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The systolic and diastolic function of both ventricles was assessed by radionuclide angiography in 21 patients with Friedreich's ataxia and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The indices of systolic function of the two ventricles and those of diastolic function of the right ventricle were generally normal. But in patients with Friedreich's ataxia the time to peak filling rate divided by the diastolic time of the left ventricle was significantly larger than normal. The increase correlated with the heart rate (r = 0.79) and this suggests an alteration in the timing of ventricle filling that is more evident at high heart rates. Movement of the left ventricle was little impaired; however, in 48% of the patients with Friedreich's ataxia the right ventricle showed evidence of hypokinetic segments. Because there is a tendency for congestive heart failure to develop in patients with Friedreich's ataxia, this hypokinesis of the right ventricle should be monitored at follow up. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: A new partially halogenated ether (ClCF2CF(CF3)OCF2CH3) has been synthesized and characterized using DSC, GC, 1H and 19F NMR, IR. The experimental infrared spectra of this “flexible” molecule have been successfully interpreted on the basis of reliable Density Functional Theory calculations. An efficient method useful for the identification of the many stable conformers has been developed and applied. Infrared spectra of the stable conformers have been simulated after full geometry optimization. The results obtained allow detection of conformation-sensitive bands, making possible the interpretation of fine details in the spectra. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objectives: Ankle arthroscopy has become increasingly popular as a less invasive surgical diagnostic and therapeutic procedure for a variety ankle disorder previously managed with open surgery. Despite literature reports encouraging outcomes and low complication rates, nationwide trends in ankle arthroscopy have been poorly investigated. To fully understand the burden of an emerging surgical approach as well as helping to create global standards for the diagnosis and treatment of ankle diseases, this study aimed to evaluate the incidence and demographics of patients undergoing ankle arthroscopy in Italy from 2001 to 2016., Methods: Data were obtained from the National Hospital Discharge Records (SDO) provided by the Italian Ministry of Health. The patient's age, gender, length of hospital stays, primary diagnosis, and primary procedure are among the anonymized data. Population data were obtained from the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT). According to the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) ankle arthroscopy was defined by the following procedure code: 80.27., Results: A total of 23,644 procedures were performed in Italy. The 25 to 29 and 30 to 34 age groups underwent this type of surgery at most. The majority of patients were males. The median length of hospital stay was 2.1 ​± ​2.3 days. Each year in Italy, this surgery costs an average of 2,133,401€ ± 342,143€. The main primary codified diagnoses were: "contracture of joint, ankle and foot" (13.4 ​%), "articular cartilage disorder, ankle and foot" (8.6 ​%), "late effect of sprain and strain without mention of tendon injury" (7.5 ​%) and "other joint derangement, not elsewhere classified, ankle and foot" (6.4 ​%)., Conclusions: The present study evaluated the burden of ankle arthroscopy on the national health care system and the distribution of the main diseases requiring this type of surgery. Surgeons and policy makers can allocate healthcare resources more effectively and provide patients with high-quality care by having a better understanding of national practice patterns., Level of Evidence: III., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The most common induction methods for OA are mechanical, surgical and chemical. However, there is not a gold standard in the choice of OA animal models, as different animals and induction methods are helpful in different contexts. Reporting the latest evidence and results in the literature could help researchers worldwide to define the most appropriate indication for OA animal-model development. This review aims to better define the most appropriate animal model for various OA conditions. The research was conducted on the following literature databases: Medline, Embase, Cinahl, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Studies reporting cases of OA in animal models and their induction from January 2010 to July 2021 were included in the study and reviewed by two authors. The literature search retrieved 1621 articles, of which 36 met the selection criteria and were included in this review. The selected studies included 1472 animals. Of all the studies selected, 8 included information about the chemical induction of OA, 19 were focused on mechanical induction, and 9 on surgical induction. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that several induction models, mechanical, surgical and chemical, have been proven suitable for the induction of OA in animals.

