Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathy and Antisynthetase Syndrome: Early Diagnosis by 99mTc-HDP Bone Scintigraphy.

We present a 44-year-old woman with scapular and pelvic muscle weakness, joint inflammation, and fever. Bone scintigraphy showed high uptake in proximal regions of upper and lower limbs, suspecting inflammatory myopathy and polyarticular damage. These features were the clue to request other complementary tests such as anti-aminoacyl-tRNA-synthetase antibodies and chest CT, which showed interstitial lung disease, defining an antisynthetase syndrome. Therefore, BS allows an earlier diagnosis of inflammatory muscle disease and to identify the optimal site for muscle biopsy. BS is an important step to reach a prompt diagnosis of antisynthetase syndrome for establishing an early treatment.

Partial PEGylation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles thinly coated with amine-silane as a source of ultrastable tunable nanosystems for biomedical applications.

The development of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (SPION)-based diagnostic and therapeutic nanosystems holds a promise of revolutionizing biomedicine, helping to solve important unmet clinical needs. Such potential will only be fulfilled if appropriate methods for SPION production and for their subsequent tailoring to specific applications are established, something that remains challenging. Here, we report a simple and low cost method to fabricate structurally and colloidally ultrastable, water soluble SPIONs. We used thermal decomposition to produce SPIONs of the highest quality, which were then thinly coated with an amine-silane derivative by ligand exchange, conferring hydrophilicity and great structural stability on the nanoparticles. Subsequent partial covalent occupancy of surface amine groups with polyethyleneglycol (PEG) was carried out to give them excellent colloidal stability, whilst still leaving reactive anchoring points for further functionalization. The correct composition and physicochemical properties of our PEGylated SPIONs and their precursors were confirmed using a broad range of analytical techniques, and we also demonstrated the biocompatible character of the resulting nanoparticles, as well as their suitability as T2 MRI contrast agents in vivo. Finally, using a near infra-red fluorophore, we also confirmed that these SPIONs are amenable to further tuning, to adapt them to a wide range of applications or to optimize their performance in particular settings. In summary, our work provides a novel and robust method for the production of SPIONs that can be used as a tunable platform for the development of smart diagnostic and therapeutic nanosystems.

[Functional assessment of nigro-striatal pathway with FP-CIT in patients with multiple system atrophy subtype C]. / Valoración funcional de la vía nigro-estriada mediante N-v-fluoropropil-2ßcarbometoxi-3ß-(4-Iodofenil) nortropano (FP-CIT) en pacientes con atrofia multisistémica subtipo cerebelosa.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To assess the functional state of nigro-striatal pathway using FP-CIT-I-123 in patients with clinical diagnosis of Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) subtype C. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included 10 patients with a clinical diagnosis of MSA-C and compared them with 10 patients diagnosed with essential tremor (controls) and 10 with Parkinson Disease (PD). The studies are evaluated by the striatum/occipital index (S/O). We calculated the diagnostic validity of the procedure by ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: The average value of the S/O index showed a mean of 1.48 (0.23), 1.59 (0.17) and 1.22 (0.16) respectively for MSA-C, control group (p=0.25) and PD (p=0.00). ROC curve analysis: Az: 0.650; sensitivity: 0.50; specificity: 0.80. The comparison between the results of FP-CIT and clinical manifestations showed: 4 patients with parkinsonism (PK) and pathological study; 4 without PK and normal study; 1 with PK and normal study and 1 without PK and pathological study. CONCLUSIONS: FP-CIT study does not exclude completely the existence of an MSA-C. From a functional point of view, there does not always seem to be a consistency between the state of the nigro-striatal pathway and the existence of parkinsonism.