Hisashi Ohtake

Frequency of abnormalities detected by abdominal ultrasound among Japanese adults

Abdominal ultrasound examination was given to 715 (566 male and 149 female) adult non‐manual workers in Tokyo as part of their annually required medical check‐up. Gross abnormalities were found in 44.5% of males and 34.2% of females. The most common finding was fatty liver (15.2%), seen four times as frequently in males as in females. There were 93 elevated lesions in the gall‐bladder in 56 subjects (7.8%); some required follow‐up examinations because malignancy could not be excluded. Small cystic lesions were frequently seen in the kidney (6.4%) and in the liver (4.8%). Gallstones were found in 3.4%. Mild splenomegaly occurred in 3.4%. Ten mass lesions, 8 hyperechoic and 2 hypo‐echoic, were found in the liver, but subsequent imaging studies showed them to be benign haemangiomas. Other changes found included calcific lesions in the liver (2.1%) and in the spleen (0.4%), renal stones (2.0%), thickened wall of the gall‐bladder (3.2%), intramural stones (0.8%) and debris/sludge (0.4%) in the gall‐bladder, dilated pancreatic duct (0.7%) and common bile duct (0.3%), liver cirrhosis (0.4%), hydronephrosis (0.1%), enlarged pancreas (0.1%), small pancreas (0.1%), ovarian tumour (0.1%), uterine tumour (0.1%), abnormally shaped kidney (0.1%) and situs inversus (0.1%). It was concluded that abdominal ultrasound is an important examination for a mass screening or a physical check‐up commonly practised as the ‘human dock’ for adults in Japan.

Hepatic calcification in schistosomiasis japonica.

Three cases of chronic hepatic schistosomiasis japonica are presented. Characteristic computed tomographic findings include a geographic or band-like lesion of increased attenuation localized to the outer zone of the liver.

A case of intrathoracic meningocele accompanied by Recklinghausen's disease : cardiac gated CINE MRI

A 56-year-old woman with Recklinghausens disease was admitted to our hospital due to the abnormal findings on the chest X-ray. On the chest X-ray there was a homogeneous large round mass in the left posterior mediastinum and an enlargement of the left intervertebral foramen at the level of Th5/6. Cardiac gated cinematography (CINE) MRI demonstrated the pulsatile movement of the fluid in the posterior mediastinal mass during the cardiac cycle. The diagnosis of intrathoracic meningocele accompanying Recklinghausens disease was based on these findings

Evaluation of renal first pass blood flow with a functional image technique in hypertensive patients

The renal circulation of patients with essential hypertension and renovascular hypertension was evaluated using 99mTc-DTPA. The first renal peak count (the first Cmax; FCmax), time phase distribution (the first Tmax; FTmax), and blood velocity (the FCmax/FTmax) were calculated by digital imaging. This yields a visual image of the renal circulation. We consider that the increase in the renal first pass blood flow in patients with essential hypertension is best observed pixel by pixel. The FCmax and FCmax/FTmax images before and after treatment by percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty in patients with renovascular hypertension clearly show its therapeutic effect. The FI technique, therefore, has the advantage that it can be performed at the same time as the conventional routine examinations of renal function. This makes it very useful clinically.

Evaluation of portal circulation in rats by rectal administration of 201Tl followed by intrasplenic injection of 51Cr-labeled microspheres

The heart-to-liver (H/L) uptake ratio in rats was determined 8 min after the rectal administration of 201Tl. Apart from normal controls, three groups of rats were examined; these were composed of animals with induced (1) acute hepatic damage, (2) liver cirrhosis, and (3) partial portal-vein ligation. After the rectal administration of 201Tl, 51Cr-labeled microspheres were injected into the spleen. The radioactivity of the removed liver, lungs, and heart was determined in a gamma-well scintillation counter, and the radioactivity of 201Tl and the 51Cr-labeled microspheres was separately calculated using simultaneous equations derived from the results of a preliminary experiment. The H/L ratios (201Tl) in the normal controls and the animals with acute hepatic damage were not significantly different; however, there was a positive correlation (P0.01) between the H/L ratio and the shunt index (51Cr microspheres) in three groups, i.e., normal controls, liver cirrhosis, and partial portal-vein ligation.