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Scintigraphy 99mTc-sestamibi, in association ultrasound of the neck, is currently the technique of choice for the location of parathyroid adenomas in patients with hyperparathyroidism then undergo parathyroidectomy. After surgery, from 2% to 7% of patients continues to have a persistence of the disease. In this case, the sensitivity of scintigraphy with MIBI in locating ectopic parathyroid glands is limited and varies from 30% to 80%. Thanks to the introduction of a new method radiological, PET with 11C-methionine, it is now possible to detect the possible presence of parathyroid adenomas in patients with MIBI scintigraphy been examined and is also useful for false positives. PET with 11C-methionine is a diagnostic accurate in locating the parathyroid adenomas of the neck with a sensitivity of 91%, allowing you to run parathyroidectomy focused with a reduced invasiveness of surgery, with reduction of postoperative pain and better results aesthetic. In addition, a method is clinically useful in patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism and tertiary. The limits of this promising method are the poor availability of the tracer, the fact that it is executed in only four centers in Italy and the high cost. We present the cases of two patients who are diagnosed with hyperparathyroidism. They are submitted in the first instance to MIBI parathyroid scintigraphy parathyroidectomy and after removal of pathological glands. Persisting high values of PTH, patients are executed before a new scintigraphy with MIBI which is however negative and then a PET with 11C-methionine which shows accumulation of tracer in a different place not detected by scintigraphy., (Copyright by Società Italiana di Nefrologia SIN, Rome, Italy.)

The Authors, after a careful review of literature about the instrumental diagnostic techniques (with particular attention to the nuclear-medical ones) and the surgical therapy of parathyroid diseases, report their experience on the use of the radio-guided mininvasive surgery with MIBI and gamma-probe for intraoperative localization of pathological glands. Once exposed their experience, the Authors conclude asserting that this technique is fast, slightly invasive and expensive, and certainly useful for the detection of pathological or ectopic glands. It can be widely employed because, in comparison to its numerous advantages, such as the reduction of the operating time and of the hospital-stay, the greater radicality and the possibility to use mininvasive techniques, it does not present significant technical limitations and/or radio-protectionistic problems.

The authors describe their experience in utilizing 'ArcitumoMab' and radioimmunoguided surgery in a group of patients with localized and advanced colorectal cancer. Twenty-one patients were studied who were found to be positive to 'ArcitumoMab'. Immunoscintigraphy was obtained in 95% of cases. Radioimmunoguided surgery was performed in all cases. One case, which was negative at immunoscintigraphy, was found to be positive intraoperatively when radioimmunoguided surgery was performed. Radioimmunoguided surgery, in the authors' view, is a useful technique but needs to be validated in larger samples, particularly in cases of relapse.

The Authors, taking recent literature on tumoral pathology breast studies in to consideration, studied a group of patients with a node or a suspect adenous zone by clinical and instrumental examination with mammoscintigraphy. 22 patients were selected by clinical examination, mammography and ultrasonography. A mammoscintigraphy (Tc 99m Sestamibi) was performed before the surgical operation. The histologic examination revealed 14 cases of breast cancer; 12 of these (86%) resulted positive after scintigraphy, while 2 were false negative. In this study, the scintigraphic exam and its diagnostic accuracy were analyzed, both in relation to anatomical structure of the mammary gland (thick breast, fibrocystic mastopathy, postsurgical scars, etc.) and also in relation to characteristics of the suspected node, the nature of which was not possible to determine from other exams carried out. In conclusion, after comparison between our experience and those reported in literature, we conclude that because of its high specificity and sensibility the mammoscintigraphy exam assumes an important comparative index in obtaining elements for an additional evaluation when other instrumental examinations are dubious.

Surgical operations characterised by the creation of a bilio-intestinal anastomosis are becoming an increasingly frequent procedure in bile tract surgery. Just as frequent and well known are the immediate and longer-term postoperative sequelae. Thus, one of the problems which has always interested surgeons and investigators is how best to monitor the functional efficiency of the anastomosis. Traditional x-ray methods, including highly invasive examinations such as PTC and ERCP, as well as the harmless ultrasound procedures do not provide an adequate picture of the functional efficiency of such anastomoses, the only wholly valid and efficacious method being sequential scintigraphy with 99mTc-Hida. On the basis of these principles, the authors describe their experience in this field, stressing the validity of the method, which enables surgeons to study the morphology and, above all, the functional efficiency of bilio-intestinal anastomoses.