ABSTRACT
In recent years, concern about the effects of ionizing radiation on exposed individuals has led to the need to regulate and quantify the use of diagnostic and therapeutic techniques. Geopolitical events in recent times have also increased the population's perception of insecurity regarding ionizing radiation, and we increasingly face patients reluctant to undergo certain types of scans in our nuclear medicine services and, albeit less frequently, in radiology services. This article aims to summarise the extent to which ionizing radiation is present in our daily lives and how diagnostic and therapeutic procedures can affect our health, particularly from the perspective of their effects on the thyroid gland, one of the body's most radiation-sensitive organs.
Subject(s)
Radiation Protection , Thyroid Gland , Humans , Thyroid Gland/radiation effects , Thyroid Gland/diagnostic imaging , Radiation Injuries/prevention & control , Radiation Injuries/etiology , Radiation, Ionizing , Thyroid Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Radiation Dosage , Radiation ExposureABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to establish the value of thalium-(201) single-photon emission computed tomography ((201)Tl-SPECT) in the detection of recurrences in the follow-up of patients with treated primary neuroepithelial tumours. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Sixty-three (201)Tl-SPECT were performed in 36 patients with glioma (12 males, mean age of 46 +/- 13 years). All patients underwent surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy (and some of them received chemotherapy). All patients were submitted to morphological neuroimaging techniques as well (and (201) Tl-SPECT). Mean follow-up was 18.3 +/- 14.6 months. Gold standard was based on clinical follow-up, therapeutical decisions (at least 4 months after (201)Tl-SPECT) and imaging features. RESULTS: Sensitivity and specificity of (201)Tl-SPECT to detect glioma recurrences were 90% and 100% respectively and 93% accuracy. Sensitivity and specificity for high grade tumours, were 100% respectively. Due to 4 false negatives, sensitivity and specificity for low grade gliomas were 78% and 100%. In the positive (201)Tl-SPECT group of patients overall survival was 13.64% at the end of the study. The negative (201)Tl-SPECT group had 84.62% overall survival at the end of the study (p = 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS. (201)Tl-SPECT is a valuable and noninvasive diagnostic procedure to detect recurrence or progression disease for treated gliomas and ependymomas. (201)Tl-SPECT has a good correlation with short term prognosis with excellent diagnostic accuracy (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Adult , Middle Aged , Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols , Brain Neoplasms/drug therapy , Brain Neoplasms/mortality , Brain Neoplasms/radiotherapy , Brain Neoplasms/therapy , Ependymoma/mortality , Ependymoma , Ependymoma/radiotherapy , Ependymoma/therapy , Follow-Up Studies , Tomography, Emission-Computed , Time Factors , Glioma/radiotherapy , Glioma/therapy , Glioma/mortality , Glioma , Thallium Radioisotopes , Survival AnalysisABSTRACT
The inhibitory effect of conjugated estrogens and estriol succinate on fibrinolysis was demonstrated in normal subjects and in patients with uterine bleeding by a delay in onset and or completion of clot lysis using a modification of the fibrinolysin test of Stefanini and Damashek. Clot lysis was accelerated in normal subjects by intravenous adrenalin at a dose of 0.1 mcg per kilogram body weight. Control of uterine bleeding was correlated with the experimental data. (Summary)