introduction: image quality and accuracy of in vivo activity quantification in spect are affected by collimator penetration and scatter components, especially in high energy imaging. these phenomena highly depend on the collimator characteristic and photon energy. the presence of penetrated and scattered photons from collimator in spect images degrades spatial resolution, contrast and image qua...

A 53-year-old woman with a long history of compulsive nose picking (rhinotillexomania) presented with a large, self-inflicted nasal septal perforation and right-sided penetration of the ethmoidal sinus, or "ethmoidectomy."

BACKGROUND The mechanisms of common atrial flutter entrainment have not been directly studied in humans. METHODS AND RESULTS Endocardial mapping in six cases of common flutter showed large right atrial (RA) reentry circuits. Activation was craniocaudal in the anterolateral right atrium and caudocranial in the septum. The inferior vena cava-tricuspid isthmus (IVC-TV) closed the circuit. The hi...

BACKGROUND To describe complications associated with Amplatzer septal occluders in a patient with Marfan syndrome CASE PRESENTATION A nine-year-old boy with Marfan syndrome and a 22 mm atrial septal defect (ASD) was treated successfully by interventional closure of his ASD by placing a 24 mm Amplatzer septal occluder. Follow up examinations showed a good result but an increasing enlargement o...

UNLABELLED Our objective was to optimize the quality of (123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scans by using a medium-energy collimator to reduce high-energy-photon septal penetration. METHODS In addition to the 159-keV γ-ray, (123)I has a small abundance of energies above 400 keV that can compromise the image quality of MIBG studies because of septal penetration. Using a low-energy ultrahigh...

BACKGROUND Saline irrigations are proving to be a valuable intervention in the treatment of chronic sinusitis. The use of surfactants is a well established additive to topical treatments known to reduce surface tension and may prove to be a simple, nonoperative intervention to improve intrasinus douching penetration. METHODS Six 30-mL, flat-bottomed medicine cups with circular holes cut thro...

Epistaxis from the anterior septum is frequently treated with a topical application of silver nitrate, which cauterizes the bleeding vessel. However, this treatment causes a septal perforation in a small percentage of patients. We report our study of the histologic effect of topical silver nitrate on samples of septal tissue obtained from 11 patients. We found that 30 seconds of exposure allowe...

Gallium-67 images have generally suffered from poor quality because of difficulty in properly collimating the multiple photopeaks released by the radionuclide. A comparison of the spatial resolution and septal penetration characteristics of two collimators we currently use for Ga-67 imaging-with a scintillation camera system equipped with single photopeak analyzersis presented. Results show tha...