Elda Hirose Pastor

Cardiac and skeletal muscle scintigraphy in dermato- and polymyositis: Clinical implications

To determine the role of scintigraphy in the detection of skeletal and cardiac involvement in dermato-and polymyositis (DM/PM), we studied 30 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of DM/PM (23 females, 7 males; mean age: 35 years). Technetium-99m pyrophosphate (99mTc-PYP) and gallium-67 scans showed similar sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in the detection of skeletal muscle involvement when compared with serum enzymes (70%, 100% and 80%, respectively). Compared with the clinical parameters,99mTc-PYP showed 70% and67Ga 65% accuracy. Abnormal PYP cardiac uptake was observed in 57% of patients, whereas abnormal67Ga cardiac uptake was seen in only 15%. Electrocardiography was abnormal in 40%, rest gated blood pool study in 23%, and chest X-ray in 13%. In conclusion, both99mTc-PYP and67Ga can be useful in the detection of the active phase of muscle disease. However,99mTc-PYP seems to be more effective than67Ga in the early diagnosis of cardiac involvement.

Utilização da imagem infravermelha em reumatologia

Infrared thermography is unique objective imaging procedure for the quantitative assessment of local inflammatory reactions in parts of the locomotor system. For differential diagnosis the thermographic results should be evaluated in conjuction with clinical examination and other technical procedures. As a means of monitoring the course of the local inflammatory activity, however, quantitative infrared thermography is a useful tool in itself, particularly during the application of local and systemic anti-inflammatory therapy.