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First clinical results of patients with diseases of the lungs. The previous experiences on patients with diseases of the lungs reveal that the regional function diagnostics of the lungs may be extended and improved by functional scintigraphic radiospirometry. Because of the determination of regional lung volumes restrictive lung diseases can be differentiated and analysed more exactly than it has been possible before by the examinations of perfusion and ventilation alone. A further advance of the determination of lung volume is that the question of functional operability can be cleared up exactly. In our opinion the routine use of the functional scintigraphic radiospirometry is justified. A contraindication for this kind of examination should only be pregnancy.

By "camera-cinematography" of the heart, we mean an isotope method which permits detailed observation of cardiac mechanics without the use of a catheter. All that is necessary is an intravenous injection of 10 to 15 mCi 99mTc human serum albumen followed after ten minutes by a five to ten minute period of observation with a scintilation camera. At this time the isotope has become distributed in the blood. Variations in the precordial impulses correspond with intra-cardiac changes of blood volume during a cardiac cycle. Analysis of the R-wave provides adequate information of cyclical volume changes in limited portions of the heart. This is achieved by a monitor with a pseudo-3-dimensional display; contraction and relaxation of the myocardium can be shown for any chosen longitudinal or horizontal diameter of the heart. Our programme allows simultaneous presentation of the movement of any point on the myocardium as a time-activity curve. The method is recommended as an addition to chest radiography, heart screening or cardiac kymography before carrying out cardiac catheterisation.

Scintigraphic radio-spirometry combines conventional spirometry with the advantages of a functional isotope technique, thereby providing a clinically useful method for the study of pulmonary function. The advantage of the method consist principally in the ability to estimate physiological values separately for the two lungs, and also for selective portions of each lung. The apparatus, method and quantitative evaluation of the results are discussed in detail and the method is critically evaluated. Indications for radiospirometry are given.