First-principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) simulations in the framework of Density Functional Theory (DFT) are carried out for the prediction of the infrared spectrum of the fluorinated molecule ClCF 2 CF(CF 3 )OCF 2 CH 3 in liquid and gas phase. This molecule is characterized by a flexible structure, allowing the co-existence of several stable conformers, that differ by values of the torsional angles. FPMD computed spectra are compared to the experimental ones, and to Boltzmann weighted IR spectra based on gas phase calculations., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In order to assess myocardial perfusion in patients with Friedreich's ataxia, we carried out dipyridamole-thallium imaging in 13 cardiologically asymptomatic patients (aged 16 to 39; mean age 24) with various degrees of left ventricular hypertrophy; all showed electrocardiographic ST and/or T wave abnormalities before scintigraphy. After dosing with dipyridamole-201 thallium, we found: a completely reversible perfusion defect in the apical and a partially reversible defect in the posterolateral wall of the left ventricle in 1 case; a partially reversible perfusion defect in the anterior and posterior walls of the left ventricle in 1 case; and a persistent anterolateral perfusion defect in 1 case. The remaining 10 patients showed no scintigraphic abnormalities. The fact that only 1 of our patients showed a completely reversible perfusion defect, possibly consistent with regional myocardial ischemia, suggests that ischemia does not play a major role in the pathogenesis of the cardiac involvement in Friedreich's ataxia.

A patient with Prinzmetal's variant angina (PVA) who developed an inferolateral myocardial infarction with right-ventricle involvement was studied using sequential radionuclide imaging until 5 months after the acute event. The patient also underwent-contrast ventriculography and coronary-artery angiography. Equilibrium-gated radionuclide angiography (EGRA) revealed the localization of ventricular dysfunction, the results obtained being in agreement with haemodynamic data. We emphasize the usefulness of the parameters obtained using EGRA (regional wall motion, systolic and diastolic parameters) in planning therapy and follow-up.

The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical usefulness of phase and amplitude images and of the left ventricle time-activity curve (LVTAC) obtained by equilibrium gated radionuclide ventriculography (EGRV) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Fifty-six patients were studied within 4 days of the onset of AMI by EGRV; of these 49 also underwent first-pass (FP) angiocardiography, for comparison with EGRV, and 21 underwent repeated EGRV 3 months after AMI. Phase and amplitude images were obtained by Fourier analysis. LVTAC analysis was performed by a third degree polynomial fitting to determine peak ejection rate (PER) and peak filling rate (PFR). A substantial equivalence of EGRV and FP methods was demonstrated, as regards left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF), while a sharp superiority of EGRV with Fourier analysis was shown with regard to the sensitivity of RWM abnormality detection. With only one exception all the cases showed RWM abnormalities, while LVEF was normal in 21 of 27 patients with less than three affected segments. The most sensitive global function index was the LVPFR. In the acute phase regional dyskinesis was observed in 14 of 56 patients. About 40% of our cases showed an improvement of the kinetic abnormalities 3 months after AMI. The highest rate of improvement was observed in the group with ECG patterns of limited infarction and with normal LVEF.

In order to compare the reliability of hepatobiliary scintigraphy using DISIDA (DHS) and ultrasonography (US) in the diagnosis of obstructive jaundice, 36 consecutive patients clinically suspected for obstruction were examined with both methods. Sixteen patients who were definitively shown to have obstruction, were all correctly detected with DHS; US was positive in 15 cases, revealing the cause of the obstruction in four cases. The site of obstruction was predicted in eight cases by DHS and in 11 cases by US. Associated gallbladder diseases were evaluated better by US than by DHS, but a perforation was only demonstrated clearly by DHS. In the 20 patients with nonobstructive disease the false positive results were found in one case using DHS and in two cases using US. In this series of patients DHS and US showed high sensitivity and specificity, which were further increased when the two techniques were combined.

A method for comparative measurement of hepatic clearance of different hepatobiliary agents is described and the clinical use of diethyl-IDA and parabutyl-IDA is discussed. The study was performed with both radiopharmaceuticals in 13 patients with hepatobiliary disease with serum bilirubin ranging from 0.3 to 16.4 mg/100 ml. Diethyl-IDA is preferable for a qualitative evaluation of hepatobiliary disease because of its higher hepatic clearance and faster biliary excretion rate. Parabutyl-IDA is superior for measuring the hepatocytic uptake function, due to the low urinary excretion and the absence of an apparent re-entry from liver to plasma, even in patients with obstructive jaundice. In contrast, an appreciable re-entry can be demonstrated for diethyl-IDA.

A case of left atrial myxoma shown on an equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography is presented. A peculiar abnormality of the Fourier phase image appears more reliable than the other findings previously revealed by first-pass or equilibrium studies. The findings were perfectly consistent with the gross anatomy of the tumour.

