n = 34; p less than 0.001). A severe pulmonary hypertension, corresponding to a TI exceeding 3.5 m/s is related to a pulmonary migration occurring on a pathological heart. There is a satisfactory relationship between the elevation of the Doppler sPAP and the degree of pulmonary obstruction in the "Pe on healthy heart" population: r = 0.6 (n = 29; p less than 0.001). The dilated right ventricle observed on the sonogram (RV) is proportional to the severity of the angiographic image: correlation between the RV/LV ratio and the percentage of vascular obstruction is r = 0.73 (n = 27; p less than 0.001). The drop in the sPAP and the regression of the symptoms of pulmonary heart noted on CDS after fibrinolysis, correspond to a significant improvement of the pulmonary perfusion. The CDS seems to be absolutely necessary in PE because of the major and reliable informations it provides.