We studied 33 patients (28 males, 5 females) with first inferior acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and 12 normal volunteers. They underwent first-pass (FP) and equilibrium-gated radionuclide angiography (EGRA) within 4 days of the onset of symptoms. The parameters [ejection fraction (EF), peak ejection rate (PER), peak filling rate (PFR)] of the time-activity curve (TAC) of both ventricles [left ventricle (LV), right ventricle (RV)] were computed. The regional wall motion (RWM) was evaluated by parametric images (amplitude and phase). In 43% of the patients with AMI, we found a depressed RVEF, while the LVEF was decreased in only 33%. The sensitivity of diastolic parameters was shown to be clearly superior to that of the systolic parameters (RVPFR, 78%; LVPFR, 79%). The abnormalities of the overall performance of both ventricles were significantly correlated with those of the RWM. The abnormal RVEF allowed us to assess the necrotic involvement of the RV, while a depressed RVPFR suggested an impaired RV compliance mostly on an ischemic basis. Congestive heart failure (CHF) and shock syndrome were significantly correlated with depressed RV parameters, while the LVEF, despite RWM abnormalities, was in the normal range. EGRA with computation of the TAC parameters of both ventricles appeared to be useful for in-hospital prognostic evaluation, therapeutic planning and clinical follow-up of patients with inferior myocardial infarction.

Impulse synthesis is a technique which relies upon the logic of continuous infusion but extracts the clearance value from single-injection data by shifting and adding them until an asymptotic value is attained. This study has been aimed at validating and optimizing clinically the measurement of glomerular filtration rate by impulse synthesis. A single intravenous injection of 51Cr-EDTA has been made in 32 patients and plasma activity monitored over the next 6 h. Glomerular filtration rate computed by a single-exponential fit method (GFR-SEF) has been shown to be significantly (p less than 0.001) overestimated when compared with the glomerular filtration rate obtained by the impulse synthesis technique (GFR-IS) in spite of an excellent (r = 0.989) linear correlation between the two sets of data. On the other hand, the comparison between GFR-IS and 24-h creatinine clearance has not shown any significant difference. Moreover, we have found that in patients with severe renal failure GFR-IS is overestimated when the sampling time span is shortened to 3 h. On the other hand, GFR-IS is slightly underestimated in patients with severe renal failure when the convolution time interval is increased over a few minutes.

Two methods for the analysis of left ventricle time-activity curve (TAC) of equilibrium gated ventriculography were compared in three groups of subjects [8 controls, 13 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), 11 patients with myocardial infarction (MI). The first method was based on third-degree polynomial fitting, the second on Fourier analysis. The following parameters were calculated: peak ejection rate (PER), peak filling rate (PFR), time to PER and PFR, and filling fraction at the first third of diastole. A preliminary study of changing values of PER and PFR and of the mean error with increasing number of harmonics summed in order to obtain the best fitting of TAC demonstrated that beyond the sum of the first four harmonics there was no further significant improvement. The advantages of Fourier analysis are as follows: it is independent of the operator and fits only one function to the whole cardiac cycle; it requires less computer time; it provides better differentiation between controls and CAD patients. All of the 13 CAD patients had abnormal PFR on Fourier analysis, only 9 on polynomial analysis. At rest, 9 of the CAD patients had wall motion abnormalities, while only two had an abnormal ejection fraction.

Forty-two consecutive patients with non-Q-wave acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and 40 consecutive patients with transmural AMI were comparatively examined by equilibrium gated radionuclide angiography (ERNA) to assess prevalence and prognostic value of left ventricular dysfunction in non-Q-wave AMI. Left ventricular ejection (LVEF) was generally preserved both in anterior and inferior non-Q-wave infarctions and sharply reduced only in anterior transmural infarctions. ERNA cannot assist in identifying any subgroup of patients with non-Q-wave AMI at risk of major complications other than left ventricular failure because they may develop such complications in spite of a normal LVEF.

Radionuclide ventriculography during stress has been shown a useful and non invasive technique for detecting left ventricular dysfunction induced by ischemia in association with coronary artery disease. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of handgrip and cold pressor test as alternative stresses because of the limits that bicycle exercise presents when it is combined with multigated radionuclide ventriculography. A resting cardiac imaging was performed in 8 healthy volunteers and in 21 patients with coronary artery disease. All of them repeated the examination during handgrip; 6 controls and 11 patients also underwent cold pressor test. Abnormal regional wall motion was observed in 17 of the 21 patients with coronary artery disease who underwent handgrip, while all the controls maintained a normal motility. The test elicited no significant difference in average ejection fraction in both patients and normal subjects. All but one the patients who performed the cold pressor test showed an abnormal motility during the stress. Mean ejection fraction decreased significantly (p less than 0.05). All the controls had a normal response to cold pressor. Our results confirm that these two tests can be alternative to stress testing for detecting coronary artery disease by means of radionuclide ventriculography.